Basic ceramic terms - clays

China model horses are slipcast, which means they are made by pouring liquid clay into a plaster mold. Once the clay inside the mold has time to set up, the excess slip is poured back out. That is why china horses are hollow like a chocolate Easter bunny. 

There are three types of slip widely available in the United States: earthenware, stoneware and mid-range porcelain. A fourth type, bone china, is traditional in the United Kingdom  but isn't available in the States. 

Earthenware

This is the clay associated with American art pottery. Hagen-Renaker pieces are made of earthenware slip. Earthenware slip fires at Cone 04. 

Stoneware

This is the type of clay common in “clay studio” settings. It is stronger than earthenware, but tends to be more gritty (less smooth) and has a higher rate of shrinkage. White stonewares are typically closer to cream than the warm white found in earthenware. Stoneware slip fires at Cone 5 or 6. 

Mid-range porcelain

This type of slip is commonly used for dolls. Once fired, it is extremely durable, but in its greenware form it is extremely fragile and prone to crumbling. Unlike the previous two clays, it can sag during firing unless propped. It does come in a wide range of colors, including a true neutral white. It fires at Cone 6. 

Slip colors

The most common color for slip is white, but the exact shade varies. Bone china is usually a bright, cool white. Next to the other clays, it can have a bluish cast. Earthenware is a warm white, ranging from winter white to ivory depending on the formula. Stoneware is warmer still, with many "white" stoneware slips coming out a color closer to cream than white. Mid-range porcelain is a cooler white, though the undertones of some white porcelains can have a grayish cast compared to the brighter, bluer bone china. In the photo at the top of this post, the Xavier (facing, far left) is bone china. Next to him are two Peritia medallions (shown from the back), earthenware and stoneware respectively. In front of those is an Inspire tile (facing) in mid-range porcelain. 

Slip can be found in other colors. Earthenware is also produced in terra cotta, which looks much like the acrylic paint of the same name. Stoneware is commonly produced in a darker cream with speckles. Because it is most often used in doll production, porcelain is made in a wide range of skin tones. Most ceramic horses are produced in white clay, but some manufacturers have experimented with colored slip. For example, the Pour Horse Hadrian was made with brown-tinted earthenware.

More about slip

It is important to note that slip is more than just watered-down clay. Precise ratios of chemicals, known as deflocculants, are added that keep the clay in suspension. For that reason, adding water to moist clay will not create usable slip for casting. 

Slip that is firm enough to be removed from a mold is referred to as leather-hard. Leather-hard clay will break when bent, rather than deform. Clay that has dried, but has not yet been fired, is called greenware. Once it has been fired, but not yet decorated, it is called bisqueware or just bisque.

An art-glazed stoneware Peritia placed back-to-back with an earthenware bisque, showing the difference between the shrinkage of the two clays.

Slip shrinks as it dries, and then again when it is fired. Different slips will have their own rate of shrinkage, but generally earthenware slip has a lower shrinkage rate than stoneware or porcelain. For example, the earthenware slip that I use has a shrinkage rate of 5%, while the stoneware has a rate of 13%.  

Practical considerations

Each type of clay has its own strengths and limitations. For someone just learning to make ceramic horses, my choice is earthenware. It is forgiving of mistakes. It doesn't require propping during firing. I also make a lot of horses with white patterns, and I like the natural look of the slightly warmer whites. For my own editions, I use a slip based on the old Hagen-Renaker formula. For medallions, though, my choice is Standard Clay's Artist White. I find it particularly sturdy in the greenware stage, which makes the castings more beginner-friendly. 

When I want to use stoneware glazes (more on those in the next post), I use white stoneware slip. My favorite is Laguna 500L, though it can be hard to find in liquid form. I prefer not to mix dry ingredients. Liquid clay is messy enough, and there is enough dust mitigation in pottery without intentionally bringing in more. 

Basic ceramic terms - cones

To ensure you are purchasing the right tools and materials, it is important to know basic ceramic terminology. We'll start with kiln firing temperatures, since almost everything about ceramics centers around whether you are working in low-fire, mid-range or high-fire temperatures. 

