Tutorial: Give Me a Hand, Here!

    Today's tutorial will show you how to fix the Breyer rider's hands to hold the reins more properly. I was requested to make this tutorial after posting a close-up of my Yvonne doll's modified hands on deviantART.

They were only modified to hold the reins between the pinky and the ring finger. I didn't alter anything else. Today, I'm going to show you how to alter your rider's hands so they can hold the reins with a tight grip, and between their pinky and ring finger!

So, here's what you'll need:

• A Cutting Board
• A candle or heat source
• A knife (Preferably an x-acto knife, but any razor sharp blade will do)
• The rider you want to modify
• A spare bridle or piece of lace to use as the reins

    Okay! So, before we get cutting anything, let's take a look at how reins are supposed to be held (English or barrel reins [when using two hands], not split or romal reins.) I have a set of reins laying nearby, so I'll show you quickly how the rein is held. Ideally, you want your hands closed tight around the reins. Basically, make a fist. I had to loosen my grip to get these photos, because I had to use one hand to take the picture. If these aren't clear enough, try googling it!

    Now that we know what it looks like, let's get to work! For a single set of reins, the rein should come out of the bottom of the ring finger, like pictured above. So, we're going to cut the pinky away, as shown here:

    You don't have to map it out if you don't want to. I did, to show clearly where I was going to cut. Now, if you're needing the rider to hold a double set of reins, such as with a full bridle or pelham bit, you'll want to cut the ring finger away as well, following this second line here:

    Today we're only doing the pinky. So, start heating up the hand with your heat source. Try to get only their fingers, as if you heat too much up, you may warp their hands in unnatural ways. 

    You may have noticed I burnt her thumb. Always be careful when dealing with heat! Be sure you disperse the heat over the area; don't just hold it in one place. Also, be careful not to burn yourself!

    Once you get their hand heated up, Lay their hand down and take your knife, and cut along the crease of the pinky. The fingers may flatten out; this is okay. Be careful to cut only the crease, as you may weaken the integrity of the fingers if you cut anywhere else.

DO NOT CUT LIKE THIS!! You WILL cut yourself!
I had already cut her finger away, but I couldn't get it on camera, so I had to hold it like this for the picture.
 LAY IT ON THE CUTTING BOARD TO CUT!!!

    At this point, you should be able to move their pinky independently from the rest of their fingers. Now, re-heat their hand and press the flat part of their fingers (by the top knuckles) into the cutting board. You want to start closing their fingers into a fist. Hold the hand in place until it cools down. You can gently blow on it to aid in cooling. 

I thought I had a picture of this! Sorry!

 Now, get that spare rein I mentioned, and shove it in their palm. We're going to start closing their fingers around the rein. For this stage, I have a thick cotton rein. The idea here was to have the thicker rein in place so I didn't close her hand too much, but I ended up needing to close it more anyway, so you can get away with a thin leather lace if you want to.

Now reheat their hand, and press the fingers around the reins. You don't have to worry about getting a round shape just yet, but you are certainly welcome to try. There's no right and wrong way to do this, just as long as you keep working to achieve your end goal.

    Keep heating and working it until you get the right shape you want.

Here's what the finished hand looks like compared to the original:

Hopefully yours won't have a burnt thumb!

    Now do the same for the other side! Your rider will then have a tight grip and reins won't be able to fall out very easily! If you're still not satisfied with your hands, keep working with them until you reach a point that you're happy with. You can always come back to it later if you decide you're still not happy with it!

She won't be letting go of those reins any time soon!

    For the best results, use skived reins. These ones are a bit too thick, which makes them stiff and not want to sit on the pinky right. If you use the correct thickness of lace, the riders will have a better time holding the reins between their pinkies.

    I hope this helped! If you have any questions or suggestions for future posts, please leave a comment!

Over and Out! 

Tutorial - Fleabites

I couldn't think of a clever name for this, I'm sorry!

