The Poitou Donkey

Meet the French Poitou Donkey or as I like to call him ‘Pierre’.  A lady came into the Pop-up Shop with a resin model of a donkey, hoping somebody from ASA could paint it for her.  I was asked and agreed to paint it admitting I had never painted models (except an Airfix kit plane when a youngster).  So I did some research and discovered that the Poitou donkey is extremely rare.  They were used to breed mules and declined with the event of WW2 as more automobiles were used.  In the 1970’s they were critically endangered with only 88 left, so the French started a breeding program and in 1997 there were 291.  They have thick shaggy coats which form honey coloured dreadlocks and have a calm disposition. 

So after sealing the model, an initial dark basecoat was put on as the first layer. Once dry, I used a mixture of colours to highlight the coat and finished with the head, which was the trickiest using a very small brush.  Once completed, the model was then sealed again with a varnish.

The lady was very happy with the result and I felt a little bit sad to see ‘Pierre’ go as I had grown quite attached to him!