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 ;-)

Weekly Update

I had a really productive week, and several of these models are nearing completion. Here's the Shire I've been working on. I'm planning on painting shoes on him. I got the latest RESS technical bulletin, which has an interesting article about making shoes, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet, so that will have to wait for a future model.

 

This Seabiscuit has one brown eye and one blue eye. I may need to do a couple of touchups on him.

I've been detailing this foal. I still need to do some more details and touchups on him, too.

Valdemar has gotten a couple more layers of roaning, and I did a quick layer of black points.

I also worked on the Huck Bey and have been prepping the Rosita, as well as doing some more detail work on the mini-Maj.

Holey Moley!

I thought my photo lights were looking a little dim, and today confirmed it when one of them died on me. I have another one in the basement, but I have to go dig it out, so photos will have to wait until next week.

I snapped this photo while sitting on the couch. This is the first Eberl that I've prepped, a very interesting experience. Of course I've heard the horror stories about them, but this one appeared to be fairly clean when I received it. As I started going over the seams, I noticed some pinholes and started filling them, but then I started noticing more pinholes as I went along. They're hard to see. I sprayed a thin layer of gray primer, which actually made the holes hide, so next I sprayed a thin layer of white primer over that, and voila! Pinholes magically appeared! It shouldn't be too difficult to fill most of these holes, but I think I will probably have to fill some more even after I spray the first body coat with the airbrush. The ultra-thin airbrush paint is good at picking up any little flaws I might have missed.

Next week I should have some good photos!

On My Workbench

 

Here's a shot of many of the works I've got in progress. Not everything would fit in my spraybooth (like the Huck Bey) and I've got a few others that I've just started, too. Most of these are between halfway done to almost done. I've been working mostly on the mini-Maj, the Classic Shire, and the Rosita.

I'm going to do a little more on the mini-Maj this week, then I have to let him sit to dry for a while. I'm detailing the hooves and braids on the Shire, then I'm going to go over the dapples again with oils (I think) before doing final detailing. I got impatient with the Huck Bey and ended up lifting the paint a little bit, right on his belly, so I'm definitely letting him dry off for a few days before attempting anything more with him.

I am feeling so out of it and like a hermit lately! I haven't been on Blab for so long, I don't even know what's going on. I like to take my time and go through each forum category to see what I've missed, but it takes so long for me to do that, and, well, time is in really short supply for me with all of the painting I've been doing. I do miss it, though...

Update

 

  

I'm only working part time in the studio this week, due to several meetings and appointments that all seemed to land at the same time, argh! That hardly ever happens. I don't have much to show, either. I've been prepping a model and doing some pencilwork on the Classic Shire. I should have more photos of him next week.

I've had a lot of trouble photographing this mini-Maj, but these two photos are probably the closest to the actual color so far, at least on my screen. He's kind of a silvery-gray grullo, there's not a lot of yellow in him. His mane and tail are going to look really cool, I can't wait to finish this guy. I'm dying to paint the eyes, but I still have some other things to do before I get to that point.

Update

 

Maybe I will leave this one a solid color and not make him into a pinto like I had first thought. I've got too many pintos anyway! On my website, each color gallery has space for six photos, and the pinto gallery is full, while the others still need some more photos. So I need to work on other colors once in a while. I do love pintos, though. 

 

I worked some more on the legs, face, and mane/tail on this one. 

 

I still need to work more on the overall color on this guy, especially the mane/tail, but I wanted to start adding the markings. I usually use a gesso/acrylic combination to cover the color when I start the markings, then switch to oils at the end. Not always, but that's what I usually do. 

 

I've started the roaning on this one. I did a layer of airbrush, then I'm going in with pencil, and will probably add layers of hand-painting/pencil until I get it the way I want.

That's all for this week!

Studio Visit

I had the pleasure last week of visiting Becky Turner of Soltice Art Studio in Stanwood, WA. Some of you may know I'm extremely shy, so I was a little bit nervous about meeting her, but she's really friendly, talkative, and made me feel at ease right away.

Becky lives on a gorgeous Morgan horse farm (with gorgeous horses too, I'm so jealous!) with a gigantic oak (?) tree in the front yard. She's got a really nice little studio set up in her home, with a comfortable space for sculpting and a nice area to cast. I loved the Alphonse Mucha prints she had hanging in her living room.

It was really fun to see all of her projects in various stages, she's really creative and multi-talented, from little tiny ink drawings, larger watercolors and oils, up to resin cast models and medallions, and bronzes. She showed me a large bronze bust of a horse that was really beautiful! She has a nice collection of resins also. She showed me the cutest rat sculpture she's working on, it's mouth and teeth are incredible! She has a lot of interests and is really a fascinating person with lots of stories to tell.

Becky was really helpful and showed me how she casts her resins and medallions. She's very knowledgeable about the whole process, and really broke it down for me so I could understand it, and showed me all the products that she uses. She also gave me some tips on sculpting (and some sculpting tools!), including a great tip on how to make a smooth eye, and how to heat my tools and sculpt into the clay with the heated tool, I had not known about that! So now I'm thinking that I might continue to work on my medallion.

It was a really great trip and I'm so glad I went to meet Becky. I left with lots of fresh hand-picked blueberries and apples. I meant to bring my camera in and take some candid shots, but I forgot, so all I got was this picture of her (sorry Becky, I made it small!)

  Here is a link to her website, also, to see more of her work.

More updates next week!