Finished!

I'm so happy to say that I've finally finished this big guy! I really went all out on the roaning on him, almost all of it is layer after layer of single hair roaning. I don't think I will ever paint another horse this large again, at least not in this pattern lol!

Here are a couple more pictures, I think you can click on all of these to see larger photos. I will have more photos on my website and Facebook page soon. 

All the other commissions I'm working on are at least halfway finished, and now that Max is done I will be able to work much more on them. 

Update

Equus Max is sooo close now, I'm just waiting for his horseshoes to dry. I'm trying to use thin layers of metallic paint, but there's something about metallics that makes them have less covering power, yet they take  the longest time to dry. I still have another layer to do on them, too, but I may add a tiny drop of drier to see if that will speed the process.

Anyway, here is where Elsie is at right now. She's going so much faster than Max. I think I will work on her legs or head next.

Here's the other side of Oliver. I've put some color on his hooves. I'm going to brighten up his whites very slightly and do a little more roaning on him next.

I put some hoof color on Johann, too. I was originally planning on giving him a sock or two, but now I think I might leave his legs dark. Maybe a small snip and star, or a star and stripe instead. I don't know. The colors I am using for this guy are so transparent that it's basically just glazing over and over on him. I also have to sand him every couple of coats. I just love that regal face!

I guess it was hoof week in the studio. I want to tone down the color a bit on this guy, and the pangare isn't quite the right color yet, either.

Here's a sales piece I've been working on as time permits. He's going to have a lot of roaning in addition to his pattern, and I'm not sure if he will have one or two blue eyes.

Another sales piece that I haven't had much time to work on. I've just started roaning him. I was thinking of giving him some sabino marking, I'm not sure, though. It would be pretty minimal.

Okay, that's it for this week! Sushi is coming along and I've got a couple of other minis going, and one model that I will show only when it's finished, just for fun. I've got to surprise you with something, right? 

Brush Mystery

I ordered some brushes from Dick Blick the other day, and today as I sorted through them, I found one that didn't look right. The brush pictured on top is what I thought I was ordering, the Escoda Kolinsky 1208 series brush. The brush on the bottom is what I got.

Now, I know that brush manufacturers change their handles sometimes, so that could be the case, and unfortunately, this brush was the only one that didn't come with the little plastic tube that protects it. It's not frayed, but the brush hairs look like they are a different shape than the brush on the top in this picture.

Blick lists two brushes on their order page, a pointed round and a detailer round. I ordered the detailer round, but now I'm thinking that what I received was the pointed round. To make matters worse, the packing slip lists it as "retouch brush" which isn't mentioned anywhere on the order page.

Here's a closeup of the two brushes. Again, the one on the top is the one I wanted. Do they look the same to you? I wet the bottom one to bring it to a point, and when I did that, it looked very similar to the top one, but still, to my eye the base of the brush hairs on the bottom brush looks a little thicker than the base of the top brush. Blick lists the mm size of the brush, but the smallest unit that shows on any of my rulers is 1mm which is too big.

I called Blick and the CS rep insisted that I got the right brush, but I really don't know. This is a frustrating aspect of ordering things online; if there's a problem there's almost no way to figure out the truth. I went to Escoda's web site, but all of their pictures show a brush that looks like the top brush, and they are based in Spain so I'm not sure what kind of response I will get to any questions I might have.

 I can still use the brush, but next time I have to order I'm going to hesitate to order this brand because I don't know what I'm going to get. 

These brushes are not cheap and I don't want to spend money on something when I'm not positive I'm going to get the right thing.