A Day in the Life

I'm always interested in seeing other people's spaces and work setups, and also in hearing how people spend their workday, so I thought I'd share a typical workday for me.

I get up early every morning: at 4:00 am! I start every morning with some exercise, when I have energy and motivation. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't exercise at all.

After breakfast, I start working. I try to start every workday with some drawing. I usually do line drawings of my kitchen, or sketches of my cats/husband or "talking heads" from the tv. Drawing is the one thing in my life that I can truly say I have confidence in. I'm a good draftsman and it brings me great enjoyment. I'm  past the point where mistakes would make me cringe and I would stress over every little thing. Now it's simply a joy.

Time to start on models! Here's my little oil painting setup. I hardly ever clean my palette. I tell myself that I will hold the model on the table, but I always end up scrunching down in that chair with the model in my lap. I usually listen to NPR while I work.

Here is my airbrush setup. The lower half holds paint and a few models-in-waiting. There is a fan that goes out to a fireplace behind it. I have one of those horrible loud compressors, it always makes me jump. I usually just do base coats with the airbrush, otherwise I would have to get a silent compressor.

In the afternoon I start painting my "flat work." It's not horse-related, as you can see. My eyes are usually pretty tired at this point so it becomes a bit of an endurance session now.

Here's my flat work setup. I don't know why I keep this palette clean and the other one dirty. I paint until the evening, about 7:00 pm.

No day is complete without Jeopardy! I always make grand plans to do some digital artwork in the evening, but unfortunately my energy is really low at this time, so it's usually off to bed soon after this.

(Semi) Weekly Update

I think I skipped last week. Okay, several things to show this week:

Here is the Paige Patty reiner that I finished up last week. I like the angle of this pose, I can see envision him with tack.

Here's the Rose Reiner with a couple of airbrushed base coats on him. I did a little hand-painting too. You can't see it in this photo but he has a faint spattering of airbrushed white to get him started a little bit with the roaning. I may do a little more in certain areas before I start roaning in earnest.

I'm still really nervous about this Sushi. I'm not sure how to continue. Should I use acrylics or oils for a body coat? Go right in with fleabites or work up the body more and then do some fleabites? Use paint or pencil for the fleabites? Maybe both. I have a feeling she's going to take a really long time.

Here's Dafydd with an airbrushed base coat. The color isn't exactly right but I think it will be good enough for a base for me.

This Sushi is going to have a lot of bling, so I had to add some white to her legs to remind myself not to paint any more black down there!

Taboo is closer to being finished. I'm still working on his blanket and some details. He will be a sales piece on eBay, hopefully by the end of this month or early March.

I dropped this poor Mini Nahar and three of his legs broke off. I was so mad at myself for letting this happen. The legs broke very clean so they will be easy to repair, but the ear is going to be a challenge for me. I couldn't find the eartip. I have had very poor results using the superglue/baking soda remedy, so this will be another learning experience for me as I have another go at it. I think I'm too messy with it. The precise application of glue or baking soda is not my strong point.

I'm getting the dreaded taxes ready over the next couple of weeks so posting may be sporadic for a while longer.