A Short Diversion

Sorry for the radio silence on this end lately! I've been working on finishing up the Johann and Oliver commissions, and unfortunately when it gets to this point there's not really any use in showing them until they're done. Glazes, spot-checks and final detailing just don't seem to show through on the photos, yet it takes a long time to get those final details right. 

My time in the model horse studio will be very limited for the next couple of weeks, too, because I'm trying to finish up a large "flat" painting for a show deadline. So I am limiting myself to the commissions and a small sales piece until the flat painting is done. Then I'll be back in business!

In the meantime I thought I'd share a few sketches I made the other day of a raccoon that wandered into the yard. It spent a long time grooming itself.

Update

Johann might look like he's almost finished here, but he's not. I think he looks better in these photos right now than he does in real life, I'm still glazing color on him and fiddling with the dapples and all the other little details. I gave him a star and a snip, I think that looks pretty good. Today I'm going to work on his body color a bit, and then I've got to let him sit for a little while.

That's all the photos I've got this week. Everything else is drying. I'm really moving along with my sales pieces, too, I can't tell you how good it feels to whittle down my in-progress pieces. By the end of this year, if I can keep myself from buying anything new, I should have everything done and will be able to buy new sculptures as they come along. It pains me to not be able to buy every nice new sculpture that is released, I want to encourage sculptors and help the hobby, but I need to realize my own painting limitations (and pocketbook) and work within that rather than trying to keep up with everyone else. 

That's all for now!

Krylon Quick Dry for Oil Paintings

This is a newer product put out by Krylon, I've been wanting to try it for a while but at $11 a can I just couldn't spend the money. I haven't been able to find any reviews of it online, so finally I decided to give it a try.

Krylon states that this product causes oil paint to dry by oxidation, which I believe is the same type of drying action as Cobalt Drier. I wrote to Krylon and asked them if this product could cause cracking or wrinkling, because I know that can happen with Cobalt Drier if too much is used. Krylon sent me a canned type of response that said Quick Dry is supposed to be used on rigid surfaces, that it is compatible with oil and alkyd-based paints, and to always test the surface first.

I tested it on a test model horse, using three very slow-drying oil paints: titanium white, pearlescent black, and metallic german silver. I didn't paint it on too thick or anything, just a standard swatch of test paint.

I made sure to shake the can longer than the designated time. It doesn't say in the instructions how many coats should be applied, so at first I just sprayed one thin coat.

What happened? The wet area became extremely tacky, it felt really sticky. This lasted for several days! After the first couple of days the paint stopped lifting when I touched it, but the tacky feeling remained. I thought that maybe it requires more than one coat, so after about 5 days, I sprayed it again. It still stayed tacky, in fact it's been a couple of weeks now and the white is still a little tacky. The paint doesn't lift, maybe the paint is actually dry under the coating, but the coating itself remains tacky for a long time and I definitely wouldn't want to paint over that.

I can't believe that Krylon encourages people to use this between coats of oil paints, and to spray it into your paint on the palette to encourage drying. I don't know what kind of rigid surface they are expecting you to use it on, but I found it completely disastrous on a model horse and will never use it again. I'm glad I tested it first! I've had good results with some of Krylon's clear coats, but after a horrid experience with their Fusion Plastic paint, I make sure to always test first. A waste of $11!

I would love to hear if anyone else has tried this product and what their experience was with it.

Finished!

I'm so happy to say that I've finally finished this big guy! I really went all out on the roaning on him, almost all of it is layer after layer of single hair roaning. I don't think I will ever paint another horse this large again, at least not in this pattern lol!

Here are a couple more pictures, I think you can click on all of these to see larger photos. I will have more photos on my website and Facebook page soon. 

All the other commissions I'm working on are at least halfway finished, and now that Max is done I will be able to work much more on them. 

Update

Equus Max is sooo close now, I'm just waiting for his horseshoes to dry. I'm trying to use thin layers of metallic paint, but there's something about metallics that makes them have less covering power, yet they take  the longest time to dry. I still have another layer to do on them, too, but I may add a tiny drop of drier to see if that will speed the process.

Anyway, here is where Elsie is at right now. She's going so much faster than Max. I think I will work on her legs or head next.

Here's the other side of Oliver. I've put some color on his hooves. I'm going to brighten up his whites very slightly and do a little more roaning on him next.

I put some hoof color on Johann, too. I was originally planning on giving him a sock or two, but now I think I might leave his legs dark. Maybe a small snip and star, or a star and stripe instead. I don't know. The colors I am using for this guy are so transparent that it's basically just glazing over and over on him. I also have to sand him every couple of coats. I just love that regal face!

I guess it was hoof week in the studio. I want to tone down the color a bit on this guy, and the pangare isn't quite the right color yet, either.

Here's a sales piece I've been working on as time permits. He's going to have a lot of roaning in addition to his pattern, and I'm not sure if he will have one or two blue eyes.

Another sales piece that I haven't had much time to work on. I've just started roaning him. I was thinking of giving him some sabino marking, I'm not sure, though. It would be pretty minimal.

Okay, that's it for this week! Sushi is coming along and I've got a couple of other minis going, and one model that I will show only when it's finished, just for fun. I've got to surprise you with something, right? 

Brush Mystery

I ordered some brushes from Dick Blick the other day, and today as I sorted through them, I found one that didn't look right. The brush pictured on top is what I thought I was ordering, the Escoda Kolinsky 1208 series brush. The brush on the bottom is what I got.

Now, I know that brush manufacturers change their handles sometimes, so that could be the case, and unfortunately, this brush was the only one that didn't come with the little plastic tube that protects it. It's not frayed, but the brush hairs look like they are a different shape than the brush on the top in this picture.

Blick lists two brushes on their order page, a pointed round and a detailer round. I ordered the detailer round, but now I'm thinking that what I received was the pointed round. To make matters worse, the packing slip lists it as "retouch brush" which isn't mentioned anywhere on the order page.

Here's a closeup of the two brushes. Again, the one on the top is the one I wanted. Do they look the same to you? I wet the bottom one to bring it to a point, and when I did that, it looked very similar to the top one, but still, to my eye the base of the brush hairs on the bottom brush looks a little thicker than the base of the top brush. Blick lists the mm size of the brush, but the smallest unit that shows on any of my rulers is 1mm which is too big.

I called Blick and the CS rep insisted that I got the right brush, but I really don't know. This is a frustrating aspect of ordering things online; if there's a problem there's almost no way to figure out the truth. I went to Escoda's web site, but all of their pictures show a brush that looks like the top brush, and they are based in Spain so I'm not sure what kind of response I will get to any questions I might have.

 I can still use the brush, but next time I have to order I'm going to hesitate to order this brand because I don't know what I'm going to get. 

These brushes are not cheap and I don't want to spend money on something when I'm not positive I'm going to get the right thing.

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...