Details of Frosted's Paint Job

Here are pictures that show Frosted's paint job. I used a new technique on him that I had been thinking about for a while. I call it "sponge-swiping" and on really faded it greys it makes the dark hairs look real! So here's the story...

When I first got the idea about customizing an ISH I wanted to paint him a extreme black sabino because I love black paints! Then sometime later I decided he would look awsome as a red roan - I hadn't seen any roan ISHs! So I decided to paint him a roan and if that didn't work just solid black - I wanted to finish him in time to show at Jamboree 2000 and didn't think I'd have anough time to sabino him. When I was looking for pictures of roan horses I found an ad for this beautiful, just beautiful, white QH stallion (grey, but almost totally greyed out to white). I had never liked whites too much, but he was just stunning! Sparkling with brown points, silvery shading and silky grey/black around the eyes and muzzle. He was soooo cool!!

Click Here to see the horse I'm talking about (who Frosted's color was based on)!

I thought it would be neat maybe to paint the ISH like that, but I reeeally wanted to make him a roan, so I tore out the picture anyways and kept looking for roans.

I had this idea on how I was going to make the roan - this is how my sponge-swiping technique got started. When I had put the base coat on other horses I customized with a cosmetic sponge, I noticed that if I didn't sponge it strait, but accidentally swiped it by pushing down at an angle so that it smeared just a little, it created an interesting hair-like texture on the horse. It looked like hairs because you saw to base color smeared with the white primer beneath, looking like whatever-color-I-was-using hairs. But since I wanted it solid on the horses I worked on, I didn't leave it but sponged it correctly.

Sooooo, I primed my now customized ISH with white gesso and wow he looked great white! That convinced me even further to think about painted him a white like the picture, but I still really wanted a roan. So I used some 'body fodder' to try out the roan teqhnique. The first time I tried it it came out great, but when I tried blending more in it didn't come out so well. The more I tried the worse it got, and soon I was just FED UP with trying to get a roan. It was looking more woodgrainy than roan, anyway! So I finally decided I HAD to do him in the white. I hadn't seen any ISHs that color yet, plus he looked so nice in that white primer...so here are his painted details:



Doesn't he look so real here?

Look at that cute nose!

Top view of his mane.

Detail of tail and heel spots, and sponge-swiping.
Detail of heel, heel spots, and sponge-swiping.

  • white primer
  • airbrushed white basecoat
  • sponge swiped several layers of brown to dark brown on legs to make look like real hairs
  • sponge swiped greyish-brown hairs like shading on the body, but it looked too bold and not right so I went over it many times with white so it looks very lightly shaded - almost looks like the skin pigment. It may make him look dusty or linty, but no horse is perfect - especially whites!
  • dark brown to grey to almost black sponge swiping on and around eyes and nose. Then painted grey/black over it to make the solidish skin pigment where there is no hair. The brown helps tie it in with his legs and the grey gives it that velvety look! Lighter grey on the nose, eyelid wrinkles, and nosebumps really brings him to life!
  • blaze, but all you can see is the wide snip part that covers the area between his nostrils with the cutest delicate pinking! (Because the rest of his flace is white anyways, so it hides the blaze!)
  • big liquidy brown/black eyes (glossed with nailpolish) with the slightest bit of white/pink edges in the corners
  • glossed with nailpolish nostrils
  • dark brown inside ears
  • layer after layer of brushsrtoked hairs for the mane and tail from brown, dark brown, lightbrown/grey, grey, and white to create that fading greying out shaded look - stunning!
  • white bands in the mane and forelock
  • pinking in on the chest between the forelegs
  • light grey under all veining to create the shadowed look just enough to notice it but not enough to distract from the horse
  • pinking behind hoof/fetlock with dark skin mottled - like just like on real horses!
  • black hoof-polished hooves with the origional grey/brown hoof coloring on the backs of the hooves just like on real horses where they don't paint the hoof polish on the backs - the black polish is glossed with nail polish
  • horseshoes - no nailheads because the hoofpolish covers them!
  • grey shaded/sponge swiped genitals
  • dark grey/brown chestnuts
  • grey ergot dots painted underneat fetlock joints
  • signed: rear right under hoof CC copyright signature for Cindy Cilker, dated 6-14 2000 under fore left hoof

    • UPDATE - I took off those fat veins and added nicer thinner ones!


    I hope you enjoyed looking at him as much as I do! I love him, but to be honest, he does have some things I'm unhappy with (as do they all!) such as some rough spots on the neck, which lets me know I need more practice in epoxying and sanding!



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