SM Andalusian

I've been going back and forth with paint and colored pencil on this, and slowly adding the hoof and eye details.

PAS

Yay! I got my studio back in order and was able to do a little work today after cleaning up from making truffles. This is an older picture of the PAS I'm working on, it's from a couple of weeks ago. I did a lot of dremelling to it to lean it out, and whittled down the legs because it will need to have slightly longer legs and the joints are in the wrong place now. I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a set of Kristina Lucas Francis's resin hooves to put on this.

Studio Closed for a Few Days

I have been working on some stuff but unfortunately haven't had a chance to take pictures of anything.

At this time of year I traditionally make hand-made chocolate truffles. It's a 3-4 day affair for me, as I create several flavors and make quite a bit. Day one is spent roasting and shelling nuts. Day two I chop the chocolate for the ganache centers (I buy my chocolate in big blocks, this is a boring and time-consuming part). Day three I make the ganache (and this year I'll be shaping the truffles on this day, too). Day four I dip the candies in tempered chocolate--a very messy and time-consuming process. The results are worth it, though -- everybody who tries these truffles loves them and it's so satisfying to hear that little "snap" of the chocolate when I take a bite and then feel the creamy goodness inside. I can never do anything simple; all my hobbies, including cooking, turn into elaborate productions.

Unfortunately, when I make these candies it takes time away from my studio work, and I have to use the table I use for painting and the table for taking photos, so my model horse production basically grinds to a halt. It's only for a few days, though, and then I'll be back at it painting away. I'm working on a commission and finishing up the SM Paso, so I look forward to getting back to that.

I will also be taking a couple of days off for Xmas while I make an elaborate dinner. Yes, if I couldn't be an artist I would probably be a cook :-) Have a happy holiday!

SM Andalusian

I've been working on this one quite a bit, although it doesn't really show. This was taken several days ago, I think I had dulled everything down with a coat of pastels. Still has quite a ways to go. Dapple grays take forever!

For Sale: SM G1 Quarter Horse Stallion

I think this was my first attempt at oils. I like the color that I came up with, but honestly I don't like painting with oils. I've mentioned this before. However, sometimes I think it's easier to get a certain color with oils than acrylics. I only mix small amounts of acrylic paint at a time, and it's difficult to duplicate the exact shade again, at least for me.

I think this was also one of my first attempts at customizing the mane.

SOLD

Shire

I painted a lot of layers of acrylic white on the muzzle and legs, and now I'm trying to add some shading with oils. I've ended up going back over the acrylics with oils to do the shading, I don't know if that's how others do it but it seemed like the right thing to do. The muzzle still needs work, this is just a couple of layers of pinking on it.

Sm Paso Final

Argh! Blogger doesn't like me! For some reason it stalls whenever I try to post two pictures, so I'm only posting this one. It's the final version of the G3 Paso. I think it came out really well. You can check out more pictures on my website

SM Paso

I added more roaning with both pencil and pastel, and am ready for detailing on this guy. This model was actually finished sometime last week, I've just been lazy about taking and uploading pictures!

SM Paso

More pencilling. I've been bad about taking progress pictures on this piece so after tomorrow there will be a jump of a few days worth of work.

SM Paso

Added more colored pencil at this point.

SM Paso

I've made my first pass over the model now with colored pencil. It looks really stark in the photos, but in person it looks better. At any rate, there will be a lot more layers to go.

SM Paso

Now I've just sprayed a light layer of white with the airbrush just to get me started, so it won't feel so stark to me when I start roaning with the colored pencil.

SM Paso

I've added darker shading now to make him a black color. I've decided I don't like Com Art airbrush paints, they are so delicate! Just the slightest touch mars the surface if it's not sealed. I love that they're so thin in consistency, but their fragility just isn't worth it to me, I spend more time fixing things than anything else. I much prefer Golden and Chroma colors, they're more durable, though they need to be thinned. I guess with airbrush paints it's "pick your poison!"

SM Paso

I've been spending all of my time working on this commission. He's going to be a blue roan. Here I've simply airbrushed a base color with a little shading.

Shire

I have just started mapping in the white markings now in acrylics. This will be toned down a lot to fit in with the color of the horse, and I will probably do a couple of top layers in oils to shade it.

A Very Early Custom

My husband found this in a box in the basement a few weeks ago. This model was probably the last custom I painted before I gave up the hobby for several years. I was 14 years old when I painted it in 1980, and it represents the pinnacle of my painting abilities at the time LOL! I think it was around this year that I went to the Midwest Congress in Illinois. My mother drove me there, and I was just a spectator, but I was so blown away by the quality of everybody else's work, and so intimidated by how good everyone was, that I basically hung up my paintbrushes and gave up. Sad, but true. I think I was too young and didn't have anybody to encourage me to continue at that time (in fact, I had a lot of peer pressure to give up my "toy horses"), and I was overcome with embarrassment at how bad I was.