Cones

Hobby kilns typically fire between 1087° and 2345°F. The intervals between those temperatures are known as Cones. The name comes from clay pyramids that are formulated to bend over at a specific temperature (pictured above). 

The lower portion of the range has numbers preceded by a zero. Those Cones are numbered in declining order, so that the highest numbered cone (022) is coolest, while the lowest (01) is the warmest. At 2079°F, the zero is dropped, and the Cone number increases with the temperature. 

Cones 04-06 are commonly referred to as low-fire. Cones 5-6 are known as mid-range, and Cone 10 is high-fire. These are important distinctions because clays and glazes are usually specific to one of the three firing ranges. It’s also a common point of confusion when new ceramists do not realize the importance of that preceding zero. Note the temperature difference between two commonly used Cones with the number 6.

Cone 06  (low fire)    1828°F

Cone 6 (mid-range)    2232°F

Bars

For manual kilns that use a mechanical device known as a kiln sitter, bars made of the same material are used. The bar deforms at the specified temperature, causing the kiln to shut off. Bars use the same numbering convention as the cones. 

Pyrometric bars (left) are used in manual kilns to stop the firing at the desired temperature. Cones (right) are used to test the temperature inside the kiln. Both are stamped with their cone number.

Firing Ranges

American potters working in the tradition of Hagen-Renaker and Pour Horse work in low-fire ranges, firing the clay at Cone 04 and the colors and final clear gloss at Cone 06.

The majority of work done at Blackberry Lane is in the low-fire range. All the pieces with realistic horse colors are done using low-fire clay and glazes. 

Studios that finish their horses using overglazing work at even lower temperatures—typically between Cone 018-022. Bone china and porcelain clays fire significantly hotter than earthenware (usually mid-range or high-fire, depending on the specific slip used), but the realistic horse colors that are added later usually fall into the lower range. For that reason, until you are pouring horses, you will be working in low-fire. 

Shops that offer drop-in “pottery painting” on selected bisque designs—the most common type of ceramic shop for many years—usually work in low-fire ranges. The more recent “clay studio” model, where members pay a monthly fee to use materials and equipment, usually uses mid-range firing. That's important, because many clubs do what they call a "glaze fire" each week, but they mean a mid-range stoneware glaze (Cone 6) and not what we mean when we are doing a final clear glaze fire at Cone 06. 

The Peritia Project

For the last year, Sarah Minkiewicz and I have been working on a secret project. Our goal was to teach more people how to make ceramic horses, starting with glazing. 

The idea was that the biggest obstacle for artists wanting to learn to glaze china horses was finding three-dimensional canvases. Ceramic surface decoration, especially the traditional American approach known as underglazing, has a steep learning curve. Without a supply of inexpensive horse-shaped objects for practice, it is very difficult to develop the necessary skills.

This was the idea behind the Peritia Project. The word "peritia" is Latin for "mastery." Peritia was sculpted by Sarah to be the perfect canvas for learning how to glaze. She was also designed to be easy to pour and demold, so that hobbyists could cast their own copies. It is much easier to take chances with a new medium when you know you can pour another copy if things don't turn out quite the way you hoped! 

The Peritia medallion is the first phase of the Peritia Project. In the next phases, we'll work up to casting and finishing full-body horses. However, starting with a medallion—both for casting and glazing—is the best approach. 

Availability

Peritia is licensed exclusively to Blackberry Lane Pottery for the Peritia Project. Both bisques and plaster molds are being offered in open editions. Both will be stocked in my online shop, which is the same place that the new Breeds & Colors book was offered. Bisques are currently ready to ship, but the initial set of molds sold out at Clinkypaloosa. The next batch is drying and will be listed in the shop as soon as they are ready to use. (Typically, plaster molds of this size take a few weeks to dry.)

