Weekly Update

I was too lazy to clear off my photo table this morning, so here's a little group shot of works in progress taken from the airbrush booth. I'm doing something a little different with Elsie and working up her light areas more  aggressively first. You might remember from previous posts that I did some drybrushing on her before starting to roan and that has helped speed things up.

Max is almost ready for me to do some of the final roaning on him, I think, and with Max and Elsie together I will have my hands full for the  next couple of weeks.

These smaller models are moving along much more quickly than the traditional sizes I've been working on, so I am thinking that I might try a ratio of 3-4 mini-sizes for every traditional size that I paint in the future. That way, I'll still be able to get some things out there, while also being able to work on a larger project which is much easier on my eyes.

I'm feeling bitter right now because I thought we were going to get a lot of snow here in the Seattle area, but it's not anywhere near what they predicted. That always happens, yet I always get my hopes up. I really miss those midwestern winters...

First Update of Year

I'm doing some detail work on Equus Max and he's drying right now, so have been able to work on all the other commissions and some other things in the meanwhile. It's such a refreshing contrast to do roaning on a smaller piece after that big monster! This is the first layer on Elsie.

I've done some roaning on Oliver and worked on his pattern. I just glazed some brownish grey over the white areas, and will go back over that with an off-white.

Another Oliver! This is the first layer of oils.

I've got the first layer of fleabites laid down on Sushi. I'm not sure exactly where to go from here, I will probably do some pencilwork on her and see what that looks like. There are so many variations of "fleabitness" that I see, and it's hard for me to visualize how to translate this pattern in paint.

Johann had some more work done, too, but I'm going to wait a bit to show another photo. That's all for now. I'm feeling productive so far this year!

End of Year Cleaning

This is about the cleanest that my studio table gets. There's no getting around it -- I'm a slob. This is our cool retro kitchen table. I have an actual room set aside for my studio but I tend to work here a lot because the light is better. I covered the top with a piece of plexiglass. It's usually so cluttered that I end up holding the model in my lap while I work. 

I wish I had a picture of the awesome cake that I made for Christmas. It was a spice layer cake with cream cheese frosting, the first layer cake I ever made, and it turned out great. The slices were beautiful. It tasted good, too ;-)

Hope you all have a great new year!

Weekly Update

I've got a couple more layers on Johann now. He still looks too orange, I can see this is going to be a difficult color that will need a lot of finessing. He's going to be more of a browny-gold with sort of chocolate darker areas. It's hard to describe. So I'm still in the process of toning him down.

I've been working on the roany patches of Oliver. I wanted to get some of the roan work established first, and then I will go back and tighten up some of the markings. I worked on Elsie's mane and tail but she still looks pretty much the same so I'm not showing her photo, I'll be setting her aside to dry for a bit and then will start roaning on her.

And here's the fleabit Sushi that I'm doing. I'm trying something a little different with her and doing the initial fleabites in oils. It looks really stark at this point but there will be a lot more layers and blending in later. I'm really enjoying the larger flea bites and the fact that they're different sizes and more random, it's so much faster than doing a roan where a lot of sections need to be pretty uniform.

And that's all for now! I doubt if I'll post anything next week, so Happy Holidays to all of you :-)

I know I've been AWOL from the blog the last few weeks, as you can see I've been busy working on Equus Max. I've worked up his roaning and now I'm going to focus on his head, legs and mane and tail before I go any further with the roaning. I need a break! I can't tell you how many days have gone by where I've worked for hours, only to think at the end of the day: "it looks the same!" He's finally starting to get somewhere now. I really made a mistake by not doing a scumbled lighter gray base before starting the roaning. I'm a slow learner and stubbornly seem to do the same wrong things several times before a new idea sinks in. I've done a little scumbling over the hairs here, but will need to do more.

In the photo above, I've photoshopped the ribbons and the frosty mane and tail. His ear tips have rubbed off so I'm touching that up, that's why his ears have white tips.

Here he is from the other side:

and here is a shot of his chest area:

You should be able to click the photos to enlarge them.

This week I was able to work on Elsie and a little bit on Oliver. After I work on Max in oils I will need to let him dry for a while, so I will get a chance to work on my other pieces. I'm looking forward to it! 

Uh oh!

Hope you all have a fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Oh, my bleary eyes!

I've been spending the bulk of my time now working on this gigantic Equus Maximus. He still has a long way to go, but I can definitely see him starting to take shape. I did some scumbling of paint under the initial roaning, but now I'm doing more hair-by-hair roaning on top of that. I wish the photos showed the complexity that is going on. He has only been sprayed with Krylon matte fixative, which is actually kind of satin, but after I do more roaning on him I'll spray him with Dull Cote and that will flatten the color and make the contrast pop a little. 

This guy will probably be taking up most of my time for the next couple of weeks, so forthcoming blog posts will be sporadic. Sometimes it's relaxing to work on a piece like this, but after days on end, my eyes are not happy :-0 I also get really tired (or really antsy) from sitting in one position for so long, it's like I get into a trance and forget to move or look up.

I have managed to work a little bit on Elsie. I still have some more to do on her body color, but she will also be a roan. At least she's small!

Ollie's picture is a little blurry. He's going to have roany patches on him, so I'm starting to work on that before I tighten up the pattern.