Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Weekly Update

I've been doing little refinements to Daffyd, and managed to work on his face last week. He's close to being done now, but I keep picking him up and doing little things. I'll have to stop that if I want him to be dry in time to ship him for NAN. I haven't glossed his eyes or anything yet.

Ravenhill has been getting a lot of attention. I'm fiddling a lot with the blanket right now. It's hard to get just the right color for the mane and tail. I don't want it to warm or too cool.




I've been working all over on Finn, just refining the color and working on his feathers and mane/tail. He's tacky now and rather shiny. I will probably let him sit pretty soon so I can spray him and see what he looks like dulled.



I have to let Lajjina sit now, too. I'm still just building up thin layers of color and experimenting with her tail color. She is a slow drier! She's got some blobby-looking dapples that I will refine as I go, I just wanted to set down the general area where I thought the dapples should be. The pangare will not be as stark, either.

Fenwick is coming along and I should have a picture of him next week. I'm really happy with the way everything is going right now. It feels like a huge relief when I get close to finishing a piece (Daffyd), too. 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Brush Review





Here's another one of my favorite detail brushes, the Black Gold by Dynasty. I love the size 3/0, but sometimes I get 10/0 also. This brush has a thin handle but it's the perfect length for my hand so it remains comfortable. The brush head itself is the perfect length and the bristles are not too floppy. I like a slight give in my brushes, not too soft.

This brush holds its point for a pretty long time, even when I'm using watered-down acrylics, which always seep up into the ferrule. When that happens, I usually just let the paint dry up there by the base of the hairs, and that kind of cements the brush into its point for a couple more uses before it starts to fray. Then I can use it as a stiff scumbling brush.

I use this brush for detail work, and once it starts to fray, I will paint minis with it, or use it to scumble details in hard-to-reach areas of larger models. This brush and the La Corneille 18/0 spotter are the two brushes I use the most. This one happens to be very reasonably priced, too. The last time I got it at Dick Blick it was $2.35. I have noticed that this brush is a little hard to find, and a lot of places only sell Black Gold brushes as part of a set. In fact, I think that Dick Blick's site shows sets first, and you have to scroll down or do a search to find the individual brushes. I hope they continue to offer this one individually.

I have tried out a couple of new brushes and hope to offer reviews of them soon, too. I really liked one and really hated the other one.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Fenwick WIP





You wouldn't know it from the paucity of pictures this week, but I've been painting up a storm in the studio. I'm getting very close with the Daffyd, and the Finn and Ravenhill are progressing very well. I also worked on Lajjina a little bit (she's still a little tacky so I have to let her rest) and some prepping.

I was even able to work on this Fenwick sales piece. I was very worried about starting the roan markings on this piece, but I think he's coming along well. He's got a combination of rabicano and sabino markings. He will have some splotchy roan-y areas, you can see I've started one below his withers. I made sure to count the number of "stripes" on the reference photo so I wouldn't make too many or too few.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Weekly Update

I'm running late this week! Not too much to show, I think I'll wait 'til next week for Ravenhill and Daffyd. In the meantime, here's Lajjina:





I've added some more color to her and put some paint on her legs and face. She still has a really long way to go.



I did some work on Finn's legs and his mane/tail. I shot these photos with a combination of daylight and photo lights, the colors look a little more lurid than they actually are. I like to shoot in the early morning when it's still dark, but now that spring is here I'll have to adjust my lighting setup (or when I take my photos).

I'm putting a lot of time into Ravenhill right now, so the photos may be a little sparse for the next couple of weeks.