Terms and conditions

These pieces and molds have been produced in the spirit of proactive education. As such, everyone is expected to uphold this spirit for which they were created. When you purchase a bisque or mold of Peritia, you automatically agree to these terms. Notable conditions include:

1. The right to make molds is exclusive to Lesli Kathman. You may not make new molds of a Peritia casting or make a mold off the mold. 
2. You may not produce bisque Peritias to sell, as that right is exclusive to Blackberry Lane. You may produce bisques to share with friends, or to host glazing classes. (Gathering more hobbyists to learn how to glaze is completely in the spirit of this project.)
3. You may sell your finished and glazed Peritias. 
4. You may also apply Peritia to other objects such as mugs, vases, and bowls. You may customize your Peritia greenware. In all cases, you may not make molds or sell these types of creations as bisque; they must be finished by you before offering them for sale. 
5. Do not use your Peritia molds past the point where they produce detailed castings. Peritia molds are an open stock item to encourage retiring spent molds.
   
   

More information

Now that our secret is out, I will be sharing more information about ceramic production. I am going to start with a series of posts that cover the basics. I am going to split these up so that they are not overly long. Also, since they will address specific common questions, this will make it easy to refer people to them in the future. Once those are finished, I plan to start sharing current in-progress projects. 

I can also answer technical questions on Elaine Lindelef's Ponydom forum. The thread for that is here. (You will need to sign up to access the forum.)

Ultimately, this information (and more) will be compiled into a book scheduled to be released at BreyerFest in 2027. 

And there is more... 

More information on Ferox, the sculpture that serves as the second part of this project, will follow in a future post. 

Some sneak peeks - Clinkypaloosa!

 

I have been completely absorbed in getting the new Breeds & Colors guide to press, so I am late in sharing this update on my super-secret Clinkypaloosa project. Sarah recently shared this image of Ferox in her newsletter. She is one of the other pieces of the project, along with the medallion Peritia.  

Our big reveal will be at Clinkypaloosa, but Sarah shared some big clues in her newsletter. I'll include what she said here. 

Lesli and I talk a lot about the state of things in our community. (And there's a lot to talk about lately!) But we both noticed a serious problem in a particular facet of our arts that, we think, needed bigtime intervention to turn around. And so this solution popped into Lesli's noggin, and I thought it was such a great idea, I jumped into the fray! So together, come October at Clinkypalooza, we hope to shift a big problem into a happy solution. It's not an easy solution though. But isn't that always the way? Because it won't be like taking a pill and calling it a day. Nope. Instead, it's going to require an investment of effort and dedication from those who jump into the fray too, but golly...the rewards if they stick with it! For that, Peritia's name is a big clue. In Latin, remember, it means "expertise," "experience," "knowledge," "mastery," and "ability." So ponder on that. As for Ferox here, her name is more descriptive of her mood, meaning "spirited," "wild," or "insolent." Yep, she's going to be quite pugnacious but of a universal type so she could wear any color or pattern nicely. But that's it for now...more later! Shhhhhh!

 

I would add that Ferox's name has another meaning that might pair well with our project theme. My translator gives "dauntless." Paired with "mastery," that fits with what we are trying to do.

I have a clue of my own. This is a rough version the third piece of our secret puzzle. Think of it as the book version of the sculpting stage that Ferox represents. The final might change a bit, but the idea is all there. 

That is happening, and the kilns have been firing around the clock. (There are two of them now.) Needless to say, there is a lot going on with both the publishing and pottery sides of Blackberry Lane this summer. Like Ferox, we are feisty and undaunted!

Some clues and a studio tour

The Clinkypaloosa Project

Sarah provided a few clues about our Clinkypaloosa project in her recent newsletter ("Magic Swords and Black Swans"). This is what she said:

1. The teaser photo she showed was of a medallion.
2. It is not a Blackberry Lane or a Minkiewicz Studios production piece.
3. This is one part of the project. 

Up until now, the project has been in Sarah's hands. Now that I am doing some of my part, it seems appropriate that I offer a clue of my own. Sarah said the secret wasn't about what this was, but about its purpose. With that in mind... 

The answer is in the name.

A Studio Tour

If you follow me on social media, you know that our new home in Michigan is surrounded by natural beauty. It sits on more than four acres of preserved wetlands, and the immediate area around the house was where the previous owner—a master gardener—enjoyed her hobby. I post a lot of pictures like this one!

The scent of these Korean Spice Viburnum is the first thing you notice when you step outside.

