I Hate Waiting...

for paint to dry! Most of the things I'm working on need a little breather right now, so I'm taking the opportunity to do a little cleanup and work on boring things like bases:

Maybe some people like working on bases but it's usually the last thing I touch.

In the meantime, here are a couple of things from an auto swap meet that I went to a few weeks ago. First, there was a guy there with a pet possum:

It was very friendly and the man let me hold her. He showed me her little marsupial pouch. One of his relatives works at a wildlife rehab and this possum was raised from a baby. I think she's still pretty young because she's not that big. Very cute! He said she was litter-box trained and everything. Her tail was very strong! Don't worry, I'm not setting traps in the yard to capture one ;-)

Also, here's a page from my childhood:

And look what I found!

I was really happy to re-capture a little piece of my childhood. 

I also saw a PAM and a CAS, both were played-with body quality and both were $10 each. I thought of buying them and probably should have. I don't have the time to do any customizing on them but thought someone in the hobby might want them, but I wasn't sure if that was a good price or not so I didn't bite. 

New Finished Piece

I finished the Little Lonestar yesterday. I'm hoping to get him onto eBay for tomorrow, ending some time on Sunday. I'll be uploading more pictures to my website etc. today. This is probably the last of the mini resins that will be for sale from me for a while, as I plan to do a few mini commissions next (not yet though!)

Here's a Hazel that has been sitting in my cabinet for years, I've finally gotten around to her! I usually airbrush my base coats, but I bought some pure alkyd paints and decided to experiment with them for the base coat. I will give a little report on the paints and how I like them (or not) in an upcoming post.

Last weekend I tagged along with my hubby who was helping a friend with a hot rod project. This friend has a couple of horses and boards several more, so I went along and did some sketching. There were some really gorgeous quarter horses there, as well as a couple of minis. Most of them were lively and actively grazing/running about, so I didn't get many good drawings, but this little mini stood mesmerized for several minutes: 

Hubby's friend also owns a gorgeous (and friendly) brindle whippet: 

He got a little excited and chased the horses around, then lay in the sun so I got to sketch him, also:

That's all for this week! Hopefully I'll have a new picture of Sushi and/or Stormwatch in the next couple of weeks.

A Different Kind of Horse

My husband is a car fanatic, to put it mildly, and this Labor Day weekend I got a chance to ride in one of the cars that he built. This is a '57 Ford station wagon owned by Bob Crabtree. My husband built it as a street car and drove it around for a while before selling it to Bob, who continued modifying it into the monster it is today. Bob is a kidney transplant recipient and runs an organization that speaks to other kidney patients and educates them about the disease, that's what the logo is about on the car.

I rode in this car at a drag race several years ago when my hubby still owned it. I remember it being fun, but now? I really wasn't prepared for the speed and power of this thing. It truly is a monster! Drag racing is broken up into brackets based on speed, and this car is almost at the top. It's consistently breaking into the top bracket but would need nitrous to be competitive at that level.

Anyway, I knew it was going to be fast going down the runway, but I really didn't know it would be THAT fast -- I screamed the whole way down the track. It was like a roller coaster ride! I had a huge grin on my fast the rest of the day. What a cool car! Here's a another shot of it racing a different car. See how the front wheels pop up? So exciting!

So that was my little foray into the world of automotive horsepower. Now it's back to the miniature world of plastic horses ;)

Here's a little heads up that I'll be selling this Mindy on my Yahoo group very soon:

I'm still not quite ready to start commissions yet, thanks for your patience on that! I almost always offer straight sales pieces to the Yahoo group first, so if you want to get in on that here is the link

I'm making great progress on the Little Lonestar and Sushi, so maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll have some pictures of them.

That's all for now!

Technical Troubles

Well, my cheap old tripod finally bit the dust, so here are a couple of hand-held shots of the Little Lonestar I'm working on. I'm thrilled that he's coming along so quickly, especially for an appy that usually takes ages for me to paint. He still has a ways to go but the pattern and roaning is really progressing smoothly.

