Repainting An Our Generation Foal

If you read the last DIY post relating to horses, you know this project humbled me thoroughly. Green hair, peacock undertones, a very dramatic foal staring back at me with the energy of someone who has seen too much. Not the vibe I’m aiming for:

The Rit Scarlet dye I ordered arrived, and I was really banking on the red cancelling out the green. Science, maybe? Color theory, possibly? Honestly, I don't know what I'm talking about. Let's be real, this was me throwing things at the wall and hoping something stuck. Surely nothing could go wrong at this point, right? I'd already paid dearly the dues owed to the crafting gods…

So I lowered this poor creature into what literally looked like a bloodbath, it was gruesome. To make it worse, I poured boiling water in every 20 minutes over the course of about 1.5 hours to keep the temperature up, making sure to add more dye each time to avoid diluting it too much.

I was feeling pretty nervous about the results and didn't have the patience to wait for his hair to air dry, so I broke out the blow dryer, which confused the dogs enormously. Typically, this loud monster is reserved for removing the divine scent of wet dog after an emergency bath to remove goose poop from their fur. Based on a disgusting, true story. So when neither of them had been bathed today and the torture device came out anyway, there was confusion and anger. As I sat there, trying to dry his hair, my dogs were leaping around, snarling, and barking at the hair dryer. My little wolves.

The end result was a relief:

So much better! It's not absolutely perfect. If you look hard enough in certain light, you can still catch faint hints of blue or green lurking in there. But it's subtle enough, I’ll take it!

The stark contrast of black hair against his original pale body, combined with those unsettling blue factory eyes, were pretty eerie. If you've seen Zoolander 2, you may recall "All," the androgynous supermodel. It’s giving “All”…

Anywho, I wrapped his hair the same way I did with Socks and got started on the body.

I used Citadel Paints Black Legion for the basecoat, which I will acknowledge makes this project slightly more expensive than originally budgeted. The first layer of paint was really messy, and actually looked kind of cool.

I wasn't going for an art piece or a fantasy horse, so I kept layering. Even by the second layer it was looking pretty good.

The contrast paint dries fast, and I kept things moving by using the blow dryer on cold air to speed it up further, working all over the body and keeping him turning as I went.

Three layers of Citadel black in total, with a subtle grey highlight on the snout and the edges of the ears.

The contrast paint did something a little magical with the depth of the coat all on its own, honestly. And paired with the long black hair? I was relieved, and ready to embrace the drama of it all.

Next, he went out onto the balcony for a coat of matte varnish to seal it, one side at a time, two hours each, resting on a piece of baking paper so the already-varnished side didn't pick up any texture from the box. The dogs were not invited onto the balcony and made their feelings about this very clear through a sustained performance of howls and barks. Musical accompaniment. Very atmospheric.

For the eyes, I used two layers of high gloss. I made the call not to add a highlight dot this time, just to see what it would look like. Honestly, I think the simpler approach works better than what I did with Socks. Sometimes less really is more.

Here he is, all repainted and ready to face the world:

I'm genuinely pleased with how he turned out. The contrast paint gives his coat real depth, and the long black hair has exactly the drama I was after.

That said, I'll say this plainly: as much as I love the look, I don't think the dyeing process was worth the struggle. I got there, but only just.

Our Generation does have more horses in their Hair Play line with varied mane colors, which is great, but so far there’s no natural black with this length.

Fear not, this horse deserves a proper introduction post, and he’s going to get one. It’s the least I can do after everything I put him through.

Do you like my new black beauty?