However, the real attraction with the new place was that I would finally be able to create separate work areas for the different parts of making ceramic horses. Materials used in casting and glazing cannot contaminate one another. When I had only one dedicated working space, it was necessary to turn it over in order to change tasks. Now I have a total of four spaces, two that are "flex" spaces and two used exclusively for studio tasks. 

Since I have been working on the Peritia molds, I'll show the two spaces for those activities. 

Master Molding Station

I make master molds with polyurethane rubber using plaster "boards" for structural support. The curing time for the rubber (16 hours) means it occupies the area for a while, so it was the first task I wanted to move out of my everyday studio space. The new house had just the right place for it in the basement. 

In the corner of the basement, there is a counter. It's usually where we set out snacks and drinks when everyone gathers to play pool or ping pong. Most of the time, the counter sits empty, so leaving a molding project to cure isn't disruptive. That is what is happening in the next photo; the first piece of Peritia's mold is curing inside the clamped box.

The only downside is that the counter is standing height, which makes it hard for a small person (like me) to peer inside the mold box. That's why my portable ladder is there. It is one of my favorite purchases for the new house, which has a lot of high cabinets. If you look closely, you can see that it has "socks"! It came with cute little knitted booties to protect the floor. 

Could those be ears peering out?

There is a lot of crossover between the tools I use to make master molds and those needed to make plaster production molds, so those normally live in the Spider Room. I do keep the master mold inventory in the storage cabinets that line the wall to the left. When everything was in one room, the heat from the kiln tended to dry out the rubber bands. 

The Spider Room

The number one item on my wish list for the new house was a place (and the wiring) for a larger kiln. The new house has a large utility room in the basement that is perfect. The only problem was that it already had a massive, eight-legged occupant. My son worried that Shelob might be sensitive to fumes from the kiln, so he eventually relocated her. She—or maybe some equally large relatives—regularly returns. That's how the room got its name. At least visitors have some warning. 

It's a long, narrow room with cement floors. It came with storage shelves on the back wall and a sturdy workbench on the other end. Most importantly, it was easy to wire for a 240V outlet. (Setting up the kiln vents through the masonry wall is proving to be a little more involved.) 

One of my goals for the Spider Room is to have all of my mold-making, casting, and firing tools handy. I can't begin to count the number of hours I have lost over the years looking for things like my Ford Cup. That's the little black funnel hanging from the hook in the middle of the wall. It's a unique tool used for testing the viscosity of slip; nothing else does that job.

The studs already had a series of hooks. To that, we added shelves set inside the studs so I could take advantage of that space as well. If you look closely at the shelves with the glaze bottles, you can see two "Hammies". Sarah sculpts them to capture the expressions her husband, Chris (nicknamed Hammy), makes. Knowing how little Chris likes them, I think the yellow one is especially appropriate for the Spider Room. The blue one might as well have been Alan. "What do you mean the kiln needs to be vented through that cinderblock wall..."

At the other end of the room is the workbench. Like the counter for the master molds, the workbench was standing height. I didn't want to do all my casting and clay assembly standing on a ladder, so I had Alan cut the legs down to desk height. The deep grooves in the bare wood surface are difficult to clean, so we recently purchased a laminate countertop. 

(Cleaning the clay keeps the area from becoming dusty, which is important because clay contains silicates that can harm your lungs.) 

I love that the pattern on the (clearance rack) laminate top looks like spills of ceramic slip

The two containers with the green lids sitting on the left side of the bench are wet boxes. I plan to turn the long, shallow drawers under the bench into wet trays. I'll make a separate post about those and why they are useful. 

One last teaser

This is a peek at the project that required the larger kiln. She's traditional scale, so that gives you an idea of just how large the new kiln is. Depending on how I stilt her, I can fit 6-8 inside. Only one could fit in the old kiln, and only if she wasn't stilted, which meant she couldn't be glazed. 

That's a glimpse into the casting part. I haven't touched on the upstairs areas where I paint and glaze. I am still organizing that space, so I'll save it for later. In the meantime, keep an eye out for more teasers both here and in Sarah's newsletters.

