 Hi there, it's DJB, and in this video I'm going to be teaching you how to paint a dark dappled gray. This was an experimental technique of using both airbrush, pigment, and acrylic paint to create a unique dappled effect. So you want to start with a model that is primed and ready for paint. I'm going to use Golden High Flow Acrylic in neutral gray. You're going to want to make sure you have a good reference image on hand. I'm also going to be using my Iwata Eclipse HPCS airbrush. So I put a couple drops of paint in there, and we're just going to base coat the model. This is going to be a thin layer of gray, not too dark, not too heavy, and I'm going to create a shaded effect across the entire body of the horse, not really focusing on a particular area, but making sure that that top line is quite rich, comparatively to the rest of the body. So once we're done with that, I'm going to take Golden High Flow Black, and I'm going to apply that in the darkest areas of the horse. Because we're going to build most of this color up with pastel, it's not imperative that the color is complete in the airbrush phase. This is simply a base coat. So here I'm working on the legs to make them extra dark because they're going to be solid black, and most of the face, the upper top line of the neck, and the upper top line of the back. But you want to leave some of that light gray and white almost underneath because that's what's going to show up in your dapples when we add pastel. So make sure you clean out your airbrush when you're done. I use Iwata Airbrush Cleaner. Then we're going to use hand pastel. I'm just going to be using the black color, and I'm going to be using a makeup brush to apply the pastel. I find makeup brushes hold pigment better than normal paint brushes. And we're just going to brush on this black, starting in the top line and kind of softening into the main body of the horse. You have to think that this pastel is going to go basically over the entire body of the horse because that's the area that we're going to pull dapples with the kneaded eraser. You want full coverage with this color, but it's going to be slightly gray. It's not going to be completely black when you're finished with it. So then once you have the whole model coated in pastel, being careful not to touch any that you have laid down, we're going to take a Faber-Castell eraser pencil and sharpen it to a fine point. And then we're going to use this pencil to pull out dapples in the main body of this model. So this pencil works the same as a kneaded eraser, but I find I have a little more control with this and I can create a different texture within each dapple. I find this leaves a little bit of eraser shaving left on the model when you're finished. So you're going to want to brush that off with just a brush every once in a while to make sure that there's no debris that you could potentially seal into your finished work. For dapples, following reference is the best thing you can do. Dapples are a little bit different on gray horses. They find their larger on the butt, kind of smaller within the abdomen. And certain areas are completely white. So here I'm taking a kneaded eraser and I'm actually removing some of the gray that I've put in the flank. In my reference image, the horse is almost completely white in the flank area. So I'm just going to go back in here with the pencil and kneaded eraser and my makeup brush, achieving the desired look. I can also go in here with some white pan pastel. I'm just using a Q-tip to apply in the flank area to make it a little more dramatic. White actually works pretty well with pan pastel, but it will lose a little bit of its luster when we finish the model with a ceiling spray. I also do this in some of the grooves where I want some shading. And I found that this actually looked quite nice brushing it over top of all of the dapples that I did so that it softens their shape. Then I actually was finding success in brushing my eraser pencil over top of the model to create a herring detail along most of the body of the horse. This isn't completely refined, but it just adds some hair growth texture to the dapples that I have already placed. So once you're officially happy with this layer, you want to make sure that everything is smoothed out. I'm going to take a tester's doll coat and seal all of the pastel work that I have done. When I bring the model back, he's looking pretty good. You can see that white kind of flared out a little bit. But now I'm just going to take some acrylic paint, not really a preference on the brand here. I'm pretty sure I was just using Windsor and Newton artist acrylic and my Windsor and Newton triple zero paint brush. And I was just going through and adding some brightness to some of the dapples throughout the body. I found that these dapples were not effective enough with just the pastel. So painting over top of them was a unique effect that I could give some extra detail to this model custom. So once again, just following the reference images and adding some hair growth detail as well. Then once you're happy with that, you can add extra markings and details as you please. So this is a fun technique, and I think the result was pretty effective. You can use this technique to create lighter grays. Thank you so much for watching and happy painting. All of the tools used in this video are in the description below. Please subscribe for weekly Wednesday uploads. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at DJB Studios. Check out my website and sign up to my mailing list to be the first to know about commissions, tutorials and sales pieces. If you have any questions, feel free to message me.