Following in the footsteps of my Palomino Oil Painting Tutorial, this video walks you step-by-step through the chestnut color, particularly a bright chestnut with wonderful gold and orange tones. I demystify the oil painting process, break it down step-by-step for beginners, talk about common issues and how to proceed with those issues, and discuss some tips and tricks. I also show the color theory method of using purple to neutralize saturated color.
For a few seconds of this video, an airbrush is demonstrated for the undercoat, BUT it is entirely possible to paint the undercoat with hand-painted acrylics. I merely used the airbrush as a means to speed up my painting process and produce this video faster. If you are hand-painting, just be sure to use several, thin layers to build up opacity and a smooth finish. The rest of the video focuses on hand-painted oils.
Please see my hand-painting with acrylics tutorial on this website if you want to learn more about non-airbrush painting methods.
For a few seconds of this video, an airbrush is demonstrated for the undercoat, BUT it is entirely possible to paint the undercoat with hand-painted acrylics. I merely used the airbrush as a means to speed up my painting process and produce this video faster. If you are hand-painting, just be sure to use several, thin layers to build up opacity and a smooth finish. The rest of the video focuses on hand-painted oils.
Please see my hand-painting with acrylics tutorial on this website if you want to learn more about non-airbrush painting methods.
Paint Colors to Buy
- Titanium White
- Mars Black
- Iridescent Gold
- Yellow Ochre (PY42) (subsitute Gold Ochre if unable to find Yellow Ochre with pigment PY42)
- Naples Yellow
- Raw Sienna
- Burnt Sienna
- Ultramarine Violet
Color Mixtures
Step 1: Base Color
4 parts Iridescent Gold
4 parts Iridescent Pearl White
1 part Raw Sienna
Step 2a: Pangare
3 parts Titanium White
3 parts Iridescent Gold
1 part Burnt Sienna
1 part Yellow Ochre
Step 2b: Midtone/Body Color
4 parts Raw Sienna
4 parts Irridescent Gold
1 part Burnt Sienna
1 part Titanium White
Body/Shadow Transition
Equal parts body and shadow mixtures
Step 4: Shadow
3 parts Raw Sienna
1 part Burnt Sienna
0.25 parts Ultramrine Violet
Step 4: Highlight
5 parts Iridescent Gold
3 parts Titanium White
3 parts Raw Sienna
1 part Yellow Ochre
Step 5: Muzzle Color
1 part Pangare mixture
1 part Titanium White
0.25 parts Mars Black
Neutralizing Color
Ultramarine Violet
Add to mixtures in small amounts if your horse looks too yellow or orange
4 parts Iridescent Gold
4 parts Iridescent Pearl White
1 part Raw Sienna
Step 2a: Pangare
3 parts Titanium White
3 parts Iridescent Gold
1 part Burnt Sienna
1 part Yellow Ochre
Step 2b: Midtone/Body Color
4 parts Raw Sienna
4 parts Irridescent Gold
1 part Burnt Sienna
1 part Titanium White
Body/Shadow Transition
Equal parts body and shadow mixtures
Step 4: Shadow
3 parts Raw Sienna
1 part Burnt Sienna
0.25 parts Ultramrine Violet
Step 4: Highlight
5 parts Iridescent Gold
3 parts Titanium White
3 parts Raw Sienna
1 part Yellow Ochre
Step 5: Muzzle Color
1 part Pangare mixture
1 part Titanium White
0.25 parts Mars Black
Neutralizing Color
Ultramarine Violet
Add to mixtures in small amounts if your horse looks too yellow or orange
Tools and Supplies
PREPPING & PRIMING TOOLS & SUPPLIES:
- Files https://amzn.to/2YeVuAr OR https://amzn.to/2H2Gmz1
- Sandpaper https://amzn.to/2DRGyjE
- Sanding sticks https://amzn.to/3quQRDx
- Goggles for protective eye-wear https://amzn.to/2ZZEu2w
- RZ mask for prepping https://bit.ly/2FM2tNl
- Duplicolor Sandable Primer https://amzn.to/3xVSJ9a
GENERAL PAINTING TOOLS & SUPPLIES:
- Gloves for painting and priming https://amzn.to/2J3QPxl
- Painter’s mask for airbrushing and priming https://amzn.to/2LyeZT4
