Weekly Update

I gave Scarlett an initial layer of color to her mane, tail and feathers.

This SM is coming along pretty well. I still need to work on her dapples.

I'm toning down the orange on this Pixie.

The dapples won't be as regimented on this Shire once I get into more detail, I'm still trying to establish the overall values and am still being very loose with my brushwork and patterning.

My photos were coming out blue today. This SM is not as blue as she looks. After I started doing this model, I started thinking that ASBs don't come in roan, but I looked it up and they do (but apparently they're rare).

I just started on this Dinky Duke. I love this mold, I have one of my own that was painted by Chris Jolly and he is gorgeous! This one will be another gray. It seems like I'm doing a lot of grays.

That's it for this week. I may have to go out and get another combination lamp this week. My hubby has decided it's not worth the effort or expense to try to fit a new switch on the broken one, since he can't get the exact matching part. I called the manufacturer, but they have to have the model number of the lamp, which of course I threw out with the assembly instructions. All the lamps now advertised in the art supply stores are made by a different manufacturer.

Lots of Updates

I've been painting away in the studio. Here is the NAN donation, I have toned down the yellow quite a bit

It's funny, the Classic Arab Foal used to be my least favorite model when I was a kid, but now I think it's adorable. I wasn't sure what sex this model was supposed to be, so I made it into a colt. He will be bay.

This Seabiscuit will be a buckskin overo of some sort.

I cringe at showing this Shire, he's really in the ugly stage right now. The dapples will not remain like that, I was just covering space with an appropriate tone.

I also worked on Tang, the Pixie model, but I forgot to take pictures of that one. Still working on the roan ASB, and may be able to start the mini-Caprice and a dinky Duke this week.

I don't know if anyone is interested, but I also paint still life paintings and recently finished one, I thought you might like to see it:

Updates

I don't know what is up with Blogger today, but all of my pictures uploaded backwards, so they're in the opposite order that I'm working on them. The SM above is resting so I can spray her soon and go in with some colored pencils.

This ASB is going to be a roan. This is the first airbrushed coat.

This shire will be a dapple gray.
I'm calling this Pixie "Tang" right now. 

The Scarlett Gypsy is looking way too yellow for me at this point, I will have to tone her down a little.

That's it for now. I also have a Classic Arab Foal and a SM Seabiscuit that I've started on, and I'll be starting on a mini-Caprice soon, also.

I'm really frustrated this morning because my favorite lamp is broken. I have one of those "heavy-duty" combination lamps that has a fluorescent light and an incandescent light together. It's my favorite lamp, I love it way better than the Ott Lite or any other lamp I've seen, it seems to have the most neutral color to me. Anyway, it kept blinking and making little noises, and this morning my husband took it apart and the switch is all corroded. I'm going to call the manufacturer, but I have a feeling that the parts, if available, will make it not worth the while. Argh! It only lasted about 3 years. 

NAN Donation

Here is the beginning of my NAN donation. I airbrushed this tan color over her. Today I'll spray it to fix it, then I'll start with some oils. I'm feeling a little weird right now because I saw another Scarlett Gypsy recently that is a similar color to what I have planned. I hope that artist doesn't think I "stole" her idea! Of course, my color will be somewhat different regardless, and the pattern will be different, also, and I like what I've come up with, so I'm not going to change it.

I also worked some more on this SM. I still have a ways to go with her. I enjoy experimenting with ways to make dapples. I used a little bit of pastel pencil with this one, but I still don't like that medium. So far I prefer acrylics or oils for my dapple greys, with some colored pencil thrown in.

I did have the Breyer semi-rearing stallion on eBay, but he didn't meet his reserve, so he's on MH$P right now. I really struggle to set a price for my work; I guess I was way off with this one? I don't know. The price for him was a little bit more than what I would charge for a commission, and I tried to base it on the amount of work and detail/overall quality of the piece, and what other cm work is priced at. I actually think that I tend to undervalue my work, but I thought this was a fair price and in line with what others are charging. I know the economy is terrible right now, too, and maybe it's an unpopular mold, and my production is so low that a lot of people haven't seen my work in person, so that all factors in. I think I have developed a sufficiently thick skin as far as my flat artwork not selling, but I still haven't detached my emotions from my model horse finishwork yet, so I have to admit it stung a little when it didn't sell. I'll get over it though ;-) Hope springs eternal! There's always another model to paint :-)

On a more personal note, I was thinking of volunteering at NAN, but now I doubt if I will be going. I live on my husband's salary, and they have raised the prices on his health insurance by a lot, I'm not sure exactly how bad it's going to be until we get his next paycheck, but I may have to look for a part-time job pretty soon just to pay our bills. His hours have also been dwindling, and he was told that his company is not in good condition (it's the auto industry), so I'm waiting for layoffs as the next step. I'm experiencing a lot of anxiety because of this, and we've cut back on all of our spending, so it doesn't seem like a good idea for me to be going to NAN at this point. I might change my mind, but it's not looking too good...:-(

Weekly update

No picture this week. I only have 3 more models left to prep and I'll be done. I am soooo happy about it.

I did manage to squeeze in some work on the little SM Thoroughbred, but it was in pastel, and after spraying it with fixative most of the work vanished, so nothing to show on her yet.

I have finished prepping the NAN donation and put a base coat of white on her. I will definitely have a picture next week of her progress.

And that's about it for this week!