SM Mare

I am having the hardest time getting the white balance to work on my grey models. They either look too blue or too yellow, and no amount of fiddling in Photoshop gets them right. Maybe it's because the background is so different in color, I don't know. I use the same setup and lighting every time but I never know how it will look. At any rate, this model is not as blue as it looks.  This is now the 5th layer.

I'm also making progress on my prepped models. I'm almost done with Pepe, Nevada and a few others. I can see light at the end of the prepping tunnel! It's the Breyers that really bring me down, even the ones that are pretty clean. The seam splits still need to be finessed more than most of the resins, I have found.

Weekly Update

I've added a layer of oils now and will start with some dappling next. Thanks to Sandra Hottinger of C.S. Richmond Studio for telling me about a medium called Weber Rapidry. It's an alkyd medium that has something added to it that makes it dry a little faster, and it works really great. Weber claims that it is non-cracking, and I have always had good experiences with alkyd mediums before, so I'm glad I found out about this. I'm still too paranoid to paint after 24 hours, though, I always wait at least 48 hours (and sometimes 3 days) before adding another layer.

I've been working on the mottling on the appy stallion, also. I did a small amount of customization on this ear because of the weird way Breyer molded this piece. The right ear was a huge wedge, so I tried to refine it more by making it more "ear" shaped, and then put some mane around it. At least I think it's the right ear, it's been so long I can't remember anymore lol!  I'm going to set him aside for several days to dry thoroughly so I can work on the blanket some more. I'm getting close to the finish on him, I think.

I'm also making good progress on prepping. The few Breyers that I have left are the worst to prep, the seams are always so irregular on them. I've been working on a Pepe, Wixom, Susecion and LeFire (not sure about spelling on those),  Nevada, Equus Maximus, Turko and Tango the last few days.

Ya Gotta Have Faith...

That's what I have to say to myself every time I start a new project. The beginning of each piece I do starts out looking like this: a mess! I have an end result in mind, but it takes many, many hours of work and belief that I can make it look good, before I get to a point that I can look at the piece without cringing.

I'm not sure how others work, but this is my standard procedure for starting all pieces. I was taught in art school to always start loose and work my way tighter, and that's pretty much how I do it. Sometimes I use an airbrush for my base coats, but for greys like this one, it will be so covered up that it's pointless to go to the trouble (plus my airbrush station is filled with bodies-in-prepping). So for this piece, I've started with some warm grey washes in acrylic. This will be a dapple grey when it's finished.

New Yahoo Group

I am going to be super-busy this week with taxes, hanging a gallery show and attending a copyright seminar, so unfortunately my studio time will be almost nothing this week. However, I will be able to check my email periodically, so I'd like to extend an invitation to any of my readers out there to join my Yahoo mailing list . I will be announcing upcoming commission availability and other sales and specials from the Yahoo list, though there's nothing there at the moment. I will also be posting an announcement on some other boards to let people know about it, but thought I'd give you all a heads up here first.

I was hoping to have a commission opening for February, but that may have to be pushed back depending on my circumstances. I will give more details on the list.

Here's a quick shot of the semi-rearing appy, I finally started working on his head a little bit. The changes seem so incremental when I work on something that sometimes it doesn't seem worth it to post a picture. I'm still prepping like a madwoman, too.