Weekly Update

Swaps is lookin' good! I've got the faint airbrush roan coat on him, and a couple of layers of pencil roaning so far. I will probably do 1-2 more coats of pencil roaning, then some wash/scumbling with paint.

 I got the opportunity to paint this Ravenhill that Stacey Tumlinson customized, and I jumped at the chance. I love seeing other people's customizing work; sculpting is difficult for me and I always like to study what other people do. Anyway, this guy is going to be a blanket appaloosa. He's got an airbrushed basecoat and a couple of layers of oils on him right now.

 I've given Finn a couple of coats of oils now. He's going to be a little more red along the top, I think, and his shoulder and neck will be darker with a few dapples.

 That gray base was bugging me so I painted it black on this Fenwick. I have tentatively put in some of the white markings. He's going to be a pretty extensive sabino, so will change quite a bit.

I worked on the underside of the Vixen that I'm painting, but the picture didn't look much different so I didn't show it here. I need to do a little work on the legs, and then I will start roaning her.

Whew! Okay, I'm done with this week's update! I am putting more tax stuff together this week so that may slow things up slightly for next week.

Weekly Update

I added a layer of oils to this Vixen.

 I just started on this Finn. He's got one layer of airbrush color on him. He actually looks a little more pink than this picture shows. Somehow I always forget that Naples Yellow plus Burnt Sienna equals pink.

 Daffyd has another layer of oils.

I've been adding some details to the Bitty Bosco, but he's not ready for another picture yet, and the dapple grey Dinky Duke has several more layers on him, but I want to add some more detailing before I show another photo.

I plan on starting the roan work on the bay Swaps this week, and have been working on Jezebel's tail a little bit.

That's it for this week!

Update

I'm only working on these foals in between commissions, so haven't gotten very far on them. I went a little overboard on the white on the bay foal. I'm sure I will go over both of them with oils again before I'm done.

Here's the Daffyd NAN donation I'm doing, after a base layer of airbrush and one layer of oils. He's one of those dark palominos with the wild, really variegated dapples. I think palominos (real live ones) have the hardest dapples to paint, they're either crazy willy-nilly and all different sizes (like this one will be), or they seem to be really uniform and almost regimented.

I've added more red to Fenwick here, so he's more the color that I was envisioning in the first place. I may lighten him up slightly though.

Here's a Vixen that I've just started. On this one, I'm hand-painting the base coat instead of using the airbrush. No particular reason, I just felt like hand-painting this one.

I did a little touching up on Swaps, and now he's going to sit and dry for a few days before I start roaning him. I also worked some more on Jezebel's tail and did some other prepping and painting that I won't show you here.


I guess that's it for this week, I'm happy it was so productive. I'm tied up with a few meetings and miscellaneous things these next few days so may be behind by next week.

Update

Okay, I've got my head in the right place this week. I turned in my state sales taxes, so now I don't have to worry until I see the accountant in February or March. You'll probably hear some more kvetching then lol!

Swaps is looking pretty good. I'm very happy with his color. I have found a great color called Brown Madder (or Brownish Madder) this is kind of a cross between Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Umber. It's somewhat transparent and creates a nice rich saddle color. I think this is a color that is different depending on the manufacturer. I'm not really happy with the consistency of the tube that I've got (Sennelier), but it's a hard-to-find color so I will have to shop around if I want to change.

I had planned on this Fenwick being a slightly more red chestnut with flaxen mane/tail, but he's looking pretty palomino to me. I'll see how it goes with him.

I can't remember if I showed my original customizing of Jezebel's tail, but I have run into two snags. I had to re-arrange the angle of her tail because it was swishing too far to the right, and then I noticed yesterday that some of the Fixit Sculpt was crumbling, so I had to remove almost all of it. I must not have mixed it enough. I always try to be really careful about mixing properly (and I usually use a slight bit more hardener to it just in case), but sometimes this happens. She will have a slightly shorter tail than the original sculpture, but I want to keep it looking as much like Sarah's original style as possible.

