Strike Oil

 Alrighty, let's move on with oiling this poneh!

  No, not that kind!!​ This kind!!​

 Since Kipling is on the road to being silver dapple grey, & that road will wind up taking many layers, he will not follow my typical oiling approach. That is, I usually go over the base acrylics with three colors/shades of oil: body, highlight, & shading, all done by section of the horse until the model is completely oiled. This guy, on the other hand, was oiled all in one session. This then will go on to be something of a base for the dappling that will go over it.

 Supplies for this first layer are:
  * Pallet paper. (Kind of like super wax paper, but it won't soak up the oil like wax paper would. ...Yes, I have tried wax paper before, it's a no go!)
  * A pallet knife.
  * Pearl-Ex Powders in: micro pearl, misty lavender, silver, carbon black, & antique bronze. 
  * Oil paint in: titanium white, burnt umber, carbon black, & raw sienna. 
  * There was also white pastel chalk that forgot to get in the family portrait here.

 & of course brushes.

 But I only used four of them.

 To start, fold the pallet paper in half; You'll mix your oil on one side & the crease only. This way you can fold it over & save your paint.

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 Your acrylic base should already fairly closely match your 'body' color of oils. With it being close, you will be able to keep your oil layers thin (not to be confused with thinned down). If it is not a close match, you will wind up fighting the base to get a good, solid covering of your base oils. That leads to your oil either being put down too thickly, or to your having to do two layers of body, letting them dry in between. Never a lost cause, but way more trouble than it needs to be. :)

 For this silver grey's body color, the base color of your oil painting, I picked out the light greyish-brown color on his coat.

 For the body mix, it is about 99% straight white! I'm not sure if you can see the comparison of the dab of white at the bottom to the started mix above it.

 Just like the acrylic base mix, the white is easily overwhelmed. I was adding color literally by the merest touch & building from there.

 & the result was this.

 Next I added micro pearl Pearl-Ex powder. Pearl-Ex will add some realistic shimmer to your finishwork, & has the added benefit of speeding drying time. As I don't use any drier (honestly, they scare me!) I tend to pour in the Pearl-Ex! Be careful mixing it, else you will dust everything in sparkly powder!

Faith, trust, & pixy dust! Sorry, I couldn't help it...

 Other colors I mixed for Kipling were straight out of the tube: raw sienna, burnt umber, carbon black, & titainium white.

  There were no other oil colors added, but I did of course add Pearl-Ex to them as well. Misty lavender for the black.

 Antique bronze & carbon black to the burnt umber.

 Antique bronze & silver to the raw sienna. 

 I randomly decided not to add Pearl-Ex to the white. But to help it dry, I did mix in some white pastel chalk. 

 Here is the final pallet. There is some carbon black right out of the tube as well, nothing added. 

  & with that, it's time to start painting!

 My very favorite brushes for adding body are a couple well loved, half inch(?) synthetic flats. They are over a decade old, & extremely frizzed! A, shall we say 'civilized' flat that is not all frizzied up works too of course, but that's how these poor things got this way! ;)
 Dab just the tip into of your brush into your chosen color; you want to have just enough to color the area you're working on & no more. Putting too much down at once just makes it more difficult to spread it out to keep it thin. Wipe it off on a paper towel if needed.

 Then using the tip, kind of scrub or stipple the color onto the horse.

 Here's what I mean:

 When I oil, I like to 'grid' off a horse & work in sections, & even though this guy doesn't follow my usual oiling method, I still pretty much worked by sections: Head, neck/chest, belly/inner thighs (leaving a firm hand hold over his back as seen below), barrel/back/haunches (leaving the legs to hold if they are sturdy enough), & finally the legs, which left me with a slightly precarious hand hold of part of his tail. Though since he has a double mane, I was able to cheat this time & hold him around his neck too. 

Completely painted in the body color. 

 Next, with a much less frizzy natural half inch flat, I lightly added the black mix for shading. 

 You want to go slowly with adding dark color. You can always add more, but you can't take it off if you add too much! I use much the same stippling motion for this, carefully watching my reference pictures to determine where it needs to go. 

 Shaded!

 Just like the black mix, I added just a touch of the browns, mostly to his lower legs, but also to the stifle & elbow areas. I also hit a few areas such as  his lower barrel  with white to highlight. 

 Ta-da!

 You'll probably get sick of seeing this reference picture, but it's going to keep popping up! Compare to the horse I am going by. There will be many more layers over this oil layer, so I am not too concerned of going too dark just yet; I'll need a lighter foundation to build up dappling over.

 When you are finished with your oil session, fold over the pallet paper & pop it in the fridge or freezer! It can keep exceptionally well this way; I am still working off last year's NaMoPaiMo bay/red pallet as a matter of fact, & it is still perfectly good. You can also cheat a bit with your brushes if you don't feel like cleaning them right away by also sticking them in the freezer. ;) They will need cleaned soon though; I simply use dish soap in warm water, no need for anything fancier.

 Another tip: binder clips are a great way to store your oil tubes!

 
​WHEW!! Sorry it took so long to get this posted!! I've really been struggling to write this NaMo! Kip is quite a bit further than this now. Hopefully I'll be able to be a bit more timely with the next posts!!

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 I'm not the only one making headway on their NaMo pony! My friend Kim Prosek of Longwing Studio has been busy at it too with her Sleepy Shire! 

 Kim airbrushes her acrylic base, & then works her magic with powder pigments.
​

  "He isn’t just white in this first picture; It’s actually a light fawn color."​

 "And then milk chocolate."

 "Next is burnt umber mixed with burnt sienna." 

  "And then a light dusting of black."

 "Then I decided I didn’t want to mess anything else up and went with my trusty pigments. So one layer of pigment & there he is for his first weekend's work!"

 Then this past weekend she continued to bring him to life!
​
 "I added a few more layers of pigment, sketching in the dapples."

 "Then painted the m/t to get an idea of where I was." 
​

 "And then onto black pigment."

 He looks soooo good Kim!! I hope he continues to play nice with you!!​

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 Just for a laugh, as it pertains to the joke at the beginning of my post, read the label on this old gun oil bottle. Someone had a sense of humor! 

 Until next time! Happy painting all!!