Ask anyone who collects Breyer horses or plastic model horses what's the most important step when embarking on craft projects related to the model horse hobby and most will answer, "Finding a good reference photo!" Realism is the key to success in model horse showing, painting and crafting, and building a personal library or album of reference photos collected over time will help you start in the right direction on any creative project related to model horses.
Use Photos to Check Proportion
Let's say you want to start the snow scene diorama project. You download the photo, find the materials around the house and set up your scene. But you want to make it more of a Christmas-theme so that your Breyer photographs will stand out from others entered in model horse photo show classes. To do that, you want to add a barn to the background, a wreath and some Christmas lights. You scrounge around your box of Christmas decorations until you come up with a circle of greens that normally slips over a candlestick to dress it up. Can you use that for a wreath? You need to check the proportion of the wreath to the horse and image. The easiest way to do this is to use reference photos.
Not Just Plastic Model Horses: Photos for Realistic Color
Reference photos are useful for many tasks. If you're sitting down to paint a model horse and want to paint just the right shade of flaxen chestnut for a Haflinger pony, for example, having a reference photo will help you not just get the color perfect but also the highlights and details. Horse coat colors and marking patterns are found in an astonishing variety in nature, and it's important to use reference photos from your model horse photo album so that your painted ponies sport colors that could be found in nature.
Tack Making Projects
Whether you want to try making simple tack for play or complicated historical tack and costumes, reference photos are must. A good reference photo demonstrates things such as where the bit should be placed on the bridle, how and where buckles are affixed, and much, much more.
How to Create a Reference Library for Model Horse Projects
A reference library may consist of books, pages and ads cut from magazines, or pictures printed from the Internet. How you organize them is entirely up to you. The most important aspect of a model horse hobbyist's reference library is that it reflects your own personal tastes and interests.
Books to fill your library include:
- A basic encylcopedia or reference volume of horse breeds of the world with photos to help you select the best breed for your Breyer horses and other plastic model horses.
- A beginner's guide to Western or English riding, which will help you place tack correctly on your models.
- A guide to horse coat colors and genetics, especially useful for model horse collectors interested in painting model horses.
Pictures to clip and save include:
- Scenic images such as pages from calendars or magazine photos that can be used as photo show backgrounds.
- Barn and horse show scenes that demonstrate the proportion of horses to fences, grand stands, riders, cattle and more.
- Closeups of tack, such as pictures from horseback riding magazines that show beginner's how to fit a Pelham bridle or cinch a Western saddle<./li>
- Historical tack images that capture your imagination for future projects.
- Beautiful horses that you may want to use for inspiration for painting projects someday
Start your reference library today. As you get more into the crafting and customizing aspects of the model horse hobby, photos from your reference library will provide a treasure-trove of inspiration and ideas.