Weekly Update

I've really been going to town with Swaps :-) I still need to do some touching up on him.

Finn got another layer. He looks almost the same; I thought I'd show him from a different side.  Still in his early stages.

 Bitty Bosco is very close to being done. I've kept his primitive markings subtle. I still need to do some touching up on his mane and tail, and work on his face a little bit. He will be a sales piece.

I put another layer on Ravenhill and Daffyd, but not enough change for a picture.
Vixen got a very light spray of airbrush paint to start her roaning, I will be working on her this week.

That's it for this week!

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.

Groaning!

Like my pun? I actually like doing detailed, repetitive work, I wouldn't be painting models if I didn't, but my body rebels something fierce. When I'm roaning, I have a bad habit of hunching over and then I hold the model way over to the left, so my head is crooked from looking over. I don't know why I do that, it's kind of like sticking your tongue out while concentrating. I actually set a timer to go off every half hour so I can get up and move around. It doesn't help much, though. My neck and shoulder are screaming by the end of the day.

Finn got another layer. I'm trying to keep his body light for the moment. I am finding that whenever I use a cadmium or napthol color in my mix, it takes an extra long time to dry. I have a tube of permanent red light (I bought it mistakenly thinking it was cadmium red light), and that paint will stay wet on the palette for over a week. So any chestnut or bay ends up taking longer than I would like.

Here's Daffyd with another layer. I've put some paint on his mane/tail and also done a little with his face, too.

Ravenhill is a little tacky still, so I didn't move him, and I painted some more on Vixen's legs and underside, but it doesn't look much different from the last photo, so I haven't included it.

I will be doing a lot more roaning on Swaps in the upcoming week, and I'm determined to work a little bit on one of my sales pieces! 

Weekly Update

Swaps is lookin' good! I've got the faint airbrush roan coat on him, and a couple of layers of pencil roaning so far. I will probably do 1-2 more coats of pencil roaning, then some wash/scumbling with paint.

 I got the opportunity to paint this Ravenhill that Stacey Tumlinson customized, and I jumped at the chance. I love seeing other people's customizing work; sculpting is difficult for me and I always like to study what other people do. Anyway, this guy is going to be a blanket appaloosa. He's got an airbrushed basecoat and a couple of layers of oils on him right now.

 I've given Finn a couple of coats of oils now. He's going to be a little more red along the top, I think, and his shoulder and neck will be darker with a few dapples.

 That gray base was bugging me so I painted it black on this Fenwick. I have tentatively put in some of the white markings. He's going to be a pretty extensive sabino, so will change quite a bit.

I worked on the underside of the Vixen that I'm painting, but the picture didn't look much different so I didn't show it here. I need to do a little work on the legs, and then I will start roaning her.

Whew! Okay, I'm done with this week's update! I am putting more tax stuff together this week so that may slow things up slightly for next week.

Weekly Update

I added a layer of oils to this Vixen.

 I just started on this Finn. He's got one layer of airbrush color on him. He actually looks a little more pink than this picture shows. Somehow I always forget that Naples Yellow plus Burnt Sienna equals pink.

 Daffyd has another layer of oils.

I've been adding some details to the Bitty Bosco, but he's not ready for another picture yet, and the dapple grey Dinky Duke has several more layers on him, but I want to add some more detailing before I show another photo.

I plan on starting the roan work on the bay Swaps this week, and have been working on Jezebel's tail a little bit.

That's it for this week!

Update

I'm only working on these foals in between commissions, so haven't gotten very far on them. I went a little overboard on the white on the bay foal. I'm sure I will go over both of them with oils again before I'm done.

Here's the Daffyd NAN donation I'm doing, after a base layer of airbrush and one layer of oils. He's one of those dark palominos with the wild, really variegated dapples. I think palominos (real live ones) have the hardest dapples to paint, they're either crazy willy-nilly and all different sizes (like this one will be), or they seem to be really uniform and almost regimented.

I've added more red to Fenwick here, so he's more the color that I was envisioning in the first place. I may lighten him up slightly though.

Here's a Vixen that I've just started. On this one, I'm hand-painting the base coat instead of using the airbrush. No particular reason, I just felt like hand-painting this one.

I did a little touching up on Swaps, and now he's going to sit and dry for a few days before I start roaning him. I also worked some more on Jezebel's tail and did some other prepping and painting that I won't show you here.


I guess that's it for this week, I'm happy it was so productive. I'm tied up with a few meetings and miscellaneous things these next few days so may be behind by next week.

Update

Okay, I've got my head in the right place this week. I turned in my state sales taxes, so now I don't have to worry until I see the accountant in February or March. You'll probably hear some more kvetching then lol!

Swaps is looking pretty good. I'm very happy with his color. I have found a great color called Brown Madder (or Brownish Madder) this is kind of a cross between Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Umber. It's somewhat transparent and creates a nice rich saddle color. I think this is a color that is different depending on the manufacturer. I'm not really happy with the consistency of the tube that I've got (Sennelier), but it's a hard-to-find color so I will have to shop around if I want to change.

I had planned on this Fenwick being a slightly more red chestnut with flaxen mane/tail, but he's looking pretty palomino to me. I'll see how it goes with him.

I can't remember if I showed my original customizing of Jezebel's tail, but I have run into two snags. I had to re-arrange the angle of her tail because it was swishing too far to the right, and then I noticed yesterday that some of the Fixit Sculpt was crumbling, so I had to remove almost all of it. I must not have mixed it enough. I always try to be really careful about mixing properly (and I usually use a slight bit more hardener to it just in case), but sometimes this happens. She will have a slightly shorter tail than the original sculpture, but I want to keep it looking as much like Sarah's original style as possible.

I was invited to donate a piece to NAN this year, and at first I wasn't going to because of time constraints, but I've decided to go ahead and give it a try. I would really like more people to get a chance to see my work in person, I have so few pieces out there :-/ I will be donating a Daffyd resin, painted probably in a sooty, heavily dappled palomino with sabino markings. He's mostly prepped so I will probably start on him this week or next.

I'm also very busy with commissions (Swaps being one of them) and should be able to touch a couple of sales pieces this week, too. I'm dying to work some more on the dapple grey Dinky Duke.

That's all for this week! Hope you all stay warm and dry, it's been miserable here in the Northwest! My sump pump has been working nonstop 8-0