Swirling Colors or Making Mud

Ever get that feeling you're just pushing paint around?  That's how I feel about Smittyn right now.  She looks like a hot mess.  I'm hoping this is just one of those ugly stages all pieces go though.  I also hope that I'll be able to figure out how to get her out of this ugly stage. 

Wet oils do not photograph well.  Hmph.

It might be getting cold...

But things are warming up here!  I finally decided to pull out my oils and get some real color on Smittyn and the CM Dainty Darcy.  They got their acrylic basecoats a while ago and because of the limited number of acrylic colors I have, they both ended up pretty blah. 

Now they pop!  As fickle as oils can be, I really do looooove the richness of thier colors.  This was something I could never get in pastels.  Maybe if I had tried pure pigments.  Hmmm....  Ack no! Distracted!

Photo time!

Darcy/Simba actually needs to be toned down again.  The real horse is not quite this bright.

Smittyn meanwhile is not quite accurate to my ref, but she is so luscious now.  Next I have to figure out how to make her actually look like a dapple grey and not just a pretty gradient.

Tomorrow maybe VL will get another coat of color.  : )

Shades of Bay - 62 days

After a super slow start this morning and afternoon with an appointment, being a chauffeur, readin and re reading the instructions for the Ren Faire dress pattern (it came today, yay!!!!!), and looking for 46 buttons for said dress (which I failed in finding), I finally was able to get some paint on Smittyn and Darcy/Simba.  Both of them were only basecoated in acrylics, too late to pull out the oils.



Somebody needs some shading.

 



I must say that I've been using Carol Williams book for my oil painting and she really does have the formulas spot on.  If it wasn't for her book, Smittyn would just be a dark bay instead of a rose grey.  Make that will be a rose grey, right now she's a mess.  But the colors are pretty.  XD



Most frightening base coat ever. Wait, that was two posts back. Lol

 


I can't decide between a dark tail or a two tone tail, thoughts?

Hmmm... VL is dry enough to put another coat on and I wouldn't have to mix the paints.  Plus one for oils.  

The Real Deal - still 65 days

Aren't you all lucky, two posts in one day!  : )

I did end up deciding to put some color on Vertical Limit after all.  Mostly because I still had the paint all mixed up and paint is a terrible thing to waste.  Or so I keep trying to remind myself. 

I always used to use pastels to paint my models, but after going to college and getting my degree in Fine Arts, my brain decided that oils would be more fitting.  I've been regretting that decision ever since, but I'm determind to get a better handle on it.  Eventually.  I'm sure it also doesn't help that I keep trying to do chestnuts in oils.  That color is the bane of my existance in any medium. 


WHOA! Case and point!


Now!  On to the main spectacle.

First he got three layers of the basic body color in acrylic.  I mixed in a little gold pigment for some sparkle, no boring chestnuts here!

NOT THAT SPARKLE!!!!



Not that you can see the sparkle here.




Streaky...blargh.



Next I blocked in him mane, tail, and feetsies.  I love the lighter legs that the chestnust have sometimes.



Umm...not quite that high.




Mmmm, creamy.

After those dried it was time to break out the oils and mix more colors.  Yay!



Whoa!  Crazy red!  And still streaky, but mostly becuase I put on suck a thin layer of oils.  At least I hope that's why.  He's still very wet so he's super shiny.  Honeslty, he's looks better in the photos that he does in person.  Or maybe the lighting in my room is just terrible.  I'm still trying to figure out the logic in painting my most expensive resin myself in a medium I'm only moderately comfortable in.  I guess I'll be debating that for a few more days until I can pick him up again.  Drying time of oils is a total killer.

Now I get to prep the rest of them.  : )

Test Subject - 65 days

I'm trying to be good and be productive, especially seeing as I unearthed another resin I wanted to have done for the show.  Eek!


Bad Smittyn.