I've got a new tripod on order so hopefully I'll get it in the next week or so. I thought the head was removable on my old one, so I ordered just the legs, but then I found out that the head wouldn't come off the old one, so had to order a head today. I'm worried that the quick release mechanism on the new head will not be compatible with the old plates that I've got. It's very hard to figure out what is what, especially because all the plates I've got don't have a model number on them. I guess I'll find out when it arrives...

Also, I was going to make a little video showing how I paint dapples, using the Smytten as a model, but I ran into more technical trouble. My ancient DV recorder didn't have a cord that will plug into my laptop. It's been that long since I've used the recorder. So I had to order a new cord for that. I'll wait until I can't use the dv recorder anymore before I get another one of those ;-) I know my camera can record some video, too, so I guess I should read the manual pretty soon.

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.

End of Year

This year seemed to fly by and I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. Although I do feel that I'm learning and getting better with each piece, I had grand plans for how fast I'd be able to paint and was hopelessly inadequate in that area. I hope to be able to organize my time and techniques more effectively in the new year and get more works out there.

I am down to the last of my blank resins and am pretty sure I can get them all done in 2011. So far I've had really good experiences with commissions, so I do plan on continuing with them, though it will probably be spring before I can take any more on.

I have to admit that this wasn't a great year for me money-wise, and trying to deal with money issues and survive as an artist has been a real challenge for me.  I am hopeful that I will be able to turn the corner soon and be a little more successful in this area.

The main thing I want to focus on in 2011 is to simply relax and enjoy myself more, and not get so caught up in worrying about things that I have no control over. I think I should be able to do that ;-)

I hope everyone else has a healthy and prosperous new year!

Computer Problems

Argh! I'm having some computer problems so may not be able to post anything for a while. One diagnostic test showed a corrupted hard drive which doesn't sound good, so I'm going to be doing some more testing today and the computer will be tied up. I may not be able to check emails consistently, either. At least it's still under warranty (I think). I really don't want to drag this thing to the shop...

Grendel RIP

I'm afraid I haven't gotten a whole lot done in the studio this past week because my elderly cat Grendel was suddenly stricken and we had to have her put down. It was really traumatic and she was in a lot of pain, so I know it was the best thing to do, but I'm still pretty devastated. It gets harder and harder to deal with death as I get older myself. I'm just glad that it happened while my husband and I were both home, so we could be with her at the end, and the vets were very nice about everything and let us spend as much time as we wanted with her. We had this cat since she was a tiny kitten, so spent many good years together. I really miss her.

Weekly Update

I worked on Finn's head and hooves some more, I'm basically down to detailing and touching him up now. I still need to touch up and refine a couple of areas in oils.

Here is an Alvaro resin I just started. He's big! I need to get some kind of beanbag system to set him down while I paint him. Whoever cast him did a beautiful job, and he's very lightweight so easy to hold. I'm working on his basecoat right now. For some inexplicable reason my airbrush has been giving me fits lately. I have replaced just about every part on it, but the paint doesn't want to come out. I know I could coincidentally be getting a clog every time, but for it to happen four times in a row is unlikely. I take good care of the inside of the airbrush and clean it religiously. I don't want to have to buy a new one so I guess I'll have to investigate some more.
In other art news, I had my first Thursday art walk this month, it was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot. I was nervous at first, but my work was very well received and I ended up relaxing and enjoying myself. I was told it was a slow night, but I thought it was really busy! I was really glad to get the exposure, and I got to meet some really interesting artists and see a lot of art. Also, my bunny painting of chocolate bunnies won first place at the Edmonds Art Festival a couple of weeks later, so I was really happy about that.

Sum of All Parts

Some of you who read this blog may know that I have some insecurities about how slowly I paint. It's a source of great frustration for me, because I love using oils, but my technique is such that it takes an inordinately long time to get anything finished. I often see other artists who can finish 5 or more pieces to every one of mine, and it makes me feel like I'm moving in slow motion or underwater. I definitely would be the tortoise in the "tortoise and hare" story, that's for sure. Sometimes I feel like I'm not even part of the hobby because I'm not always out there with something new every few weeks.

