Painting with Test Horses

Trying something new with painting? 

Use a test horse!

Using a test piece allows you to try out something new or practice something that will hopefully help you to not mess up the "good" one!

In this instance, I gathered some horses that were bodies or horses that never sold and sprayed them with primer to use as airbrushing test pieces. 

Now I can just grab one that is ready to be used as a tester whenever I have the whim to try, as they are primed and ready to go.

Test horses are great for trying different colors, as well as painting styles and techniques:

This test model was painted the same color on both sides, but I tried different shading techniques on each side.

The lighter colored layers show through more on this side.

My friend was teaching me more about airbrushing, and allowed me to use her airbrush, since mine was not cooperating. (So this was also a test model for trying a different airbrush.)

I decided to try a dark/liver chestnut on this side and went for a lighter chestnut on the other side, using the same colors.

I really liked how the light side of the horse came out!! 

Happy accidents can become inspirations, as the lighter chestnut color inspired the next horse that I painted.

Here you can see my "super fancy" cardboard box spray booth. :]

In the booth, I have a naughty pony and her trusty test model by her side!

I applied each color layer on the test model  first before putting it on the pony.

Here we are, a few paint layers in. 

I decided at this point to try a different color combination on each side of the test horse before painting the pony to see which color I preferred.

Here is the "red" side.

This is the "not red" side.

Both shades would make for nice chestnut colors.

However, I was going for a bay!

I chose the "red" side and added black points, to see how they would look.

I decided to stop for the night at this point, and I decided not to paint the face so that I could test paint it immediately before painting the pony's face the next day!!

Here it is after test painting the face.

I really like how the test piece came out!

When it came to painting the actual pony, I decided to go a bit darker and reduce the red shade of the bay, as I was going for more of an Exmoor pony color.

Here is Matilda, the finished pony!

She is my 2nd fully finished airbrushed model and I am still learning. 

She's not perfect and I learned some things to do differently for next time, 

but I think she came out really nice, 

thanks to using my test horse!!