- Replaceable cartridges for painter’s mask https://amzn.to/2vEKf88
- Temperature and humidity gage https://amzn.to/2IZWTXN
- Lint-free blue shop towels https://amzn.to/3EZfMmK
- Palette knife https://amzn.to/3D9Jsx0
- Aluminum foil
PAINT BRUSHES USED IN THIS VIDEO:
- Affordable makeup brushes for painting/pastel https://amzn.to/38zATxC
- Silver Brush Monza filbert 0 https://bit.ly/3izgoWv
- Silver Brush Monza filbert 12 https://bit.ly/3izgoWv
- Master’s Touch white taklon filbert ½ inch – discontinued
- Grumbacher Goldenedge filbert 2 https://bit.ly/3xW7poZ
- Rapheal Kaerell pointed round 1 https://bit.ly/3BuwvgQ
- Escoda Versatil synthetic Kolinsky pointed round 1 https://bit.ly/3kHhvWQ
- Rosemary & Co Evergreen filbert 7 https://bit.ly/3f1fQYL
- Rosemary & Co Evergreen angular 1/8 inch https://bit.ly/3wZ1nm5
BRANDS OF OIL PAINTS I USE:
- Sennelier
- Daniel Smith
- Williamsburg
- Winsor & Newton Artist
- Grumbacher Pre-Tested
- Gamblin Artist
- M. Graham
- Rembrandt
MY OIL MEDIUMS:
- Winsor & Newton Liquin Original https://bit.ly/3hVc7Of
- Gamblin Solvent-Free Gel Medium https://bit.ly/36PKjo3
TOPCOAT VARNISHES/SEALERS
- Winsor & Newton Professional Picture Varnish Satin https://bit.ly/3iybVmY
- Testors Dullcote
MORE FROM BLUE MOUNTAIN STABLE ON WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
- Website: http://www.bluemountainstable.com/
- Blog: http://www.bluemountainstable.com/blog
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluemountainstable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueMountainStable/
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlueMountainStable
- Files https://amzn.to/2YeVuAr OR https://amzn.to/2H2Gmz1
- Sandpaper https://amzn.to/2DRGyjE
- Sanding sticks https://amzn.to/3quQRDx
- Goggles for protective eye-wear https://amzn.to/2ZZEu2w
- RZ mask for prepping https://bit.ly/2FM2tNl
- Duplicolor Sandable Primer https://amzn.to/3xVSJ9a
GENERAL PAINTING TOOLS & SUPPLIES:
- Gloves for painting and priming https://amzn.to/2J3QPxl
- Painter’s mask for airbrushing and priming https://amzn.to/2LyeZT4
- Replaceable cartridges for painter’s mask https://amzn.to/2vEKf88
- Temperature and humidity gage https://amzn.to/2IZWTXN
- Lint-free blue shop towels https://amzn.to/3EZfMmK
- Palette knife https://amzn.to/3D9Jsx0
- Aluminum foil
PAINT BRUSHES USED IN THIS VIDEO:
- Affordable makeup brushes for painting/pastel https://amzn.to/38zATxC
- Silver Brush Monza filbert 0 https://bit.ly/3izgoWv
- Silver Brush Monza filbert 12 https://bit.ly/3izgoWv
- Master’s Touch white taklon filbert ½ inch – discontinued
- Grumbacher Goldenedge filbert 2 https://bit.ly/3xW7poZ
- Rapheal Kaerell pointed round 1 https://bit.ly/3BuwvgQ
- Escoda Versatil synthetic Kolinsky pointed round 1 https://bit.ly/3kHhvWQ
- Rosemary & Co Evergreen filbert 7 https://bit.ly/3f1fQYL
- Rosemary & Co Evergreen angular 1/8 inch https://bit.ly/3wZ1nm5
BRANDS OF OIL PAINTS I USE:
- Sennelier
- Daniel Smith
- Williamsburg
- Winsor & Newton Artist
- Grumbacher Pre-Tested
- Gamblin Artist
- M. Graham
- Rembrandt
MY OIL MEDIUMS:
- Winsor & Newton Liquin Original https://bit.ly/3hVc7Of
- Gamblin Solvent-Free Gel Medium https://bit.ly/36PKjo3
TOPCOAT VARNISHES/SEALERS
- Winsor & Newton Professional Picture Varnish Satin https://bit.ly/3iybVmY
- Testors Dullcote
MORE FROM BLUE MOUNTAIN STABLE ON WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA:
- Website: http://www.bluemountainstable.com/
- Blog: http://www.bluemountainstable.com/blog
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluemountainstable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlueMountainStable/
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlueMountainStable
Video Transcript
Oil paint has such a wonderful glow, breathing life into your model horse in the medium’s unique way.
