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Description
Ok since I have been experimenting with a new style of how to paint manes and tails and uploading works recently I have been getting numerous notes asking how I am doing this. As many have noticed I am not painting strand by strand. Hopefully this will explain some of that, and while my tutorials probably aren't the most explanitory, nor can you follow them such as 'highlight here, darken here' and you'd end with the same thing I have. There is no formula as many people might think to this. I could probably paint this mane from scratch ten times and every single time it would turn out differently. Based on where you place highlights and shadows will also determine how your mane flows in the wind. So if you want lots of ripples you'll need lots of small highlights and shadows to create the effect. In this example there is obviously only one really noticeably one and several other smaller ones.

Sooooo give me some time and I'll see about doing the same with the tail, as this horse is going to be used in an upcoming manipulation that I'm working on currently. So bear with me please.

Questions, comments are always welcome, I am also always looking for critiques as I am constantly expanding my knowledge and experimenting to see how to better my works.

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Side Note:
I have found it much easier to work with black or white manes and tails to begin with, this is the first chestnut mane that I am semi happy with. I find that many more colors and steps are needed to go into something like this over a black or white.

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Details:
Made in Adobe Photoshop CS3
Mane painted with Wacom Graphire 4 tablet [with pen pressure!!]

----EDIT----
Ok so I have gotten a few other questions, figured I'd post some of them here and explain as well since I have noticed this with numerous images.

Q: How can you use only three colors and end up with such a variety?

A: For one we need to understand colors, in this particular image I had three colors to work with. Light, Midtone and Dark. If I put a light next to a midtone and compared it to a light next to a dark, the two lights would look different, the light that is next to the dark would like much lighter than the light next to a midtone. Much the same with the darks. So with this in mind if you pull your colors accordingly and in certain orders you can manipulate how the viewer's eye sees the drawn image. As you see from the beginning I started with a flat shat, no depth to it at all, just one solid color. From there you manipulate it to give it a curve, or the illusion of many stands of hair blowing in the wind. Now true by the end once you use the dodge and/or burn tools you will have technically more than three colors. But what I used for a pallet to paint with was only three colors.

Q: I see hair, I see strands, but you didn't draw every strand... How?

A: Much as seen in the actual tutorial, I draw in clumps mostly, and then go about defining a few hairs here and there so it looks like a lot of hair flowing around. Obviously any fly away hairs have to be drawing single, but for the most part if you drew every little hair in a horses mane or tail it would take you... well you go try it and lemme know how long it took you.

Any other questions that people would like me to address just note me or comment and I'll answer.

Description
Ok since I have been experimenting with a new style of how to paint manes and tails and uploading works recently I have been getting numerous notes asking how I am doing this. As many have noticed I am not painting strand by strand. Hopefully this will explain some of that, and while my tutorials probably aren't the most explanitory, nor can you follow them such as 'highlight here, darken here' and you'd end with the same thing I have. There is no formula as many people might think to this. I could probably paint this mane from scratch ten times and every single time it would turn out differently. Based on where you place highlights and shadows will also determine how your mane flows in the wind. So if you want lots of ripples you'll need lots of small highlights and shadows to create the effect. In this example there is obviously only one really noticeably one and several other smaller ones.

Sooooo give me some time and I'll see about doing the same with the tail, as this horse is going to be used in an upcoming manipulation that I'm working on currently. So bear with me please.

Questions, comments are always welcome, I am also always looking for critiques as I am constantly expanding my knowledge and experimenting to see how to better my works.

----------------------------------------

Side Note:
I have found it much easier to work with black or white manes and tails to begin with, this is the first chestnut mane that I am semi happy with. I find that many more colors and steps are needed to go into something like this over a black or white.

--------------------------------------

Details:
Made in Adobe Photoshop CS3
Mane painted with Wacom Graphire 4 tablet [with pen pressure!!]

----EDIT----
Ok so I have gotten a few other questions, figured I'd post some of them here and explain as well since I have noticed this with numerous images.

Q: How can you use only three colors and end up with such a variety?

A: For one we need to understand colors, in this particular image I had three colors to work with. Light, Midtone and Dark. If I put a light next to a midtone and compared it to a light next to a dark, the two lights would look different, the light that is next to the dark would like much lighter than the light next to a midtone. Much the same with the darks. So with this in mind if you pull your colors accordingly and in certain orders you can manipulate how the viewer's eye sees the drawn image. As you see from the beginning I started with a flat shat, no depth to it at all, just one solid color. From there you manipulate it to give it a curve, or the illusion of many stands of hair blowing in the wind. Now true by the end once you use the dodge and/or burn tools you will have technically more than three colors. But what I used for a pallet to paint with was only three colors.

Q: I see hair, I see strands, but you didn't draw every strand... How?

A: Much as seen in the actual tutorial, I draw in clumps mostly, and then go about defining a few hairs here and there so it looks like a lot of hair flowing around. Obviously any fly away hairs have to be drawing single, but for the most part if you drew every little hair in a horses mane or tail it would take you... well you go try it and lemme know how long it took you.

Any other questions that people would like me to address just note me or comment and I'll answer.