Teaser - Clinkypaloosa 2026

 

Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig and I have a secret project we plan to unveil this fall at Clinkypaloosa. However, when someone plans a huge ceramic event in your backyard, the temptation to make things is pretty strong. 

So here is a teaser shot for my other not-so-secret Clinkypaloosa plans. 

To get the North Carolina house ready to sell, we converted the ceramic studio to an office and put the equipment, molds and bisques into storage.

Meanwhile, the new place was being outfitted for a larger kiln and more dedicated work spaces. 

The Carolina house sold last week, and I am almost finished getting everything here in Michigan up and running. My plan is to start working through some of the boxes. I can't say what will get pulled—I think I might be hard-pressed to find any specific thing at this point!—or what might get finished. I can say there are a lot of bisques, some of which haven't actually been seen yet as a finished custom glaze. I intend to work on a mix of both older molds and 'exotic' things. Whatever I manage to finish between now and October will be offered at Clinkypaloosa. 

I'll preview things as they come out of the kiln, so these really won't be a secret! 

Accuracy and documentation

Because I show a lot of uncommon breeds (and common breeds in uncommon colors), I am a fan of providing documentation. Creating short, informative cards so that a judge can better understand what my model is intended to portray is a challenge that I enjoy. 

Here is Lascaux, the model in the picture. 

Sarah Rose's Libretto painted by Kim Naumann

I show Lascaux (and other horses with Iberian type and appaloosa patterning) as Spanish Spotted Saddle Horses. Because that is a relatively new breed, and because the name is easily confused with the (very different!) Spotted Saddle Horse, providing documentation with the entry is important.

The Spotted Saddle Horse is an American gaited breed closely related to the Tennessee Walking Horse

 

Here is a close-up of Lascaux's documentation. It is typical of the documentation I use as a shower, and I prefer to see when I judge. It covers the very specific information I believe the judge needs to put the entry in context; it is not a book report on the breed.

I have written a lot of articles and a handful of books about breeds and colors over the years, but it never occurred to me to offer pre-made show documentation. I know that others have begun doing this, though, because entrants have told me they purchased their documentation. I learned this when I asked about incorrect information, and the answer was, "Oh, I did not write that." 

Usually, the errors are minor. I have joked that I am going to make custom Post-it notes that say, "This is not a silver," to attach to all the misidentified photos. Using sooty palomino or liver chestnut to illustrate the existence of silver dilutes in a breed is not going to change a placing—assuming, of course, that the breed really does have silver dilutes. 

Nope, not a silver!

Also not a silver.

More recently, however, I encountered documentation with errors that were on a completely different level. I am always hesitant to share details about negative situations because I do not believe publicly shaming someone is helpful. In this case, however, even I do not know who created the documentation. The exhibitor said she received it with the model. What I do know, though, is that it opened my eyes to the potential for a problem. 

That's because the phrase I usually hear right after "I did not write that" is "But the horse placed well using this at the last show."

As judges, we often take documentation at face value. After all, the whole point of laying down documents is to give a judge information that they might not already have. We expect almost encyclopedic knowledge from our judges, but there is so much out there. Documentation is supposed to help make the job more manageable. 

But what if judges cannot trust what is provided? What if exhibitors, or documentation writers, are just making things up? 

The "tobiano" Finnhorse

The model in question was a copy of Emilia Kurila's Ukko, painted in buckskin tobiano. He was being shown as a Finnhorse with documentation that claimed that the breed could be pinto-patterned. That is not untrue. Finnhorses sometimes have flashy white markings, and some do have belly spotting. There is even one instance of a dominant white stallion with a near-white phenotype. 

Vekselin Ihme, a near-white Finnhorse born from two chestnut parents

This is also the breed where splashed white was originally described in 1933. Although the color was thought to have been lost, it was later confirmed to be present in modern Finnhorses by testing. 

Illustration from the 1931 paper that first described splashed white

Finnhorses do not, however, have the gene for tobiano. The idea behind Valto Klemola's 1933 paper was that there were two different kinds of pinto, one dominant (what we now call tobiano) and one recessive (what we now call Splashed White 1). The form of splashed white present in the Finnhorses, Splashed White 1 (SW1), behaves in an incompletely dominant fashion. Horses with one copy look like they have 'ordinary markings', which is why Klemola thought of it as recessive. The horses looked like pintos when they had two copies of SW1. That was what made it different from the dominant (tobiano) pinto. 