So, seeing as I'd rather not break out the epoxy today, I broke out the paints instead.  And  as Vertical Limit is the only model fully prepped and ready to paint at the moment (the others need some final prepping and a coat of primer) I figured he would be the best place to start.



He doesn't look quite as splotchy in real life.



Which meant that I needed to work on my little test subject first.  Doesn't he just look... awful.  XP  Chestnut and I do not get along at all.  But seeing as this was just for me to get my acrylic base colors decent, I guess I can't complain too much.  Now to find out if I am brave enough to lay the base coat on VL himself or if I will chicken out and keep prepping horses. 

Inspiration

Did I mention that BAD is definately going to be a long term project?  He's maybe a quarter of the way done with his second layer of roaning, I'm now starting to refine the hairs.  I still have no idea if I'm on the right track yet.  He is looking kinda crazy, so as well as having my ref photos up, I have up a photo of my inspiration.  Definately click to enlarge this one.

Beautiful, right?  The uber talented Liz Shaw of Tick Tock Studio was the creator of this work of art.  You should also be sure to visit her blog post about her technique too.  : )  The paintjob was done on an Ebrel Rosita resin, more photos of the finished piece can be seen here.  It was the above photo posted on Blab that inspired me to paint BAD to a roan, a decision I haven't started regretting yet.  Lol.  Obviously BAD has a long way to go before he looks anything like Liz's amazing finishwork.

Need smaller brushstrokes!  I'll have to go back and refine some more, but hopefully he's on his way?  Maybe I shouldn't have picked a funny base color to be under my first roan.

And now I'm gonna go work some more on him while I'm waiting for other things to dry.  Oh, and starting tomorrow I'm going to start a series of posts that walk you through a simple custom, from conception to completion.  I hope that someone finds them helpful!

What color would you call THAT?

My goodness, I do not like painting chestnuts.  Mini Maj, I can see you and I are going to have some real issues to sort out. 

Big BAD Sleepless Night

*Note to self and warning to others - do not attempt to do a hair by hair roaning on a trad in one sitting*

In other news, BAD is a magical color changing horse apparently, one minute he's bay, next he's white, then he's bay again, now he's somewhere in the middle.  This seems like a silly way to go about things, but I'll find out (way) later if it was worth it.

White BAD (super thin wash of Titanium white/Pearl Ex interferance gold pigment mix) 





















Next I went back and roughly "hair by hair" his basecoat color back in.  It was around 1:30AM when I finished this part.  And look, it's BAD's other side!  XD

Then while that paint layer was still "tacky" I went back again with my white mixture and did another rough layer of roaning.  Around 4 AM I was done with him and seeing crosseyed.

And a close up for the curious.  Only 20 or so layers left! 

I had some painting companions as well.  I bet they wished they had slept in the hall last night instead.  Lol

Turn off the light mom, it's waaay past bedtime!






















And now I'm off to the barn to play with real ponies.  : )  What a gorgeous day out!

Ooo a Shiny!

After getting my eyes dialated this morning and then sleeping it off because I couldn't focus on anything closer than four feet away (thanks doc), I put the first layer of oils on BAD.  He looks a little less yummy now I think.  Maybe.  Now I have to see how long the oils will take to dry before I can put another layer on him.  The waiting time alone makes me want to go back to pastels, but my BFA won't allow me.  Haha.

Shiny wet pony pics.  :)

No, I have no idea why I'm painting his whole body when he is going to be roan.  At least not the way I plan on roaning him out.

Ugly Stages

Seeing as I'm still waiting for my primer to set up fully, I figured it was time to dive in and start painting BAD.  One basecoat of acrylics later and man does he look ugly.  It so looks like I've been painting him with food too doesn't it?  Smear some peanut butter on his flanks, drizzle his legs in chocolate syrup, and smooth some nutella on his back.  Sounds yummy!

He'll be getting his first layer of oils today and I'll be working on eliminating his similarity to my favorite treats.  Haha