I’ll show you oil painting a chestnut model horse, how to navigate some of the challenges of oils, show you how to blend, as well as the tools and supplies you need to get started.
Then, all you will need is time and practice so you can find your own unique style. After this tutorial, I hope you will fall in love with oils as much as I have.
Oil paints can be slippery, and therefore will stick best to plastic, resin or pewter if you first sand and prime your model. This gives tooth for the oils to grip.
For this chestnut color, try to apply a medium tone or light tone primer, such as grey, red, or white.
Also, all the tools, supplies and color recipes I’ll mention throughout this tutorial are linked below.
Painting a basecoat, or underpainting as it’s also known, will be a major time saver, and I airbrushed mine in acrylics. If you desire, you can most certainly hand paint acrylics instead.
Painting with matte acrylics especially helps maintain good tooth for the oil paint.
Aim for a nice warm-gold basecoat that isn’t too vibrant. Think vintage gold.
I found that the horses I primed with red primer and coated with a light coat of gold were easier to paint later in the tutorial. They were more that vintage gold look.
While that basecoat is drying, mix up the different colors from the color recipe card linked in the description and place them on half of an aluminum foil sheet.
Leave enough room to fold the other half over the paint, which allows you to store your paints for several days and even weeks, and it will be most effective if you squish out the air.
Use a palette knife to mix for best results and easier cleanup than a brush, and use lint-free towels for the clean up.
With the basecoat done, let’s start painting our oils!
Start by painting the pangare color over the flanks, under the belly, behind the elbows, between the legs, on the chest, and the head.
Use soft, synthetic brushes such as those made for acrylic, watercolor or mixed-media, which will often give you the best results for oils on model horses.
You can see I’m using both a stroking method and a tapping method (known as stippling) to apply the color evenly.
Stroking is a great way to get the paint on, and stippling is a great way to start blending the colors.
By the way, I’m mostly using just oil paint with a tiny bit of Liquin oil painting medium to reduce cure time.
If you’re curious about mediums in general, please see my palomino oil painting tutorial for a little more on that.
It’s entirely possible to follow along with just oil paint.
Be sure to use light paint loads to avoid textural brush strokes and to help your layers cure well.
I often offload excess paint on my palette before painting the model and as you can see, it’s a light load of paint on the brush.
Light paint loads and thinly painted layers help ensure a smooth painted surface that won’t interfere with the cure rates of our future layers of paint.
While this first layer is still wet, brush on your midtone body color and feather it with the pangare color.
Stippling your brush and lightly flicking your brush can help blend these two colors.
Also, if you are enjoying this video or getting some value from it, please consider a like, comment and subscription to the channel.
If that’s not enough to blend, brush over the area with a big fluffy makeup brush or a mop brush.
You’ll notice that I am painting pretty much the whole horse with each layer, and this is easier to do with such small scales.
With larger scales, like your 1/9 scale Traditional Breyers or artist resins, it is usually easiest to work on one section at a time and then move on to the next section after the first has cured.
This is important because, even though they are a slow cure paint, oils can cure just enough that it can be hard to blend all the areas in at once on a larger horse without causing issues.