Klemola used pictures of Scottish cart horses (the article was written while he was at the University of Edinburgh) to illustrate the tobiano pattern. The splashed white horses were descendants of the Finnhorse stallion Eversti. The whole point of the discovery was that there was a pinto pattern in Finnhorses that was not tobiano. 

Needless to say, finding a tobiano Finnhorse on the table was not something I expected. Finding documentation claiming this horse was proof was something else entirely. 

The documentation claimed that the horse in the picture was "Gold Charm," a Finnhorse stallion "standing at Blazing Colours Farm." None of these things are true. 

I recognized the horse. That's El Dorado Gold Charm. You can see this picture and more from the same photo shoot here. He is a registered American Saddlebred. I knew about him because one of his tobiano lines (he is homozygous) is a bit of a mystery. He's also buckskin, which (unlike palomino) is a little uncommon in his breed. 

The real eye-opener was the claim that he belonged to Blazing Colours Farm. A lot of model horse hobbyists might recognize that name. More would likely recognize it if they saw the stallion at the center of their logo. 

That is Sato, the 2011 BreyerFest Guest Horse. Blazing Colours breeds colorful Thoroughbreds and sport horses. They do not breed coldblooded trotting breeds like the Finnhorse. Interestingly enough, they do have a cremello Thoroughbred stallion named El Dorado, but not Gold Charm. 

The documentation not only named the farm, but also provided a link. Because everything about the claims was throwing huge red flags, I did check the link. It was dead. (Most judges do not have access to the internet while judging, so do not do this on your documentation!)

The whole incident left me deeply uneasy. Horses with incorrect breed attributions have become increasingly common thanks to sites like Pinterest. What made this one unusual was the full-page backstory that went with its breed designation. I could not figure out how someone could mistakenly identify a buckskin tobiano Saddlebred stallion as a Finnhorse (a coldblooded trotting breed) owned by a famous Thoroughbred farm in Canada. 

I still do not know how the documentation came together, but I would like to urge entrants to check the accuracy of anything they did not personally create. As much as I dislike saying it, I would also recommend that judges not necessarily take papers next to entries at face value. At a time when what is real and what is not is harder than ever to determine, it doesn't hurt to be a little skeptical. 

NaMoPaiMo - Week 1

My friend Sarah sent this guy, Itza Hoot, to me. He was one of her 2024 retro vintage customs. Sarah makes a group of them for National Retro Vintage Month (NaReViMo). Sarah has been encouraging me to get playful. It is one way address the urge towards perfectionism that many of us grapple with when creating model horses. 

Her NaReViMo horses are supposed to be fun to make. They also have to be completed in a set amount of time. I looked at the goal (playfulness) and the constraints (small time investment) and decided that it sounded like a great fit for National Model Painting Month (NaMoPaiMo). 

The Idea

I wrote about splatter painting last summer. Roans created using this technique always remind me of my early days as a customizer. I do not have any of my own examples, but I still have one done by my friend, Judy Renee Pope. Judy and I were very active in a mini model club in the early 1980s, which is when she made Nejmet es Subh. 

When I saw Sarah's 2026 NaReViMo horse, Romper, I knew I wanted to try a retro-style splatter roan. 

Romper is a classic roan with a dark liver chestnut base color. I wanted the sort of heavily roaned sabino pattern that the Nejmet has, but with a dark chestnut base color similar to his. The result would be a model that captured some part of two good friends—Sarah and Judy—who were also big influences on my artistic life, a bit of nostalgia for simpler times, and a color variety that has captured my interest for decades. 

The Plan

I do a lot of things that seem excessive or fussy now, but are about making less work later. One of those things is creating a written plan. I haven't always done that. I got into the habit when I started working in earthenware. Ceramic underglaze is unforgiving, and for most of the process, you cannot touch it, so complex colors require a lot of planning. It has proven to be helpful for traditional painting, too. With all the distractions out there, my memory for what I used to create this or that color or effect isn't what it used to be! 

