Creative Juices

...always seem to come at the wrong moments.  Of course if you don't act on them, it feels like forever until they come again!  Thus today when the need to play with epoxy hit me, I knew exactly who to work on.  :)  My drastic cutom that showed up in my second posting and in the 'Guessing game.'  I have to say, I did not think anyone would guess what he started as and I was wrong.  Laura correctly guessed that he started as a Lonesome Glory (though there really is so little of the original left, I've sanded all of the original exposed plastic away!)  Darn his high tail set; I now know another thing to be fixed.  *wink*

So I guess this post will be dedicated to him.  I think it's more amusing to start at the very begining, which was probably 4 years ago.  (holy wow, I can't believe it's been that long)  The inspiration for this piece came from this photo in the Delaware Valley Horse News I believe.





And thus a LG got hacked to pieces.  These are some of the first photos after I reattached his limbs.









I lost interest in resculpting him, so I chopped up some more models.  And then lost interest in all of them as well.  About 3 months later I offered them for sale as they were;  two of the four sold.  In the process, this guy wanted to show me his wonderful jumping skills by jumping off my back deck while taking pictures.  He looked something like this after that.





So I put Humpty back together again.  (and apparently thought the bathroom would be a good place to take pictures... this is at least 3 years ago)
















I was happy with my progress, but I lost interest again for another year or so.  I pulled him out again over this summer and was appalled.  I couldn't believe I was happy with how I left him.  (Isn't that how it always goes?)  I sanded down all (and I do mean all) of his original plastic and muscle detailing, pulled off his neck and legs and started again.  This time I wanted to make sure that I got enough twist in his movement, specifically his neck which I completely forgot about last time. 













Over the past few months I've been fiddling with minor adjustments of his limbs to get them exactly where I want them.  Frequently I would detach his legs to reposition them (I guess that's not considered 'minor' then.  Lol)  I've finally managed to get all of his legs on and relatively decided where I want the hole to be for the pole that will support him.  Of course looking at the photos now I see more issuse that I want to fix with his legs. 

















There are some more pictures here if you want to see more angles.  He is such a pain to photograph with his crazy twisting action.  If anyone sees any other glaring defects, please let me know.  I really want to finalize his basic position before I move on to details of any kind (mind you, I'm just itching to add some muscling) but I just can't see what's wrong anymore.  I would rather not put him away for another year to gain fresh eyes so I hope you guys don't mind me borrowing yours! 

Merry Christmas to all!

And to all a good... wait, why am I still awake?  That's the thought that crossed my mind about 5 minutes earlier.  I figure I might as well put this "extra time" to good use and updat the blog!  Lol.  Now, as for my guessing game from the previous post, I'll have to wait a bit longer to say exactly who he started as.  Mostly becuase as I went to take new pictures, I decided that the legs were on wrong and pulled them off.  Again.  Don't let me do it again, or else I never get on to the part where I actually get to flesh him out!  Anyways, just a few updates.  One new pony in the studio, and I do mean a pony!  I was pulled in the raffle for the last 30 Chickory's from Lynn Fraley.  What a cute little bugger he is and a nearly perfect casting!  I've never had such a simple prep before.  I want to decide on a color for him soon, since I think he'll be the next one I work on (besides growling at Nitro still).  And as seems to be the story of my life, one model comes in, another one leaves.  Due to a few finacial issues, Ahzam has been sold before I could paint him.  Hopefully in due time I can get another one; he is such a beautiful resin. 

Oy, question and I hope someone has an answer.  Has anyone figured out how to get the metal peg/pole out of a Ruffian?  I am doing a donation piece for a Model Horse Annoymous and wish to remover her from her base but I can't figure out how to remove the metal short of cutting off her leg and rebuilding it.  There has to be a better way right?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Guessing game

Oh goodness, I really wish I had more time to dedicate to this blog and my models, but my current job has the strangest hours.  After working, all I want to do is nothing.  It's tough to be inspired when you're exhausted.  Anyways, I figure since I can't seem to sleep just yet, we should play a little game!  You might remember seeing this guy, well a part of him at least, from an earlier post.  He seems to have gone backwards from then (in the fact that he has more holes, again!) but hopefully this will lead to me going forward in getting my final shape!  Now, I'm going to post three (possibly alarming) photos I took recently of him and you all get to guess what he started life as!  And no guessing if you've already seen him (Christine! *insert evil eyes here*)  Lol. 

Ready?  Go!











I'll let this post sit for a few days, until I get a correct guess or I can't stand waiting anymore *wink*  He's a little bit farther than this now, I'll see if I can get updated pictures for the reveal post.

Braids!

Oh yes, they are everywhere. Needless to say it started with the AA Thoroughbred. I wasn't happy enough with his briad job, so I sanded it off and redid it.  and I worked on the face a bit, so it looks like a wreck again.  Oh well.




It came out well enough that I felt it was finally time to tackle Victrix.  Putting that epoxy on was one of the scariest things I've done recently.  Armed with this image and one sculpting tool, it began.  Two hours later...












I'm thrilled with the result!  Seriously, I couldn't be any happier with how they turned out.  She has 50 tiny braids in her mane.  I can't waitto paint her now, but in the rush of the moment, I forgot that she wasn't completely prepped!  D'oh.  So I can't do the forelock and tail until I finish prepping her.  (Somebody better yell at me if I do)

But braids!  Yay!  I'm thinking of offering them as a commisionable thing.  (is that even a word?)  Trying to figure out a good price system so that I'm getting paid for my time, but not so much that no one will buy it.  Why can't there be a cheat sheet for this type of thing?