Warm Greys

Here are a couple of warm grey color that I've been trying out recently. I like both of them.

The one on the left is Sennelier Acrylique Warm Grey, and the one on the right is Old Holland Warm Grey Light oil paint. They're both pretty similar which is good for matching acrylic colors to oils if I need to do that. They are so warm that they're almost brown in color (in fact, both these colors are a mix of browns with white). I've added titanium white as a tint and mars black as a shade on both of these for comparison.

The tints are really nice, great for highlighting, light dapples or to incorporate into the base color for white markings or a grey horse. The darker shades are great for greys again, muzzles, and also for some grullo colors. Out of the tube, these greys would make a great base color for a classic champagne (haven't tried that yet but it looks like it would work), or a dun or brownish grullo color. They're also a good base color for chestnuts, can be mixed with a darker brown, black, etc. for a variety of grayish-brown colors. Very versatile!

The Sennelier acrylic is pretty thick so will need to be watered down before use, and the Old Holland oil is thick also, so you might want to try a medium or thinner to help smooth brushstrokes. I used to hate how thick and hard Old Holland colors were, but I really like this color so I've gotten used to it.

Weekly Update

Hmm, let's see what I've got today. Turko is drying but I'm so close to finishing him up now, I'm happy with how he's turning out. A lot of things are in the drying stages at the moment.

Johann's body is still slightly tacky to the touch so I started on his mane and tail. I'm doing the darks first so it looks kind of like mud.

I'm still adding white on Oliver, I went into the grooves with a darker grayish color and now I'm going over that with the lighter white. I still need to do his legs.

One thing I'm finally starting to remember is to do the underside of everything first. I can't tell you how many times I've painted the body up to a pretty finished state, only to realize that I haven't painted the underside of the mane, tail, etc. Elsie has a lot of underside crooks and crannies so I'm making sure to start on those areas before I go too far with her body.

This picture came out a little blue. Max is drying right now so I started on the base. I will do some more pencil work on him, and then some roaning with a detail brush after that. If you're interested in seeing more detail on him, I think I uploaded this picture at full size so you can click on him for a bigger picture.

Here's a Taboo that I've just started roaning. He's going to be a chestnut roan overo, and I wasn't sure if I should start with the pinto markings or the roaning. I opted for roaning. I kind of hesitated to show this picture because it looks so terrible in this early stage. Also it's about 5 times bigger than the actual model.

That's it for now! Since so many things are waiting to dry at the moment, I've been putting the finishing details on the chestnut Jezebel I've been working on. Hopefully she'll be available for sale in the next couple of weeks.

Weekly Update

Johann has his first layer of oils. He's a little too red-caramel colored right now, I intend for him to have more brownish points and a cooler gold base color.

Ollie also has one coat of oils now. I'm doing something a little different with his white markings, I usually start with a white coat that has a tint to it, but this time I'm using straight titanium for more covering power.

Elsie's basecoat airbrushed in. This is about as worked up as it ever gets in airbrush for me, I'm so inept with it. When I paint I tend to get over-excited and start doing things fast, and with airbrush I've found that it really helps to go slowly and with a more measured pace. That's hard for me to do!

Here's a detail shot of Equus Max. He's got about 3 or 4 layers on him at this point. Roans are one of the things that I am able to move slowly with (sometimes too slowly). I actually practice breathing slowly and looking up a lot while I'm doing them. I find if you go too fast with a roan, you make the marks too long and it ends up looking streaky and unnatural.

Here's a Nevada sales piece that I'm trying to sneak in when I can. He will be a dun overo.

That's all for this week!

Here's the Rose Reiner, finally finished! This was my first Traditional sized full roan, and he was really a challenge. I still feel like I'm learning when I do these, and with this guy I really made a mistake by starting with too dark of a base, so it took a long time to build up the color. I used pencils, dry pigment, and acrylics in various areas for the roaning. I tried keeping track of the time that I worked on him, and he clocked in at 212 hours (including prepwork). That's just way too long. So for the Equus Maximus that is also a roan, I'm adding some glazes/scumbles of a lighter color in paint to try to shorten that painting time a bit. I hope it works! 

Here's a little Ollie that I've just started. He's going to be a pinto. I just love this guy's face, he is so adorable.

Here's that classy Johann, I've given him a warm basecoat.

Jezebel is just taking so long because I haven't had a chance to work on her. I'm adding her markings and still tweaking her color a little bit.

That's all for this week!

Who Created Me?

I've had this little model for years and years, and I have no idea who sculpted and painted it. I bought her at the first model horse show I ever went to, which was a Midwest Congress in Illinois. I think I was 12 or 13 years old, so that would make it 1979-80? I had to beg my mom to take me to this show, which was at a Holiday Inn in a distant Chicago suburb. I remember being overwhelmed by the amount of models there, it was jam packed. Kathleen Maestas was there, and I think Julie Froelich, but now I'm not sure. I remember being awed by the smooth hair job on the works that I thought were Froelich's, but now when I see vintage pics of Julie's work, it looks like she worked exclusively in mohair. The ones I saw used the smooth hair like Faye Cohen, so I'm not sure if it was Faye or someone else now.

At any rate, there was a woman at the show who had a whole slew of these little ceramic (?) horses, all sculpted and painted by herself. I don't remember her name, but the last picture here shows her signature mark. Does anyone know who it could be? I never saw any of these pieces again in the hobby, and always wondered who she was and what happened to her.

As I was wandering the aisles at the show, my mom helpfully offered to keep this gal in her purse for "safekeeping," and when I pulled her out of the purse later, her leg was broken off. So much for purse safety! I've lost the leg over the years but have kept her around in the hopes that I can identify her someday.

Update

Here is the Hank commission that I recently finished. He was really difficult to photograph, just getting a shot of his head was a challenge. I'll try to get the rest of his photos on my website and Facebook this week.
I'm still busy with roaning the reiner and Equus Max, but hopefully I'll have a couple more photos by next week.

Weekly Update

Poor Jezebel has been neglected for a while while I work on commissions, but I got a chance to do a little detailing on her yesterday. She's going to have white stockings and a thin white blaze. Sorry for the blurry hind end!

Here are a couple of closer shots of Hank. I still want to do a little more to his head and various minor things. He's got markings that are kind of crisp in some areas and then roaned out a little in other areas.

I'm starting to refine the dapples a bit on Turko, and I blocked in the colors in his mouth.

That's all for this week!