Greyscale Horse Tutorial Pt.2

Part 2 of how I paint horses using greyscale shading.

Step 8: Create a new layer above your latest highlight layer (HL3). Pick an even lighter shade of grey and paint in the last layer of highlights. Keep your same brush but make it pretty small (as in around 12 and downward). Try to paint these more in the center of the last highlights. When finished, again use the blur tool.

Step 9: Now we make the horse look more like a horse and not a stone statue. In color, pick the color that your horse will be. I chose buckskin, therefore my color is going to be a golden yellow. If you want a bay, then pick more of a brown. If your horse is a chestnut, then pick a more reddish-orange. Once your color is selected, create a new layer above your last highlight layer, title it "overlay" and reduce the layer opacity down to 72%. This allows for a solid color but also allows your greyscale to show through, giving the horse a little value.

Step 10: This step is really only needed if your horse has black points (muzzle/legs), meaning bays, buckskins, ect. Pick a shade of black (do not use pure black- it ruins things) that is a bit lighter than your lineart, and create a new layer above your overlay layer. Title it "black points" and paint in your horse's points. Then, use the blur tool to blend them into the coat color of your horse, giving a more realistic look.

Step 11: Paint in the rest of the hair. See my mane tutorial here:
[link]

Step 12: Above your points layer, create another layer and title it "highlight." Reduce the layer opacity to around 70% and pick a very light color (I personally use white). Using the Airbrush Opacity Flow brush around size 19, create one large highlight to give your horse a shiny coat. Do little highlights on the legs, and where there's a bulge of muscle.

Step 13: Now for the tricky part. Take your lineart layer and, piece by piece, use the lasso tool to select certain areas where the shading of the horse is the same color. Using the hue/saturation feature (Enhance>color>hue/saturation), first lighten the color of your lineart (+22 on the "lighten" slider) and hit enter. Then go back to the same feature, check the "colorize" box, and mess with the dials until the color of your lineart matches the exact coloring of your horse. Keep selecting and changing until everything is in sync with your shading.

Step 14: And that's how I do it. In this I'm assuming that your horse doesn't have white markings. If it does, create a layer above your black points layer, or, if your horse doesn't have black points, above your overlay layer. Do the same as you would with the black, only with white.

Any questions? Feel free to ask!