Painting a decorator with Stormy Strike

Every finishwork tutorial I have ever published has been written for people who want to paint a realistic model horse. However, a lot of NaMoPaiMo participants are more interested in fantasy colors and decorators. This includes Jillian Morrell, who is better known as Stormy Strike. This year, she painted a Disney themed decorator and documented the process on her Instagram account. Thank you, Jillian, for allowing me to share your words and photos here!

My NaMoPaiMo 2021 Process

by Stormy Strike

Last year I shared my NaMoPaiMo journey in a YouTube video. This year I’ll be sharing my progress and methods in words and photos. 

When doing decorators, before I can even consider painting, I need to plan out my design. It starts with an idea and picking a mold that will suit it. I really wanted to do a Disneyland inspired horse because I miss going there so much! My original idea was to do a Traditional Scale model with all my favorite attractions on it, but after sketching it out, I realized that idea was too ambitious. Therefore, I scaled it down to just one attraction on a Stablemate model – Space Mountain on a Walking Thoroughbred Unicorn.!

Then comes references! The more references, the better! I can easily spend an hour just gathering various references for both, well, reference and inspiration. Here I’ve gathered over fifty different images.

The next step is planning it out. For this project, I took photos of the mold I’m using from IdentifyYourBreyer and some of my reference photos to begin building the idea up in Photoshop. I found this to be incredibly helpful for this particular idea because finding the right placement for each element can be tricky. For example, I tried placing Space Mountain on various spots on the model, but found the only place it looked right was on his haunches.

Next I played around with color. The great thing about working digitally is you can quickly change and adjust the colors of your images and play around with the color scheme. In these images, I was deciding between a predominately purple or blue starry sky and between the classic red Space Mountain vehicles or their modern orange.

Once I settled on the design and color scheme, the next step was to sketch it out on the model!

I originally thought I was going to work from light to dark for the galaxy coat, but after some color testing I discovered I like the look of using a dark base instead. I painted the majority of the model black and added a little silver to the hooves, horn, and eyes.

Next, I dry brushed dark blue metallic paint over the model. I really love the effect this creates, because dry brushing also keeps the muscle details of the model dark.

I did dry brushing again with a lighter metallic blue and also a metallic pearl in different areas to create variation in the color, giving it that more galaxy look. For the stars, I splattered the majority on with a paint brush using the metallic pearl paint. For the bigger stars, I added a “glow” around them and a dab of solid white in the center.

At this point, the galaxy sky part of the model was pretty much done, and I can start working on the details!

But first, a few touch ups. I added black to the legs, muzzle, mane, and part of the tail and silver to the eye and horn. Some layers of orange and black paint were put down on Mickey and his spaceship.

Next Space Mountain got painted! This part was challenging to get the right shapes and shading, but I’m pleased with how it came out. I also painted in the shape of the little spaceship. I found some glitter paint I forgot I had and said, “Everything could use more glitter!” I added that to the outer space parts of the model to give it some extra star-twinkling goodness.

I thought the blue shading on Space Mountain was too saturated, so I toned it down using thin layers of watered-down gray. I got the majority of the little spaceship painted, and for Mickey’s spaceship, I added more layers of orange and grey. The eyes were finished with silver and black.

Lastly, I finished the little spaceship and added some extra white and pearl behind it to look like it’s blasting off . On the other side, I finished Mickey’s spaceship and Mickey! I'm very happy with how both of these turned out. Lots of itty-bit details really helped bring it to life, from adding shading and highlights to the spaceship, to watered-down pink to add a little blush to Mickey’s face. Behind this spaceship, I also added more white and pearl to give it more of a blasting off effect. Finally I painted the black line on the horn, black on the rest of the tail, and topped it off with a satin finish!

Here's a little college of all the progress pics together.

Here is my finished horse.

The other side.

This is my second NaMoPaiMo model, and the first to be completed on time! I'm very happy with him and this experience has given me confidence to be able to paint more tiny details in the future!

Painting details with Heather Bullach

We are in the homestretch for this year's NaMoPaiMo. The finish line is in sight, which means it's time to talk details. In today's first Tutorial Tuesday post, Heather Bullach of Equine Art by Heather Bullach shows us how she paints eyes and shell colored hooves. Thank you, Heather!

Painting Eyes

by Heather Bullach

Painting Shell Colored Hooves

by Heather Bullach

NaMoPaiMo day twenty two

Last night, Julie Ward posted this screenshot on the NaMoPaiMo Facebook page.

It was a timely share. Today, is the first day of the last week of NaMoPaiMo, and people - myself included - are beginning to worry less about making it perfect  in favor of just getting it done. As a result, great things are happening! Jay Kennon writes: Sometimes you have to give up a little bit to make progress. You have to accept that the work you have done is good enough to move forward. Let go of perfection, it is only holding you back. I've been struggling with prepping this horse. I was ready to give up and put him back on the shelf and forget about him. Then I did one last coat of primer and decided that was good enough. You can still see a bunch of minor prepping issues if you look closely. I don't care. The important thing is that I kept going. 

