Portoro’s coloring is based on a black and gold Italian marble (Portoro Extra) and the swatch on the left is one of the handful of examples I used for reference, you can find plenty more with a quick Google search.

Faux painting was something I learned back in my stagecraft classes in college and I had been itching to try it out. I figured even if it didn’t look like the marble, it would still be a great color match. (Some of the more traditional marbles could have looked truly dreadful if I had mangled them, and I hate ‘un’-prepping a horse!)

As you can see by the less-than-stellar photos below, this little guy was done before I had the newer camera so he lacks the luster he had in person. While he might not have looked like he was really made of marble, he certainly didn’t look plastic either!

• 

•