I remember that Kathy Maestas was at this show, as well as Julie Froelich, two of my idols at the time. Froelich had a silent auction going of a Saddlebred weanling that she had haired so beautifully, I was horrified at that time that the bid had gotten to $60! I wished I could bid on it, but being 14 years old I didn't have that kind of money.

Back to this custom I painted; I signed it BLC, which stood for "Bar Lazy C", the name of my model horse ranch. I'm so glad that I kept it and that my husband found it in such good condition. I really regret that I gave this hobby up for so long and let myself be intimidated into thinking I couldn't be good enough. I feel like I have to make up for lost time now!

SM Andalusian

It's starting to soften up a little bit now. Dapple grays take me forever to paint!

SM Andalusian

I went back in and hand-painted some darker washes in areas and then added more contrasting, lighter dapples to some parts.

PAS

This was getting a little too wonky for me, so I printed out an outline to scale of the pose that I was looking for, and I realized that I was going to need to add, not subtract from this model in order to get the right proportions. So I spent some time sawing the legs off so I can stretch them out.

Spinnaker

This guy is just about done. I still need to spray him and gloss his eyes.

SM Andalusian

I've gone over the hand-painting with the airbrush, with darker colors. Next I'll go back in with hand-painting.

SM Andalusian

This is going to be a dark dapple gray. After painting a basecoat with the airbrush and some hand-painted washes, I painted these dapples using a phot for reference, just to place the dapples. This isn't how the finished model will look, it's just the starting point. I always feel insecure when I first start out because my pieces look terrible at the beginning. Stay tuned to see how it develops...

PAS

I'm back to working on this guy again. The neck was too straight up so I sawed it off and will be reattaching it, and I made the left hind leg move back a little further. I've been dremelling him down to almost nothing in an attempt to get rid of his sausage-belly. Even though I measured this model, the back now looks too long to me.

Spinnaker

I still have some more work to do on him but he's shaping up now. I think I will try some colored pencil in the mane and tail, and I have to do the hooves and some more shading overall.

Spinnaker

More refining of color.

Draft Horse Show

Today I went to the Evergreen State Fair and took pictures of some of the horses at the Draft Horse and Mule Extravaganza. I'm not the best photographer, plus unfamiliarity with my new camera made me overexpose some of the pictures on this sunny day. I think I set the aperture too open when I didn't need to because it was so sunny.

I did manage to get a bunch of pictures of dapple gray and black Percherons, some Belgians and a couple of Clydesdales. I got a lot of detail shots of dapples, legs, undersides and rumps. I wish I lived closer to horses so I could see them in real life more often...

TWH

All I have to do with him now is spray him and gloss his eyes and hooves.

Apple Techie for Sale

I've finally decided to sell my Apple Techie resin that I painted for the RESS 2005 Finishwork exhibition. This was the first resin I ever painted, and my first (and only so far) attempt at buckskin. It was wonderful to hold this resin in my hands and marvel over the realism of it compared to Breyers.

Link to auction

Shire

I didn't get a chance to take a good picture while it was light out today, so I just snapped this from my airbrush booth. I've started adding a little more detail to the face now (this one is in oils, not airbrushed, I just put it in the airbrush booth because there was a light there). She's going to have a bald face.

Working with oils is soothing in a way because it's slow and measured, but at the same time I get really frustrated because I can't pick the model up the way I can with an acrylics piece. It makes for some awkward painting angles, and then my elbows knock things over and I keep bumping my palette, argh!

TWH

He's getting closer to being finished now. I need to work on the mane, the braids and the eyes.

TWH

I've been working a lot on this model but I keep forgetting to take pictures of it for this blog. Most of what I'm doing now is hand-painting with acrylics, lots of thin layers and dry-brushing. I'm so glad I bought those white synthetic brushes, they work really good for dry-brushing and really hold up over time.

I'm pretty happy with the body right now, so today I worked on the legs. I just added a little color to the mane and tail as a start, that's not what it will look like at the end. In the picture the legs look like they have a lot of gray in them, but when I use an actual gray color it doesn't look right, so I've had to go back in and warm it up with my saddle color mix.

Silver

I finally finished! This model ended up taking me a year to do, mainly because I set him down for a while, and then my mom got sick so I wasn't around to work on him for a while. I think he came out pretty well, I especially like his eyes. For more pictures check out my regular web site.

Shire

I've done some more painting to this Shire. I will probably darken her toplinea nd lighten her mane and tail somewhat. She's going to have a bald face and one stocking will be mostly black (I'm working from a photo reference)

Silver

I'm finally nearing the end for this model! I learned a lot on this model, hopefully my dapples will get better and better as I go.