If your paint starts to feel tacky, it’s time to move onto a new section.
Depending on how light or dark your basecoat is, and how you shade your colors, it is possible to get different results of chestnut horses from this same recipe.
My Breyer Stablemate scale Fox Trotter shown here has more saturation in his gold basecoat, so he is coming out a brighter chestnut from the start.
The artist resin micro American Saddlebred was a duller gold, so she is looking paler in comparison.
The fact that you can get so much variation from a single recipe is why you need lots of good reference to guide you.
On the plus, it also means you can paint a wonderful range of horses at once from the same palette.
Let that dry a few days.
Remember, most colors and brands of oil paints need at least a few days to become touch dry in many environments.
Some colors, like black and white, can take a week.
Once touch dry, our next layer is to repeat the pangare and body colors.
You’ll know your horse is ready for this step if it is cool and not tacky to the touch.
This time, pay particular attention to building up a sense of shadow by applying the body color to the undersides of the horse especially.
Pop your lighter colors by adding the pangare color by the elbow, the brighter parts of the head, and the lower legs.
So here is a special tip: you’ll notice that the Frox Trotter is STILL looking too vibrant, particularly too orange.
In the model horse hobby we call this the Cheeto phase and you can knock back the intensity with some ultramarine violet.
This very special shade of blueish-purple is actually immensely important to this tutorial.
It will help prevent the excessive orange and yellow color you might run into while painting this shade of chestnut horse.
Mix just a tiny, tiny bit into the colors giving you trouble, and this will neutralize your color, meaning it makes it slightly grey, and thus less saturated.
See the difference?
Depending on the final result you desire, you might want to embrace this saturation for a while longer, which is what I’m doing with this Moxie resin, but I knew I wanted a more subdued chestnut for the Fox Trotter, so I neutralized him often.
Let that dry for a few days.
Next is brushing on the shadow color.
Now that the prior layer is touch dry, we can add more intense color and not have to worry about the new color blending into the prior, wet colors.
Before we were painting wet on wet, but now we are essentially dry brushing.
You will want to apply the shadow color to the wither, a little bit along the top of the neck, and the points.
Add it into muscle creases to give a sense of form and a feeling of light and shadow.
I want my saddlebred to be a deeper chestnut, so I’m stretching this shadow color into her body areas as well.
Again, add ultramarine violet if you feel this stage gets too orange.
I really can’t stress enough how helpful that violet is.
While using reference of real chestnut horses to help you pin down the exact look you want to recreate, start blending in your lighter highlight color around the flanks and elbows to pop the brightness of those areas.
Add lighter color to the face as well, according to your reference.
Brighten up the eyes and muzzle with the highlight color now, as that will make painting those areas grey a lot easier later.
Legs can have a lot of shading variation, so take your time here to study your references and capture that detail.
The shadow and pangare mixtures will be helpful here.
The eyes and muzzle need a grey mixture, and I create mine by using some of the pangare color mixed with smaller amounts of Mars Black and Titanium White.
The result is a light warm grey.
Slowly adding more amounts of Mars Black will help darken the muzzle and eyes, adding depth and detail.
I also use this color mixture to shade and detail the groin and a little bit inside the ears.
Let your model cure for a few days again, and then add more depth with additional shadow, pangare and highlight colors.
Take your time to get your ideal result, making sure to continue working in thin layers.
This shade of chestnut can have a learning curve, and going slow helps navigate it.
As always, that ultramarine violet is there to rescue you if the horse gets too saturated.
As you darken your horse, you may notice pigment streaking or a splotchy coloration.
If your layers are free of texture, this pigment streaking is ok and will fill in as you add more layers of color.
It’s personal preference if you want to start the mane and tail in oils or acrylics.
I chose to paint mine in oils.
If you choose acrylics, be sure to let your last layers of oil paint cure for at least a few weeks.
[I am for at least 4 weeks, to as much as two months]
If oil paint isn’t fully cured, it will repel the water in your acrylic paint, making it difficult to get the paint to stick or stay on your model.
