Leopard skin shabraques

[Ochoin]

As it turns out, I have 3 horses on the painting table, needing leopard(?) skin shabraques - 2 Successor generals & a Napoleonic French general.

Tips? Painting guides? Threats from environmental groups?*

donald


* they're not real leopard skins. Honest.

[Peter]

The etches white, skin yellow and sepia wash and finish it with little brown dots.

[Kekso]

Threats from environmental groups?*

* they're not real leopard skins. Honest.

Sorry, I'm not very useful on the topic but this is really funny

[Bluefalchion]

If you look at a leopard pattern, they dots are rosettes and they have an inner circle inside. Not too hard to paint and if you do attend that little detail, they look pretty good.

[Bessiere]

They can be fun to do Donald. It helps to think about this 2 ways: the shape of shabraque has an outline of the leopard. The edges are showing the undersides of the cat which are lighter, whiter. Fur darkens towards the center of each leg than gets one step darker still on the back of the cat. It's countershading. Leopards come in various hues of brown, yellow, orange, even black but a mix of those will get your base color which you lighten towards the edge. As mentioned earlier the spots have a lighter dot inside and aren't complete rings but a couple line sections almost forming circles, dash space dash space dash.. Find a good pic on the internet for an example to follow and try it on paper first to get your colors set. It's easy to get too colorful so a dash of gray to dull the yellow or orange will tone it back.
Cheers,
Bessiere

[Bluefalchion]

I went to find the leopard shabraque I made for a duel and was disappointed to learn I had only done brown dots, not rosettes.

No wonder I did not win!

[Peter]

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=22697

[Bessiere]

Here's an example. Due to size limitations some simplification will be necessary. Best of luck with a challenging but very rewarding task.

Cheers,
Bessiere

[Bluefalchion]

The picture above is a complete fur but it has not yet been manufactured as a shabraque, correct?

[Bessiere]

Correct. A complete shabraque has some kind of cloth edging;; unsure what type exactly and color is often gold or red.