Weekly Update

Wow, Blogger sure changed their dashboard, I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'll have to get used to it.

I don't have a whole lot to show this week. I'm having a heck of a time getting good pictures of Equus Maximus, I've got one layer of roaning on one side of him now, and partially done with the other side. This is the best I could get at the moment, you can't really see much yet:

Next up is a roaning detail of the Rose Reiner I'm working on, I've also worked a bit on the blanket. I'm right at the point where I'm starting to emphasize some areas and then leave other area alone to create depth. I will probably switch to a brush pretty soon on this one.

And last is Turko, who's had a little bit done to his legs, and I've put another layer of light color on him and started playing with the dappling a bit.

Well, from this post I can see that Blogger hasn't worked out the quirky nature of their "compose" mode despite the update to the look of the dashboard. I always have to go in and delete extra spaces and fiddle around with things. I could start ranting right now! But I won't...

Update

Sushi is close to being finished now, I still need to work on her mane/tail and eyes, I think, and a couple of things I need to touch up. I might do a little more to the dapples, also. I think she photographs best from this angle, from the side she ends up looking a little distorted (even though she's not).

I've gone back and forth on the whites and body color on Hank, I'm letting him sit to dry for a bit before I work on him some more.

Turko's mane and tail won't be so garish when he's done, I usually just lay down a color and see how it looks relative to the rest of the piece. He's only got a couple of layers on him so far.

That's all the photos I've got this week, I took photos of Equus Maximus, who has one layer of roaning done on one side, but there was a lot of glare and you could barely see it, so maybe I will try again next week. He is really kicking my butt!

Some Yellow Ochres

I got a couple of new neutral yellows so thought I'd do a little comparison. They really vary from one manufacturer to the next.

W & N yellow ochre seems to be the most neutral, it makes a nice tint and I use it a lot. I like the consistency of it, too.

Rembrandt yellow ochre is new for me, I was surprised at how yellow it was, but it confirmed my thoughts that Rembrandt's colors tend to be kind of garish, in my opinion. It's nice and buttery but has a lot of oil in it, and is somewhat transparent with low tinting strength.

Old Holland Mars Yellow is pretty yellow, too, it's actually more yellow than it looks in this photo. It's opaque and dries fairly quickly, which would make it useful for base coats. I don't like the consistency of it, very stiff.

W & N Raw Sienna is another neutral yellow that I use a lot, especially in mixes with white. I use it a lot in hoof colors. It looks slightly greenish out of the tube, so I wouldn't mix it with any blue-ish color like ivory black or payne's gray because you might get a green color.

Old Holland Gold Ochre is another really stiff paint, and it's pretty yellow. It makes nice subtle mixes, though, so I like it. I use it often in combination with raw sienna and burnt sienna.

I got the Schmincke Norma Gold Ochre to compare it to Old Holland. What a difference! They're like two different colors. The Schmincke is a burnt yellow, closer to Raw Sienna. It makes a very pretty toasty color when mixed with white. I'm still getting used to the color of this one but I do like it. I have been very impressed with the quality of Schmincke Norma paints. They have a great consistency, not too stiff but not oily, and the colors are very rich. The downside is that they're expensive and the tube is only 35ml, compared to 37ml for W & N and 40ml for Rembrandt.

Update

Hank is coming along pretty well. I'm working ont the whites right now.

Here's Sushi after I've added a little pastel and some acrylic work to her roaning. I've started on her stockings, too. She has a big belly spot, I'll get a picture of that sometime.

Dafydd has had some refinement to his color and dapples, and I've started adding markings.

Turko is still in early stages, He's going have dappling on his hindquarters and shoulders.
That's all for this week!

Weekly Update

Blogger is not cooperating with me today, so if this post is all jumbled up, that's why.

Sushi has another layer of roaning, it's finally starting to show.

I've started adding more to the blanket on this Rose Reiner. He's got two full layers of roaning on him, and now I'm going to start making more variation in the roan pattern. I'll also be going back and forth with the spots and pattern.
That's all for this week!

Update

I recently finished this mini Nahar, I'm very pleased with the color. I am hoping to get more pictures of him on my website today. I will be offering him to members of my Yahoo mail group, so if you're interested, please sign up.

Weekly Update

Here's what I've been working on lately:

It's hard to see at this point but I've started putting some roan markings onto Sushi. This is just the first layer so placement of everything is subject to change. I'm going to try to make the roaning look really patchy.

Here's the other side of the Rose Reiner. I'm still on the second layer of roaning on him, so not a lot to see yet on him, either.

Dafydd has had some more work done to his mane/tail, some darker areas and a little work on the dapples. I'm going to let him dry for a few days before I do any more on him.

Here's a closeup of the Equus Maximus. He's going to be a blue roan, so I've sprinkled some airbrush speckles over his coat to get him started a little bit. I probably could have made it a little heavier, but personally I prefer the look of many layers of hand-roaning. I usually go in and scumble some paint around, too, as well as using some pastel at times.

Hank is slowly coming along. So hard to photograph!

I love this sculpture and have super-high hopes for the paint job on him. He's going to look so cool! I love his face. His movement reminds me of the painting of Napoleon on Marengo, so I've given him a military name, Captain Winters, while I work on him. I actually thought I might like to try sculpting a rider for him, but I know I don't have time to do it. I could definitely see him with military tack and a cavalryman riding him, though.

I've darkened up Stormy a bit. I'm going for a kind of dusty bay look, I still need to add some reddish tones and darken his backside more because he is also going to be a roan.

 I'm feeling better about Sushi now. I normally do my roaning with pencils and/or acrylic paint, but I think I am going to try the fleabites on her with oils. I've never done fleabites before, and never tried roaning with oils, either, so we'll see how it goes. I may have to switch to something else. I'm always up for trying something new, though!


I just looked and 7 out of the 12 models I've got in production right now are going to have some type of roaning or fleabites, so pictures may be sporadic in the coming weeks. There's just not much to show until it gets to a certain level of finish. I will try to intersperse the roan work with the non-roan work just to give my eyes a break.