Some people like to spray a matte varnish layer after final cure time and before painting acrylics, as a barrier layer.
If you choose this method, just make sure your varnish is formulated to allow you to paint on top of it, as not all will.
Allow these final layers of paint time to cure fully and seal with your final topcoat varnish.
And done!
If you found this video helpful, please like, comment and subscribe.
The YouTube algorithms love when you do all three and that helps me reach more people.
Also, don’t forget the links below for all the tools and supplies mentioned in this video.
Now go paint those chestnut horses!
I’ll show you oil painting a chestnut model horse, how to navigate some of the challenges of oils, show you how to blend, as well as the tools and supplies you need to get started.
Then, all you will need is time and practice so you can find your own unique style. After this tutorial, I hope you will fall in love with oils as much as I have.
Oil paints can be slippery, and therefore will stick best to plastic, resin or pewter if you first sand and prime your model. This gives tooth for the oils to grip.
For this chestnut color, try to apply a medium tone or light tone primer, such as grey, red, or white.
Also, all the tools, supplies and color recipes I’ll mention throughout this tutorial are linked below.
Painting a basecoat, or underpainting as it’s also known, will be a major time saver, and I airbrushed mine in acrylics. If you desire, you can most certainly hand paint acrylics instead.
Painting with matte acrylics especially helps maintain good tooth for the oil paint.
Aim for a nice warm-gold basecoat that isn’t too vibrant. Think vintage gold.
I found that the horses I primed with red primer and coated with a light coat of gold were easier to paint later in the tutorial. They were more that vintage gold look.
While that basecoat is drying, mix up the different colors from the color recipe card linked in the description and place them on half of an aluminum foil sheet.
Leave enough room to fold the other half over the paint, which allows you to store your paints for several days and even weeks, and it will be most effective if you squish out the air.
Use a palette knife to mix for best results and easier cleanup than a brush, and use lint-free towels for the clean up.
With the basecoat done, let’s start painting our oils!
Start by painting the pangare color over the flanks, under the belly, behind the elbows, between the legs, on the chest, and the head.
Use soft, synthetic brushes such as those made for acrylic, watercolor or mixed-media, which will often give you the best results for oils on model horses.
You can see I’m using both a stroking method and a tapping method (known as stippling) to apply the color evenly.
Stroking is a great way to get the paint on, and stippling is a great way to start blending the colors.
By the way, I’m mostly using just oil paint with a tiny bit of Liquin oil painting medium to reduce cure time.
If you’re curious about mediums in general, please see my palomino oil painting tutorial for a little more on that.
It’s entirely possible to follow along with just oil paint.
Be sure to use light paint loads to avoid textural brush strokes and to help your layers cure well.
I often offload excess paint on my palette before painting the model and as you can see, it’s a light load of paint on the brush.
Light paint loads and thinly painted layers help ensure a smooth painted surface that won’t interfere with the cure rates of our future layers of paint.
While this first layer is still wet, brush on your midtone body color and feather it with the pangare color.
Stippling your brush and lightly flicking your brush can help blend these two colors.
Also, if you are enjoying this video or getting some value from it, please consider a like, comment and subscription to the channel.
If that’s not enough to blend, brush over the area with a big fluffy makeup brush or a mop brush.
You’ll notice that I am painting pretty much the whole horse with each layer, and this is easier to do with such small scales.
With larger scales, like your 1/9 scale Traditional Breyers or artist resins, it is usually easiest to work on one section at a time and then move on to the next section after the first has cured.
This is important because, even though they are a slow cure paint, oils can cure just enough that it can be hard to blend all the areas in at once on a larger horse without causing issues.
If your paint starts to feel tacky, it’s time to move onto a new section.
Depending on how light or dark your basecoat is, and how you shade your colors, it is possible to get different results of chestnut horses from this same recipe.
My Breyer Stablemate scale Fox Trotter shown here has more saturation in his gold basecoat, so he is coming out a brighter chestnut from the start.
The artist resin micro American Saddlebred was a duller gold, so she is looking paler in comparison.
The fact that you can get so much variation from a single recipe is why you need lots of good reference to guide you.
