Portrait Horse: Queen Esther (Breyer Traditional Adios)

Portrait Horse: Queen Esther - Custom Breyer Traditional Adios Model Horse in Red Chestnut

I’ve found it endlessly fascinating that I very rarely do work on Classic or larger scale models, but I have zero qualms about taking custom commissions at those scales. For some reason the amount of work seems so much larger when I’m not doing it for someone else! 😉

This little gal was a lot of fun to paint, but a real pain to photograph. She’s a red chestnut, but there’s a smidge less red and and so much more shading in her coat that just didn’t come out in the photos. Thankfully the person who ordered her was willing to take my word for that and left my a lovely review.

As has been the habit, she has a Facebook Gallery that documents the various steps from the original model to the lovely lady you see to the left. Having those galleries has done wonders for my confidence level around the ‘ugly’ stage of each model. All I have to do is look back and see that no really, the last horse also looked this bad at the same point… and off I go! 🙂

This little gal had her boy bits removed, mane shortened, but not resculpted, and ears lightly carved. I did a lot of sanding, priming, sanding, etc. There were only three reference photos provided, so this one was a little bit more of a challenge than prior Portrait Horses. Thankfully the owner was willing to help me tweak things, so after a few dozen Etsy conversations I had her down pat! 😀

While I didn’t end up using quite as big a pile of supplies as I did with Dandy, this little gal did send me to the art store in search of more browns! So I’ve now added a whole boatload of Americana Acrylics brown to the paint horde.

Medium: Liquitex White Gesso, FolkArt Acrylics (2905 Cinnamon, 2907 Bark Brown, 425 Medium Gray), Apple Barrel (20504 Black, 2467 Tuscan Red), Americana Acrylics (DA063 Burnt Sienna, DA174 Milk Chocolate, DA065 Dark Chocolate), CraftSmart (Coral), Prismacolor Pencils (1076 French Gray 90%, 1074 French Gray 70%, 1072 French Gray 50%, 1051 Warm Gray 20%)

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