I also assembled my reference images. The pattern I was after was most like the Arabian mare FV Alarazzl Rose. I have a handful of similar Arabians and a few Welsh Ponies for reference, but I plan to reference pretty loosely. Splattering is unpredictable, and I don't want to get set on a particular idea too early. 

First steps

My preference is to prime the horse white, then do a base layer in acrylic craft paint that is close to the final color. While many artists disparage craft paint, I find that the chalky surface makes it ideal for applying other mediums. 

Because this horse will have extensive white markings, I will use a warm white for the face and legs. These will be masked when I base coat the body dark brown.

The airbrush is great for getting smooth, even coverage, but the downside is that building up a dark color often leaves an edge where the masking ends. Since the borders of the leg markings were going to fade into the roan pattern, I needed a way to soften the edge.

My solution was to wrap the very top of the legs with a bit of pipe cleaner before using Press N'Seal to mask off the lower leg. The adhesive on the wrap stuck well enough to the fiber to hold it all in place. I suspect I could have just as easily used a scrap of felt or fleece—anything soft that could fit under the wrap—but the pipe cleaner was handy.

I airbrushed a bit of pinking to the muzzle before masking it with liquid latex. I find it easier to visualize the face if the markings aren't stark white. Here she is after I wrapped her feet, but before I added the latex to the face. 

This is her after the brown acrylic was airbrushed over the body. I've reapplied the liquid masking to her face and wrapped her feet with tinted plastic wrap to keep those areas clean while I use oil paint to get the major shifts in her body color. 

That is where I will pick up next week. With luck, I will have her body color where I want it by the time I leave to judge at Sunset Coast!

Painting resources

There is a link on the list for the Czech-Moravian Belgian under the references for sooty colors, since very dark chestnuts are common.

I have posted a new page to the blog titled Resources for Painting References. Links to the blog pages appear in the upper right sidebar. 

My goal with the page is to provide some reliable sources for reference images. I have divided it into general color groups, although many of the links include images that would be useful across multiple categories.

I've selected resources that have numerous, high-quality images. For most artists, we are trying to get as much detail as possible, so clear lighting and a large size was important. For many of these, you will want to click through or right-click to get a larger image. Many of these are galleries or discussion board threads, so look for page navigation tabs to see all the photos.

This reference comes from a thread about Akhal-Tekes on the Russian-language discussion board, KoniClub.

I have also included many foreign language sites. For most of these, you will not need to understand the text, but using a browser like Google that automatically translates pages can be helpful. I also encourage readers to explore the website links further. For example, I have linked Christine Sutcliffe's lovely Flickr album from the 2024 Royal Highland Show under resources for greys. There are wonderful images of greys—and especially duns turning grey, like the pony below—in that album, but there are also previous years' shows in other albums if you navigate back to her main Flickr page.

I have only included a small (and, I must confess, randomly selected) portion of my own go-to resources. If you have any reliable sources you would like added, please feel free to contact me. 

The scourge of AI slop

Every equine artist I know collects reference pictures. My own collection numbers in the hundreds of thousands. I started collecting images in the late 1970s, cutting out magazine pictures and "relocating" my favorite horse libraries one xerox at a time. 

But the internet was a game-changer. That was when my reference collection went from several boxes of papers to a box of external hard drives. 

In the past, the biggest issue with using the internet to collect reference pictures was misidentified breeds or colors. That changed with generative AI. Now, realistic-looking photos can be fake. That is what the image at the top of this post is. Here it is with the original. 

That's the Arabian stallion Marwan Al Shaqab. Because he's a well-known horse, and that's one of the more recognizable images of him, quite a few people pointed out that this was an artificially generated image. 

That probably won't stop artists from painting models with patterns based on the image, or judging from encountering documentation showing that "pinto Arabians can look like this." Interesting photos spread through the model horse community. Trying to get the word out that one of them is misleading can be an uphill battle. 

Just ask me how many times I've talked about the horse on the left, and how often I still see his picture on documentation. No, he is not a buckskin silver. He is a cream-diluted horse turning grey. The horse on the right is a silver-diluted buckskin. 

