Painting Appaloosas with Pastels

By T.J. Hurst

After retiring from her job as a graphic artist in 2011, T.J. Hurst rediscovered the model horse hobby and was introduced to the world of repainting and customizing. An Appaloosa lover and owner from a young age, her painting journey began with a portrait of her own gelding, Pokey, and flourished from there!

Before We Begin

Before priming, I always spray my model with sealer, because sometimes the primer can react badly with the plastic and become sticky. After priming I seal the model again before beginning to add any color. I use pastels and earth pigments for almost all of my paintwork except the model's eyes and chestnuts, which I paint with acrylic paints.

My approach to painting is a little different than most model artists: I utilize the white primer as the base body color and add hair pattern color to that, instead of starting with a dark base color and adding the white-painted pattern on top.  

Step 1

I always start with pink inside ears, on eyelids, nostrils, muzzle, and genitals using a small eyeshadow brush. Most of the time I put two layers of pinks down, sealing with a spray sealant between each.

Step 2

Next is the mottling inside the ears, around the eyelids, on the muzzle and genital areas. Using a rubber-tipped "wipeout tool," or sometimes a paper tortillon, I apply dots of dark gray pastel by tapping firmly in a stippling motion. These tools allow me to get very small dots of pastel to stick to the model in finer detail than is possible with a brush. More than one layer may be needed.

Layer of pink laid down, beginning of mottling applied

Continuing to add mottling with additional layers of pastel

Step 3

I then rough in the whole pattern with gray pastel. For larger areas that will eventually be solid color I do apply and smooth the pastel with small brushes, being careful not to smudge any "lacy" outer edges or remove any details that need to stay. If I need to "undo" something, I use a kneaded eraser.

Step 4

I begin to add additional colors. The first layer goes on very light and doesn't always look good! But just keep adding layer after layer, sealing in between, until the desired darkness or color is achieved. For manes and tails I often add acrylic paint details and then shade with more pastels. 

Remember to always paint in the direction of the natural hair flow for a realistic-looking finished product. This is especially necessary in roaned areas. For the effect of roaning or where white hairs are present, I just leave a gap between strokes, letting the white primer show through. On the next layer some of my strokes will cover the first ones, and some will only partially cover them, but still leave some white showing through. After a few layers it looks like a mixture of light and dark colored and white hairs - a roan!

Step 5

Finally, I paint the chestnuts and eyes with acrylic paints using a teeny, tiny fine-pointed brush and gloss eyeballs and inside nostrils. The model is now complete!

Closing Thoughts

As much as I admire the work of artists who use painstakingly tiny brush strokes, known as the "hair by hair" method, to achieve a highly realistic look to their horse's coats, I quickly found that I was not going to be one of them! I would describe my style as "impressionistic realism," giving the overall "impression" of real hair and coat patterns, but is not what I would call "hyper-realistic" when inspected up close.

I have had a lot of help and encouragement from artists in the hobby who knew much more than I did and were willing to share their knowledge with me, for which I am very grateful. I hope I can encourage and help others as well.