My customer, Olivia, sent me this beautiful boy with a request for a resculpted mane to a scalloped, braided mane, and I was dying to give this dapper guy some new clothes, so, here he is in all his deep, dappled liver chestnut glory!
I started out by creating his teeny tiny micro-braiding, scalloped with a unique style (scallops under, rather than over, the buns), following Olivia's (rather brilliant!) vision for him. This alone was a 15 hour project! Whew! I SO love how they turned out, and it was well worth the time and effort!
Then I began paintwork in airbrushed acrylics, with some pastelling and finishing up with oils on his hooves, eyes and a bit on his mane/tail. He has stripey hooves with the little surface cracks and shading/highlites in all the frog/bar details & shoes. He has shading/highlites throughout his mane and tail, to set off his micro braids and the gorgeous tail detailing Stacey originally gave him. He sports hyper-realistic eyes, which I have to wear jeweler's glasses to create! I used Stuart Semple paints to for his white leg markings. To top it off, he has hair-by-hair detailing throughout his entire blaze (not just the edges) and highlited/shaded facial wrinkles/details. I am so pleased with how this guy turned out and am super excited to watching his show career under Olivia!