Easy/quick reins tutorial

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great Monday!

Here comes a quit easy and quick tutorial on how i make my everyday reins for my art.

1. Base
I first draw with a hard brush the base i want the reins to be in. I many times do them in sections as it can be easier to shade them then. Use a color that is the same or simillar to your tack. If it is black take a dark grey and not black as the base.

2. Harsh shadow
I then take a darker shade of the base with the hard brush and kind of follows the shape where the natural shadow would be. Reins are in most cases square shaped, so i either don't blend this or just slightly blend it to make the edge not as sharp looking (here i did not do it) Sometimes i change the opacity slightly if i think it looks too dark. Here i decided not to.

It might be hard, but don't think too much when you draw this line to get a more natural flow of it. Reins can be anything from a bit hard to more soft, so they can live their own life a bit when it comes to how they natural falls.

3. Shadow and highlight details
I then draw a few lines or dots that a smudge out to get some contrast and depth in the reins depending how the harsh shadow turned out. Where could it maybe be a "wave" in the reins flow and not.

4. Buckle attachment
Here is a more close up how i do where the attachment to the buckle is. I draw the harsh shadow a bit bigger here and removes a bit of it at the bottom so it looks like the metal of the buckle is going in between.

5. Rein buckle
You can do this in so many different ways as there are so many options for this nowadays, but i usually does the standard old school looking rein buckle.
I first draw the base in the same color as the metal of the bridle. I then does a quick shading with a darker shade and then a lighter of the metal color to add shadow and highlight to the buckle. Super quick.

6. Reins...end...start?
Hahah i hope you get what i mean. But i add this underneath the rein buckle and do the exact same procedure as with the reins; base color with the hard brush, harsh shadow, then the shadow and highlight details

7. Holes in the reins
Underneath the buckle do i add some black dots in a row with a tiny bit white/light color as a highlight detail on the side of the black dots. I then slight smudge it.

8. Finishing touches
I then add some more shadows around where the reins is going under and between the hand, and then add a leather texture over the reins - Done!


Don't forget the other side if the reins is hanging so it should be visible on the opposite side. I to be honest just usually duplicate the reins i already did and just puts them on a layer that's underneath the horse. Think smarter not harder ✌️

That's basically just it. This is just my standard and quick way. Sometimes i do this more in depth and adds more details, but most of the time it is just like this.

I hope you found this interesting!
Hugs-