Swatch out!

This year's most ambitious NaMoPaiMo experiment was conducted by Iowa artist, Sondra Householder, with an assist from her little sidekick, Chartreuse Guy. Here's the story in Sondra's own words.

Seven Swatches in Less Than Twenty Eight Days

by Sondra Householder

One day I was sorting a tub of airbrush paints and found a few browns I didn't really recognize. I didn't know what color they were, and I’m not even sure why I bought some of them.

As I’m not a fan of swatching paints on plain paper - the tones are changed so much by what goes under and over it - Chartreuse Guy and I decided to swatch them on actual horses. 

I have seven horses prepped, one for each unknown brown. I’ve chosen a light brown, very close to raw sienna, as the pangare color and shading gray for the saddle color on each horse to eliminate some variables. 

First things first. Everyone gets prepped...

and primed.

Gray skin added.

Then it's on to basecoats...

and finally the mystery browns are applied with an airbrush!

Here are all seven swatches after after airbrushing. I have six pages of observations and evaluations in my notebook now. The next time I get to paint, I will start the brush painted details.

Eleven days later, all the little swatches are done!

Here is a summary of my findings.

Vallejo

We had three bottles of Vallejo Air paint, Mahogany, for my official horse, Dark Brown for Chartreuse Guy’s, and German Red Brown for the standing thoroughbred. Everybody got a base of Vallejo Wood and white manes and tails (so I could see how the color looked by itself). 

Each was finished with Golden shading gray and PanPastel raw umber extra dark. I won’t list all the detail paints and pigments, but they were the same for each horse.

Golden

We had two Golden High Flow paints, Sepia and Burnt Umber. This is my favorite brand! The paint went through my airbrush like a dream and cleaned out easily. The bottles open for leftovers to pour back in. Both of these colors were semitransparent allowing the color to build with depth. Golden also makes PanPastels so the umber should transition well, but I didn’t try it with this swatch because, consistency.

Createx

Lastly were the two Createx paints, Wicked Brown and Light Brown. I don’t have a local source for Createx and with names like those, I suspect they don’t have a wide range of horsy colors. It’s ok, I didn’t like the paint bottles, and the colors weren’t impressive enough to deal with the thick paint, hard to squeeze bottles and online ordering. When these are gone, I will have no more.

Here's the whole herd.

My official horse!

Congratulations and well done, Sondra and Chartreuse Guy. This was a perfect NaMoPaiMo experiment. I love how all your little swatch horse turned out!