But I have discovered something that may help me speed up a little bit. I like to use alkyd mediums when I paint, which have a moderate drying effect, but they don't work the same way as cobalt or japan driers do (supposedly they are a more flexible film not prone to cracking). So I did a little experiment with three of the mediums:

Winsor & Newton Liquin Original, Daniel Smith Oil Painting Medium, and Liquin Fine Detail. I used Rembrandt's Permanent Red Light for this experiment because it seems to stay wet on my palette for weeks at a time, and I mixed about 15% medium with paint. The results were interesting. Liquin Original and DS Painting Medium were pretty much dry to the touch after 24 hours, but Liquin Fine Detail had a tacky feeling to it. It took a couple of days before the Fine Detail medium felt more dry. And wouldn't you know it? That is the medium that I was using to paint my models with! So I have switched over to Liquin Original (which I LOVE) and I'm much happier with the drying times now. I plan on having a more thorough review of the mediums in a future post.

Another thing I am trying to do is to paint only part of the model in each session. For instance, I have divided it up into underside, body, head, mane/tail, legs, so that each day I can concentrate on one part of the model while the rest of it dries. That way I can keep painting on each piece every day. I don't know if this actually makes anything speedier, but it feels like it to me.

I have a bunch of pictures to share, but I guess they can wait 'til the next post since I've run on with this one.

Postponement

Blogger is not cooperating with me right now, so I am unable to upload photos. I have a couple of good ones to share, too :-(

I will try later today and see what happens.

Miscellany

Whew! I finished my taxes and went to the accountant, I'm so glad that is over! I get inordinately stressed out over the whole thing. I'm finally at the point where I think I've got everything categorized correctly before I go into the office lol! This accountant always gives me little tips or advises me on things I should be doing differently. For instance, he strongly advised me not to do any trades, and to make sure I separate taxes and shipping when I offer things for sale. It has something to do with the way the IRS looks at things in case of an audit. Or else it's just a way to make life easier for him!

In other news, I guess I'm going to be making a Facebook page. I believe this can be seen by the public and you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see it. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of all this social media stuff, I'm simply not very chatty, and do you really want to know what I ate for dinner? LOL! I didn't think so! I'm pretty darn boring when it gets down to it. I'm trying to like it, but it just doesn't grab me.  Plus I have some issues with the user interface and how to set things up.  I had originally joined it and put up a page for my paintings, and I thought I would be able to have a second account for model horses, but I can't. I can have a second page, but not a second account. So I'm not sure how to handle that on my personal page. Anyway, the "official" page I make will just be photos of finished work with links to my web page, and if I can figure it out, a link back to this blog or the actual blog post itself.

Okay, the only picture I've got this week is Ravenhill:

He still has a ton of work to be done, but I wanted to put a little color on his hooves and mane/tail so I can further refine the color. I also spent a lot of time on the Swaps, but I'll wait until next week for pictures of him.

Group Shot

I'm lazy today and didn't feel like setting up my photo table, so I just took this group shot. These are some of the pieces that I'm actively working on. The Huck Bey is almost finished, and the Valdemar is close. I know that a lot of people work in batches of colors, or do all their customizing at once, but I do everything in a certain order. I keep a file of each horse, and start with commissions, then work down my list. It probably slows me down a lot, but it also keeps me interested because I usually have a variety of different things I can work on. Plus I like each piece to be unique and don't usually use the same base colors for each piece, I always like to mix it up!

Running Behind

I was positive that I'd have at least a couple of finished pieces to show this week, but I'm still putting the finishing touches on them. This is due to my paranoia of getting something sticky or lifting paint by rushing the process. I just have to let things dry properly. Plus I had to take a couple of half-days off to take care of some unforeseen personal things that came up.

