 Now it's time for the fun part. Technically, it's often easier to do your painting before you rehair a custom. However, I wanted to see the full effect of the hair and body colors together before I decided on a final symbol design. And it's not that hard to keep the hair out of the way, if you're careful. Here's my basic symbol-painting set-up:  Water, acrylic paint (I use artist-grade paints, like Liquitex and System3, and occasionally craft-grade like Apple Barrel), an assortment of small brushes, paper towels, and a sturdy paper plate. Quality brushes are very important -- they don't have to be expensive, but if you're working with the brush from a set of Crayola watercolors, you're not going to have much luck. My brushes tend to cost between $2 and $4, and they last for a long time.
Notice that there is no nail polish anywhere in view. Don't use nail polish on ponies. No nail polish, ever. It doesn't last. For every custom that's supposedly a nail polish success, there are a hundred out there peeling and chipping and flaking and getting otherwise ruined. Why chance it? Some customizers buy all the paint colors they'll need. I prefer to mix my own colors:  I left the next picture larger than the rest to keep the sketches visible. Here's an example of my symbol-planning method, along with the first coat of green for the symbols themselves:  Some customizers like to draw the symbol directly onto the pony with pencil; I don't usually do so. Obviously, the symbols look very rough at first. I thin my paint with water and work in a number of very thin layers, letting each layer dry before adding the next. After several layers, I also use a very fine sandpaper to remove brush strokes and even things out.
In typical G3 fashion, my symbols tend to be on only the display side. Now's also the time to think about the eyes, if you're doing any sort of repaint. This tutorial includes a partial repaint, of the iris only:  Occasionally, the factory eye paint will reject the acrylic and make it bead up. That's when I start grumbling terrible things under my breath. Most of the time, though, the acrylic goes on smoothly. If I do have to do a complete eye repaint, I go about it the same way I do symbols. I remove the original paint with Goof-Off, then repaint in layers. I start by painting the entire eye with several layers of white. Then I do a dark circle to serve as the base and outline for the iris/pupil. That's topped by a slightly smaller circle of color for the iris, then another smaller circle for the pupil, and then details like the light reflections. Last, I do the liner and lashes. Always use paint for the eyes -- don't rely on Sharpies or other permanent markers, as they'll bleed into the plastic over time. I always keep another pony nearby as reference, and I match the eyes as closely to the original Hasbro design as possible. Several people have asked for clarification on complete eye repaints. Until I get around to taking pics, here's a quick diagram showing what I mean by layers:  After the base color for the symbol is applied, I block in the smaller colors (in this case, the pink on the leaves):  That's also when I think about smaller details, like the vine on Tropicala's cheek or the accents I add above many of my customs' eyes. Try to come up with designs and accents you haven't seen on other peoples' customs, and you'll really be making your design your own. The symbols are done! I don't usually use sealants or topcoats unless they're for a specific effect; I've found that my brands of acrylic paint dry to a very sturdy finish. I left Tropicala's symbols as they were, but sometimes I'll add microglitter and/or shimmer to some symbols (like the painted wings on Shee ponies).
And now that the symbols are dry, it's time to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I prefer Krazy Glue in a brush-on container:  (See? You know it must be good because they spell "crazy" with a K. How clever. Or klever, maybe.) Anyway, I brush a decent amount of glue to one side of the exposed neck, then press the head and body together for at least a minute. Sometimes the glue doesn't take well enough, and then I pull the pieces apart and try again. I like to be sure they'll stay together, even after a good tug.
Then it's time to give the almost-finished custom's hair a shampoo/conditioning/cut/style:  For Tropicala, I just snipped off the ends and left the hair long and straight. When shampooing and conditioning, I'm careful of the symbols. However, I've gotten them wet many times without a hint of damage, so keeping them dry is really just a precaution. When the hair dries, the pony is basically finished. However, it's still fun to add extras like accessories or jewelry. For Tropicala, I made a hand-knotted necklace with a jade bead, and a matching tail ribbon. Also, I wasn't happy with the blue tone of her plastic, so I dunked her back into a weak green dye (yes, hair and symbol and all) to create her final color. Like many synthetic kinds of hair, this particular green did not pick up the dye at all, which was just as I wanted. And that's how I go from a factory pony to something like this: 
:main tutorial page: :prepping the pony: :dye jobs: :rehairing: |
MintyTip: Experiment with kinds of acrylic and craft paint. Liquitex dries to a
plastic semigloss. System3 is creamier but more likely to pick up pigments
from dyed ponies. Apple Barrel usually dries to an almost powdery finish. Play around and figure out what's best for
your techniques and projects.