[Lex.]

Roan Grullo Snowcap Appaloosa

EE | AA | Dd | RnRn

Please give criticism if you have any!

If there is an issue with geno/pheno please LMK!

(Did this one under the cover)

[ARACHNOPHOBI4]

this looks like a horse i had in red dead redemption 2

[Arkinhallow]

Hi Lex! Where you're at with your entries rn reminds me a lot of where I was artistically when I started doing adopts (and especially around the time I started with feroxes) so I wanted to give you some feedback because I think you could easily improve especially with some help/guidance :) I'm going to go very in depth so don't worry if it's quite a lot to take in and a bit overwhelming. These are all things you can pick up with time and they can become second nature with practise.

Grullo
The first thing I noticed with this entry is that the colour isn't quite right for a grullo. Grullos generally have a brown tinted coat, although this can vary between a very light tint and very strong brown. Some examples:
- Very dark body with brown tint. Notice around the flank and buttocks where the brown is much lighter and more obvious.
- Dark body, slight brown tint. Despite how subtle the colour in this horse is, colour picking reveals the brown tint of the body. Next to each colour I've placed a monochrome version of the colour to show how they differ from pure grey/black/white colour. The difference is subtle but in adopts that can make all the difference for a convincing colour.
- A very brown grullo. There is some crossover between the brownest grullos (black duns), brown duns (dun on seal) and the least saturated/darkest bay duns.

Additionally, grullo is specifically black dun - This means there is no bay (Agouti "A") present. The genotype would begin with either Ee/aa or EE/aa rather than EE/AA as you have put. Agouti is what restricts black pigment to the legs, mane and tail in bay horses and is a dominant gene so one copy causes bay.

Roan
Regarding roan, my only criticism would be the lightness of the head. Roan does not affect the head (at least not past the cheek usually) and as dun usually causes a dark face mask (you can see this on the images I linked, particularly the 3rd grullo example), the head should be much darker than what it is. Roan usually stops around the knee area, most commonly slightly above or below. It can have very clear dividing lines between the roan and non-roan areas or a softer transition.

Appaloosa
I have always found snowcaps to be a notoriously difficult type of appaloosa to make because they most often have a very hard line between white and non-white that is difficult to draw in a natural way. I see a lot of people struggle with appaloosas and for good reason. I'm going to dissect a few references for you to break down how snowcap works and some techniques for drawing it. I'm going to start with a genetics lesson first!

Snowcap is one of four "main" types of appaloosa. Blanket, leopard, snowcap, and fewspot. The research around appaloosa is still ongoing and in real life it's not fully clear the mechanics behind the size of blankets/snowcaps. However, the generally accepted information you need to know is this: the leopard complex is what causes appaloosa. PATN genes are what is responsible for the extent of white, and the presence of spots. On Chicken Smoothie it's common for PATN1 and occasionally PATN2 to be used. In feroxes only PATN1 is used. Real life genetics are more complex and the genes as I am about to explain them to you (at least in regards to patn) are not necessarily accurate to real life, however they are based on it and are widely accepted on Chicken Smoothie.

One copy of the leopard complex (LP) is the cause of blankets and leopard. Two copies causes snowcap and fewspot. PATN1 controls how much white there is - i.e. whether the appaloosa is restricted to the back (blanket or snowcap) or covers the whole body (leopard and fewspot).

LPlp, patn1patn1: varnish roan. The lack of Patn1 means spots do not show (or are limited in number). Other appaloosa characteristics do show - this means striped hooves, a white sclera (part of the eye), and spotted skin (around the muzzle, eye, and privates, where there is the least hair to cover the skin). Horses with lp and not pattern can also present as snowflake appaloosa or frosted roans.
LPLP, patn1patn1: same as above.
LPlp, PATN1patn1: Blanket appaloosa. One copy of LP means it will present with large spots in the presence of PATN1. Blanket appaloosas can have very small blankets on the rump or the appaloosa may cover the entirety of the barrel, rump and shoulders of the horse.
LPLP, PATN1patn1: Snowcap appaloosa. Two copies of LP means the white areas have few to no spots and have a solid white appearance, as if the extra copy has filled in the spots, and the presence of PATN1 allows the solid chunks of white to show (rather than a varnish roaned appearance). Again, this can be minimal or cover a large area.
LPlp, PATN1PATN1: Leopard appaloosa. One copy of LP causes large spots in the presence of PATN1. Two copies of PATN1 extends the white pattern to cover the whole (or most of) the body.
LPLP, PATN1PATN1: Fewspot appaloosa. Two copies of LP with two copies of PATN1 extending the white causes the horse to be solid white on most of the body. The last places to lose colour are the face (especially the eyes and nose), behind the front legs, the chest,the lower legs (especially around joints) and the flank.

With that covered, as a snowcap appaloosa this entry should have LPLP/PATN1patn1 in its genotype.

When drawing snowcaps and appaloosas in general I rarely recommend using the scatter tool without altering the result from that in some way. I personally use the smudge tool to push them into a longer white mark that looks like hair. The uniform white spots the scatter brush makes are rarely convincing. An important thing to remember with appaloosas is that the pattern frequently follows the direction of the hair. That's easy to see on this snowcap, especially looking at the flank and stomach. The hair flows horizontally across the stomach but goes in a vertical arc over the flank and hip. Adding some hair flow into your design can massively bump up how real it looks. Even with a chunkier, more solid pattern like this, you can still see how the borders of the pattern follow the direction of the coat.

My greatest advice is to ALWAYS use reference. I use reference for every single adopt I do no matter how familiar I may feel with the coat. It ALWAYS helps me create more realistic and convincing designs.

Alright, I think that's,, more than enough for this entry lmao. I hope that's all helpful ^^

[Lex.]

This is extremely helpful!!

Thank you so much for all the feedback, It's greatly appreciated!!

Horse genetics are relatively new to me, so this helps so much ToT

Before I make more entries, I'm gonna do some more practicing with tools and using refrences!