So hopefully by next week I'll have pictures of the mini-Maj, the mini-Caprice, and maybe the CAF. Prepping on the Rosita is now going along pretty smoothly, I've dealt with most of the pinholes and will be putting a coat of airbrushed color on soon to check for more flaws. I've got another model that's almost prepped, and will have some new in-progress things to show you in the next few weeks.

I'm entering a very busy period for myself concerning my other artwork, so things may move a little slowly in November. I hope you can all bear with me :-)

In the meantime, here's  a photo of my extremely gorgeous cat. I know she's just a garden variety tabby cat, but she's got an awesome personality and a very feminine daintiness about her, and my hubby and I joke that if she were a human, she'd be a supermodel.

Weekly Update

No pictures this week. All of my active projects are either on the shelf drying, or being detailed. I'm almost finished with the buckskin overo Seabiscuit, the bay Mini Caprice, and the CAF, though I have found little areas to touch up in oils, which moves everything back while I wait for things to dry yet again.

The Eberl that I'm prepping is coming along slowly. It's amazing how many more pinholes pop out every time I spray a thin layer on it. It's almost as though the entire body has a texture of pinholes. I think there should be some kind of fundraiser to buy Brigitte a rotocaster lol! I'm half-serious ;-)

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:

Update

Hmm, let's see, what to show this week? Here is a photo of some models sitting in my airbrush station:

This doesn't mean they will be airbrushed necessarily, I just put them here after spraying with primer because there is an exhaust fan behind them. These are the last stragglers that I'm prepping before I start concentrating on painting. I have over 30 models to paint! I can't believe I collected that many in just a few years, and what's more, I can't believe that they are almost all prepped. I really put my nose to the grindstone to get that done. The Scarlett Gypsy will be the NAN donation, I'll be working on her next.

The semi-rearing appaloosa is done and will be going to eBay soon, probably on Sunday. I've got several pictures of him on my website. I didn't realize it, but when I re-designed my website, I forgot to put a "New" page in there, so he's in the "Appaloosa" gallery.

Another thing, just for fun, is a picture I took of my oil painting palette

As you can see, I'm very messy. It's one of the reasons that it took me so long to start painting with oils, I had to figure out how to situate myself, hold the model, not dip my sleeve in the palette and then the model, etc. Unfortunately, my house looks a lot like this too (I'm not kidding).

Weekly Update

I changed the eyes a bit on this one, I think it looks better now. He looked too nice with the other eyes. They aren't glossed yet, and I may do just a little more to them. I still need to work on the hooves a little bit, but then I really need to stop. Hopefully he will be for sale in a couple of weeks.

The color is pretty good on this photo. I've gone back in to start lightening some dapples. I think this is about the 7th layer of paint. At some point I'll probably seal it and use some colored pencils/pastels. I'm never sure, I just go with what feels right for me at the time.

In other news, the Scarlett Gypsy prepping is going very smoothly, she should be ready to start painting by next week. I'm still researching colors. And I've made a huge dent in prepping my bodies, I am so happy about this. I hate having unprepped bodies hanging over my head. I'm down to about the last nine bodies, and then I can spend all my time painting these beautiful sculptures instead of sanding and filling :-)

Web Site

I'm in the process of updating my website, so in case anyone goes there, the links to the detail pages in the galleries aren't working yet. I uploaded everything to the server last night, thinking that it would be in a "test" section, but it just over-wrote my old web site. I'm not the brightest bulb when it comes to technology, so I'm lucky anything's working at this point ;-0

The web site is basically the same, too, in fact I would say it's a little more ugly than before. This is because I had to switch from a different web design program, and learning to use the new program and learn CSS was extremely difficult for me, so I had to simplify in order to keep it manageable for myself. I just barely have a grasp on it all. I used to think that I was an intelligent person who could learn new things easily, but I'm finding it harder and harder as each new wave of technology sweeps in. I'm becoming one of those old people who can't figure out how to make their gadgets work!

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.