I was invited to donate a piece to NAN this year, and at first I wasn't going to because of time constraints, but I've decided to go ahead and give it a try. I would really like more people to get a chance to see my work in person, I have so few pieces out there :-/ I will be donating a Daffyd resin, painted probably in a sooty, heavily dappled palomino with sabino markings. He's mostly prepped so I will probably start on him this week or next.

I'm also very busy with commissions (Swaps being one of them) and should be able to touch a couple of sales pieces this week, too. I'm dying to work some more on the dapple grey Dinky Duke.

That's all for this week! Hope you all stay warm and dry, it's been miserable here in the Northwest! My sump pump has been working nonstop 8-0

Update

Here is the Rosita commission piece, my first Eberl! Brigitte is an amazing talent as a sculptor, and I can't believe how prolific she is. If I could paint as much as she sculpts, my life would be so much better ;-)

Unfortunately, that's all I've got to show this week. I'm still prepping a couple of things, and I've had to do some organizing and paperwork in the studio so I don't have much to show. I have to do my state dept. of revenue taxes (I hate hate HATE doing taxes) and I also start getting last year's paperwork together for tax purposes. I have to start early because it stresses me out so much. I actually worry about taxes and my business almost every day. I can honestly say that I hate having a business license, I hate the pressure it puts on me to sell everything and constantly produce. I'm used to being successful at the things that I try, but I just can't paint fast enough, or sell enough to even make a modest profit. And facing my accountant every year with my paltry earnings is really squirm-inducing, let me tell ya. I know that I'm a good artist, it's just the business side of it that's really hard and stressful for me.  I don't know, maybe I'm just going through the mid-winter blahs! I need to get somewhere where it's sunny LOL! I always go into a kind of funk this time of year because of the weather, but this year it's extra-bad.

Is It Over Already?

Wow, this winter went by really fast! I can't believe it's already the new year. Hope everyone has a great and safe New Year's Eve!

Here is the finished Valdemar. He might have some white specks on the points, I kept brushing them off but he seemed to be a magnet for them today.

I haven't had much time to work on these little foals. They will both be pintos. I plan on selling them as a pair.

This is the Apple Techie that is going to be a buckskin blanket appaloosa. I haven't worked on him much, either, but he's almost next in line to get more attention.

I have a couple of other things I can post, but I think I'll wait until next week. I've been prepping a couple of models and putting finishing touches on another, and some more body painting that I won't bore you with. I thought I was ready to finish up the Bitty Bosco, but I ended up putting another layer of paint on his body, so pictures of him will have to wait.

Since it's the start of a new year, I've been thinking over goals or things I'd like to accomplish in 2010. I'm setting small goals for myself this time, just to focus more (not distract myself by petting the cats, changing the radio station, etc. -- all those little minutes add up!) and I'd like to improve small things like hooves, eyes, all the little details, etc. I would also like to paint more appys and dapple greys if I can do it.

Weekly Update

I've given Swaps a couple more layers of paint. I will probably need to do a couple more layers on the body before I can proceed with the rest of him.

This Fenwick is going to be a chestnut sabino (rabicano?) with flaxen mane and tail, almost a dark palomino. I'm not sure how sabino and rabicano actually interact, but that's my guess based on the reference photo I'm using for the pattern. I almost made him a dapple grey, but changed my mind. Now that I'm saying "him", I think this is a female lol! I didn't even notice and I was painting the underside today...sometimes I can be a total space...

I haven't done any customizing in a while, so for this Jezebel I decided to play with her tail a little. I wanted to keep the same style that Sarah Rose used in her sculpture, but make the tail a little shorter. I'm not done with it yet, that's why it looks so rough.

And that's it for this week! The Valdemar is pretty much done, but I forgot to take his picture with this batch, so maybe next week. I've worked quite a bit on Rosita, but unfortunately her photo didn't look much different from last week's, so I didn't include her here. And of course there are several other things that weren't deemed photo-worthy this week.

I hope everybody has a great Christmas and New Year (or whatever other holiday you may celebrate at this time)!