I mentioned a couple days ago that I'd do a tutorial covering the basics of how I do fleabites. Considering it's midnight thirty, that means it's still yesterday in California so I'm going to say it's yesterday and I'm not late ;)

The concept of fleabitten horses can be intimidating. "How am I going to paint all of those little speckles?" you might be thinking. I did, too, until I found a good method that's quick and easy!

"Fleabitten" refers to a horse whose coat is speckled in little flecks of typically red fur, much like flea bites. These fleabites can be sparse to nearly looking like a roan, and some often come with a bloody shoulder marking.

Here are some examples of fleabitten horses with and without the bloody shoulder.

Looks intimidating, right? just imagine doing that with a teeny-tiny paintbrush, dabbing each little speckle into the coat. You'd spend two days doing one side at least! 

Luckily, you won't need a teeny-tiny paintbrush for this part! 

What you'll need:

• A prepped, primed, and clean model!
• Water
• Red, white, green, and yellow paints (or red and brown if you have them, but still have the yellow and white handy just in case)
• Knife (pocket/switchblade, xacto, etc)
• Chalk pastels (brown and black, though I only used black. Use grey if you have it or can make it)
• plate to hold pastels
• A brush to apply pastels
• Old, clean Toothbrush
• Cup of water
• Cup or plate to mix paint in
• Piece of disposable, unimportant paper or other white surface
• Sealer sprays (gloss and matte ideal)

To start, get your model on a flat surface with good lighting. Try to use natural light, or white fluorescent light, as they will show the true colours better. The light in my room is yellow, so I have a desk lamp to use for this purpose.

Ignore what's in the background, 

Also, I need to clean my room.

Now, get your knife, plate, and pastel/s and shave off a small pile of dust. Mix the two colours if you're using two, otherwise grab your brush and start applying the dust. Grab a reference for this part, because you'll need to know where the dark spots (if any) are, and how dark they are. 

For my horse, I darkened the eyes, muzzle, and joints in the legs. 

My trusty little knife and plate combo.

Start in an inconspicuous place - like the legs or thighs. 

I jumped straight to the muzzle, but if your pastels 

are too dark, you'll want to be able to hide it.

After you get that done, you can seal your horse, or continue. Not wanting to risk touching the dust, I sealed him. 

Now, start mixing your paints. I started off with FolkArt's True Burgundy and Daler-Rowney's white acrylic paints, using the white only to desaturate the red in the burgundy.

I used a popsicle stick to mix these colours, but you can use anything you can find. I've used handles to silverware, and even the opposite ends of paintbrushes to mix paints.

Once this was mixed, the colour seemed too pink, so I added a dab of green to bring out the browns a little more.

I ended up using more green than pictured above, but I added in small increments.

If you want the paint more brown, keep it this way. If you want it more like a chestnut, add a dab of yellow. 

Now, take your toothbrush and dip it in the glass of water. Don't shake the water out of the bristles just yet - hover it over the paint and then drop the water from the bristles into the paint. Stir this up until you've got about the consistency of waterolours. (a bit like cream)

Then, touch the very edge of the bristles into the paint, and use your thumb to scrub it into the toothbrush. You might want to wear rubber gloves for this if you don't want your thumb to look bloody until you wash your hands. 

Now grab your piece of paper and hold it up in front of you, taking one hand and dragging your thumb towards you on the bristles. This'll flick the paint onto the paper. Use this as target practice. Pay attention to the variables - how hard you press on the bristles and how watery the paint is WILL dictate how large the flecks are. 

I found that I didn't need much pressure at all.

Once you've figured out how hard you need to press, go ahead and send the fleas to the model! I would suggest trying on a stablemate first before attempting a larger-scale custom.

If your flecks come out too dark, or too blotchy, you can "dilute" it one of two (heck, use both) ways:

You can take it outside and apply a very light coat of primer and then redo the smaller flecks

or

you could clean the toothbrush and do the exact same thing, just with white paint.

I did the latter of the two for mine.

There you have it! After that, seal the horse and start working on the fine details like the eyes. Soon, you'll have a fully- fleabitten horse!