Sucking it up and starting to color!

The other morning, I finished sanding and spraying 5 models, so I have 5 bodies ready to color.  I spent a couple hours getting reference pictures ready.  You need them to see where to put lighter color and darker color so that the muscles look more realistic than the original factory paint.

I got a set of little jars at Joann's to put my pastel powers in.  I use a blade from the exacto knife set to shave powder off and then mix colors to get the right shade for each layer.  I took white labels and wrote what coat color it is for so I remember.  I spread out a cloth to work on.

Tips I've discovered in my first session of working all by myself; wash you hands a lot.  After shaving and mixing each color into a jar, wash your hands before touching the horse you're going to color because somewhere on your hands is a big spot of color that will stick on the horse like a patch of bright colored glue.  Label your jars, label your brushes.  Remember which horse is going to be which color.  They all look similar for a while, when the color is so light.

Here is my work space and the results of coat 1:

 Here is a closer shot of the reference photos and labels jars and brushes.

 Here are the 4 horses I started after one layer of pastel!