Supplies

• Model painted and sealed in matte spray
• Good matte spray specifically formulated for your paint media, be that oil, acrylic, etc (not all sprays work well with all media, so be sure to check)
• White pencil
• Warm white and light grey pastel
• Makeup brushes
• Cotton swab
• Good references of roan horses and horse hair growth charts

Step 1: Guide Hairs

Grabbing your reference, start blocking in the general sense of your particular roan pattern with a few ticks of color from your white pencil. This also helps establish guide marks for realistic hair growth pattern.

Step 2: Filling the Pattern

The key here is to keep moving around to different areas quickly so that your pattern doesn’t become unnaturally uniform. I also vary the size of my strokes and the pressure I put on my pencil.

Step 3: Seal

The sealer will offer tooth for your next step, but it will also likely knock back the intensity of your pencil, especially if you were using a white charcoal pencil. Spraying further back and in light coats is key to preserving the pencil marks, and absolutely required for preserving the white charcoal pencil (if the charcoal pencil disappeared, then you sprayed too close and thick).
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That said, some loss in pigment intensity can actually allow you to build up wonderful depth and a greater sense of realism, so embrace this.

Step 4: More Pencil

Go back in and add more pigment in the areas that your reference dictates more pigment and stronger hair lines. Seal again.

Step 5: Pastel

Using my light grey pastel applied with a makeup brush, I softened my overall roan pattern with ever so light brush strokes. I used more intense pressure strokes to add a bit more pigment on the wither, where my reference is brighter in color. If you get the pastel in areas you don’t want it, you can remove it with a damp cotton swab. Seal again.

Step 6: More Pastel

Much like the pencil, the pastel will lose intensity after spraying (some brands lose more than others). Come back over the area with the warm white as needed.

Step 7: Final Seal + Adjustments

​Seal again, and depending on your reference, you might be done, or you might need a few more passes of pencil and pastel.
And there you have it! A guide to roaning!