This is by far the best horse I've ever painted. He's not perfect, and that's okay. I achieved depth in his color I didn't think was possible. I also did a bay for my first NaMoPaiMo. Both are done in hand painted acrylics. The difference is amazing. 

I've learned so much through this group over the years, but the two biggest lessons are: never give up, and let go of perfection. 

People are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's exciting. Shia Vandione shares: After many hours working on my Mini Sharif, he is entering his final phase of detailing. Today I used pastels for the pinking, shading on his legs and doing the base for his hooves. Next will be finishing the details on the hooves with pencils and painting his eyes with acrylics. Not too far from reaching the deadline now! I'm super happy that I've gotten this far in just about a month!

People are surprising themselves in all kinds of ways. Ilona Himmelman says: After four years of participating in NaMoPaiMo  I *think* this is the first year I'll finish. Only hooves, eyes, manes and details left. I'm thrilled! 

Ann Hudson is also thrilled. Today she finished her ever custom model. She writes: Hooray!  I finished, and I didn’t even turn him green!  He is far from perfect, but I am pleased with my first completed horse, and only the second one I have attempted. I want to thank this group for your support and for all the great tutorials that artists have been so willing to share. I especially want to thank Shauna McDaniel and Shane Langbauer for their advice on supplies, and Hannah Hounshell for creating sample jars of pigments. However, I want to thank most of all Jennifer Bray Buxton for creating this wonderful event where newbies can feel safe to try and share what we created. With all the amazing artists out there, I found the idea of sharing my brand new “skills”  to the world very intimidating and the fact that I have posted photos of what I did is a testament to how wonderful this group is.

Veru Hroudová is another NaMoPaiMo participant who has exceeded her own expectations. Here's her story: Okay, honestly I thought I wouldn't make it, and I wanted to just give up. I had two oil layers on, and no desire to finish it. But today, I decided I have to do it. Here is the result. Do you remember when you were a child and drew picture you were really proud of? Adults knew it's nothing special, but you liked it a lot. That's my feeling right now. This is my first horse I'm painting and I'm so proud of it even I know it's not any good. My goal is to paint a pure white horse, but with dramatic shading since I love contrast and make fur texture. I still need to seal him, give him a mohair and some finishing touches.

Alexa Wellington is yet another happy NaMoPaiMo winner. She writes: This little guy has been fighting me the whole way, but I’m really happy with where we are now. Not really so much because I’m thrilled with the paint job, but because I have been able to really embrace this experience and community in a way I haven’t been able to before. It has been so amazing seeing everybody else’s progress, tips, tricks, and struggles. It really helped me through the ugly phases. I always struggle when things get ugly with wanting to rush (which obviously doesn’t help), so my goal this NaMo was to slow down and really challenge myself to fight my inner critic telling me it’s too ugly. The inner critic was (and still is honestly) strong and vocal, but I’m so proud of myself for holding true and not rushing this guy – being able to see others going through the process/struggles as well during this event is such a gift! 

Not every piece is going to be the most favorite or wonderful thing ever, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. The inner critic doesn’t need to win just because what you created isn’t going to win a contest. I have always known this, but I think this is the first time I’ve really been able to feel it. The journey was just as important as the destination. Thanks everybody for being part of this community and journey!

Today's NaMoPaiMo Champion of the Day is someone who took the idea of "just doing it" to the extreme. Tamzyn Revolta and her husband moved from the Netherlands to Massachusetts on January 30th. She shipped all of her hobby stuff except for a few tiny models and just enough prepping and painting supplies to get her through NaMoPaiMo. She spent the first week of February recovering from jet lag, moving into a new home, assembling furniture and experiencing her first big snowstorm. If anyone ever was too busy to paint, it was Tamzyn.

And yet, here is Tamzyn's 2021 model, looking amazing even without eye gloss and sealer, which are still in transit.

Congratulations, Tamzyn. You may think your horse looks better when not zoomed in, but I think he's amazing as is. Congratulations on getting him done. You are a true winner.

Today we ride

Between winter weather, shoulder pain, family obligations and NaMoPaiMo, I hadn't been to the barn in nearly two weeks. Today the weather was warmer, my shoulder was better, no one in my family needed me and all four of my painting projects were hanging out on the drying shelf. There was nothing standing between me and Lucy, so I made plans with my barn buddies.

Unfortunately, I arrived at the barn five minutes too late.

Oh, Lucy!

She was not just muddy, but wet and muddy. I did my best, but...

I swear she put that spot on her cheek just to spite me.

We headed out.

I didn't bring my camera because Lucy can be a handful, especially when she isn't in regular work. Of course, that meant we were treated to an extra good coyote sighting.

And despite my trepidations, Lucy was her best self both going out and coming home. Maybe she missed me at least a little.

This was a really nice change of pace. I feel refreshed and happy and ready to dive back into NaMoPaiMo.