Silver and cream interact, making the black areas of the horse look warm and brown (right) rather than cool and silver (left).

At least Alen's Smokey Bandit—the buckskin grey Tennessee Walking Horse—is a real horse. 

 At the moment, there are still things that tell someone when an image isn't a real horse. Probably the most consistent error is headgear. The programs do not recognize that there are two different groups of equipment—halters and bridles—so it tends to merge the two things. Even more telling, though, is that it cannot seem to distinguish bits from other metal hardware. Lead clips are likewise a mystery to it.

If the unrealistic appaloosa pattern wasn't instantly suspicious, the "snaffle bit as halter ring" is a good giveaway that this image is fake.

Generative AI struggles with pinto faces, and often substitutes "white grey with markings" in areas that would have pink skin.

But as AI-generated images get more sophisticated, artists—and anyone trying to evaluate realism in art —are going to face challenges. It will not be long before very convincing images, and even videos, will be out there. Eventually, the consistent "tells" will improve. 

Evaluating images

As AI-generated images become increasingly difficult to identify visually, how can artists avoid using misleading references? 

Here are my rules of thumb:

1. Professional-looking photos are usually marked by a photographer. Look for a signature or logo. Be on the lookout for partially removed watermarks; they are more common in AI images than you might expect. (See the first image on this post for an example.) 
   
   
2. Generally speaking, you want to see a clear connection between the horse pictured and the account posting the image. That might mean the poster is the owner, breeder, breed association, event, or photographer.
   
   
3. Look for motivation for sharing. Is the horse being offered for sale or promoted at stud? Is the owner sharing a recent success? Are they asking for input about color, ancestry, or breeding? Posts using AI images are often clearly trolling for engagement. (Responding to them is a great way to get the scammy "Forgive me, but I noticed how clever/pretty/interesting you were and just had to reach out..." replies.)
   
   
   
4. Look for a name. Owners and breeders usually identify their horses. Sometimes you'll need to find the original post to see this text. It may not be visible when viewing photos using the "media" tab.
   
   
5. Unless you are looking at historical photos, be somewhat cautious if you only find one image of a particular horse. 

Captions from AI images (left) often include emojis and hashtags. Captions for real horses (right) usually have identifying information.

Reliable images

Here is an example of an unusual pattern reference that checks all five "likely real" boxes. 

I should note that while this breed, the Freiberger, is known to have a dominant white mutation (W1), the expression of that pattern is typically all-white or near-white. There has also been an unusual splashed white Freiberger with a sabino-like pattern, though that horse was sterile.

This type of patterning, which falls within what I call the "patchy sabino" phenotype, is not something I have seen in W1 Freibergers—or any Freibergers to date.

However, the images are watermarked by the photographer (#1). The group where this first appeared, Freibergerpferde suchen (Seeking Freiberger Horses), is run by a non-profit that helps breeders find buyers (#2). The motivation for the post is, obviously, to sell the foal (#3). The foal's name, sire, and damsire are all listed in the description (#4). Finally, there are multiple images of what is clearly the same colt (#5). Those facts make this a much more reliable reference for painters than the image at the top of this post.

Collect from reliable sources

General interest horse groups on social media—and particularly Facebook—are some of the worst offenders for providing steady streams of fake images. If the group has the adjective "Beautiful" followed by a horse-related noun, or an adjective followed by "Stallions", or "Love" anywhere in the title, it's probably best to treat images there with a lot of skepticism. 

Facebook can still be a good source for reference images if you know where to look. What I look for are the following types of groups:

• Breed associations
• Breed appreciation sites (this one requires caution, especially for color breeds)
• Breeder pages
• Equine photographers
• Breed-specific color groups
• Breed history groups

I am also a big believer in looking beyond social media sites. Some of the best resources for reference images are auction catalogs, sales videos, and stallion directories, all of which are typically found on independent websites. 

A list of reliable image sources

Social media sites are a lot more likely to push AI-generated content into user's feeds. There are good resources for photos, but it takes some work to find them. With that in mind, I am assembling a list of reliable sources from the categories I've listed above. Once that is finished, the list will be added to the blog's "pages" list with the Horse Breed Reference List.