Shaded Blacks and Undertones, Finishwork Series Pt. 1

 When I look at finishwork, especially a black class, I like to look for a nice shaded black with a fleshy realistic look that you’d be able to see on a real horse. These horses are never a “flat” black, which look like they were painted in plain black acrylic, never to be finished or picked up again. The horses I’m moved towards to are blacks with nice coppery undertones, blue undertones, or brown undertones. These horses have more thought and brilliance to them. 

Black horses don’t have to be sunburnt to win a black class, but in my opinion, have to have a realistic fleshiness and realism to it. In order to make a black realistic, we actually have to add highlights and shadows that aren’t seen in a real horses coat, such as highlighting muscle definition, darkening the shadows, and lightening up the areas around the eyes and mouth. 

In the picture above, you can see a lot of brown and blue areas, which should be expressed in the model. Sunburnt blacks are commonly seen with “highlighted” manes and tails, where the top of the mane is a black as seen in the rest of the body, and brown out as you get closer to the end of the mane.

This horse has blue undertones, which could be portrayed with purples and blues in your model. These purples and blues make up a true black, where the whole body, mane and tail are black. The muzzle and around the eyes, as well as the thinly haired areas (groin/armpits) will have a grey tone rather than a brown tone, as seen in the photo above.