I revisited an old mesh and tried to sculpt out some detail in it with blender. And yes, it is supposed to be that skinny; otherwise it wouldn't be very interesting!
You can find a render of the mesh without the nodes effect here:
http://speedmodeling.org/smcfiles/Jeepster[]_horsesculptPlain.jpg

I consider this project finished, but I'd love to get some feedback on sculpting in general, for future reference.