On the plus, it also means you can paint a wonderful range of horses at once from the same palette.
Let that dry a few days.
Remember, most colors and brands of oil paints need at least a few days to become touch dry in many environments.
Some colors, like black and white, can take a week.
Once touch dry, our next layer is to repeat the pangare and body colors.
You’ll know your horse is ready for this step if it is cool and not tacky to the touch.
This time, pay particular attention to building up a sense of shadow by applying the body color to the undersides of the horse especially.
Pop your lighter colors by adding the pangare color by the elbow, the brighter parts of the head, and the lower legs.
So here is a special tip: you’ll notice that the Frox Trotter is STILL looking too vibrant, particularly too orange.
In the model horse hobby we call this the Cheeto phase and you can knock back the intensity with some ultramarine violet.
This very special shade of blueish-purple is actually immensely important to this tutorial.
It will help prevent the excessive orange and yellow color you might run into while painting this shade of chestnut horse.
Mix just a tiny, tiny bit into the colors giving you trouble, and this will neutralize your color, meaning it makes it slightly grey, and thus less saturated.
See the difference?
Depending on the final result you desire, you might want to embrace this saturation for a while longer, which is what I’m doing with this Moxie resin, but I knew I wanted a more subdued chestnut for the Fox Trotter, so I neutralized him often.
Let that dry for a few days.
Next is brushing on the shadow color.
Now that the prior layer is touch dry, we can add more intense color and not have to worry about the new color blending into the prior, wet colors.
Before we were painting wet on wet, but now we are essentially dry brushing.
You will want to apply the shadow color to the wither, a little bit along the top of the neck, and the points.
Add it into muscle creases to give a sense of form and a feeling of light and shadow.
I want my saddlebred to be a deeper chestnut, so I’m stretching this shadow color into her body areas as well.
Again, add ultramarine violet if you feel this stage gets too orange.
I really can’t stress enough how helpful that violet is.
While using reference of real chestnut horses to help you pin down the exact look you want to recreate, start blending in your lighter highlight color around the flanks and elbows to pop the brightness of those areas.
Add lighter color to the face as well, according to your reference.
Brighten up the eyes and muzzle with the highlight color now, as that will make painting those areas grey a lot easier later.
Legs can have a lot of shading variation, so take your time here to study your references and capture that detail.
The shadow and pangare mixtures will be helpful here.
The eyes and muzzle need a grey mixture, and I create mine by using some of the pangare color mixed with smaller amounts of Mars Black and Titanium White.
The result is a light warm grey.
Slowly adding more amounts of Mars Black will help darken the muzzle and eyes, adding depth and detail.
I also use this color mixture to shade and detail the groin and a little bit inside the ears.
Let your model cure for a few days again, and then add more depth with additional shadow, pangare and highlight colors.
Take your time to get your ideal result, making sure to continue working in thin layers.
This shade of chestnut can have a learning curve, and going slow helps navigate it.
As always, that ultramarine violet is there to rescue you if the horse gets too saturated.
As you darken your horse, you may notice pigment streaking or a splotchy coloration.
If your layers are free of texture, this pigment streaking is ok and will fill in as you add more layers of color.
It’s personal preference if you want to start the mane and tail in oils or acrylics.
I chose to paint mine in oils.
If you choose acrylics, be sure to let your last layers of oil paint cure for at least a few weeks.
[I am for at least 4 weeks, to as much as two months]
If oil paint isn’t fully cured, it will repel the water in your acrylic paint, making it difficult to get the paint to stick or stay on your model.
Some people like to spray a matte varnish layer after final cure time and before painting acrylics, as a barrier layer.
If you choose this method, just make sure your varnish is formulated to allow you to paint on top of it, as not all will.
Allow these final layers of paint time to cure fully and seal with your final topcoat varnish.
And done!
If you found this video helpful, please like, comment and subscribe.
The YouTube algorithms love when you do all three and that helps me reach more people.
Also, don’t forget the links below for all the tools and supplies mentioned in this video.
Now go paint those chestnut horses!