Feeling a little green - updated!

And oh so amused!  I treated myself to a model back at the beginning of March and it just came in today.  How could I pass up the St. Pattie's Day green color on the Stone Design A Horse website?  This month's special color is a beautiful dark blue, but I'm just chuffed with my green TB.  : )






















This shot is pretty acurate color wise.  It's probably a good thing they don't have the green option anymore because I might have had to order another!



***Update***

You can all thank (or blame) Braymere for this one.

He's a GREEN Working Hunter!  ROFL!  And he's sporting some lovely tack made by Braymere as well.  On another note, that bridle doesn't fit him at all!  This must be remedied!


Not show approved.  Haha

I'm dying here Jen, that was a hysterical idea.  XD

Wordless Wednesday

Been feeling very out of it lately.  I know a few people that come here are Blabbers, so they kind of know why.  Hopefully I'll get out of this funk soon.

And I can't very well have an update without pictures.  Here are some shots from the Garden State Horse Show from 2009.  I think the first set up to the ponies was from the Amateur Owner Jumper class.  I didn't really pay attention to classes, just taking photos.  Lol.



This little girl was in the 2'9" jumper class.  Cute pony. 



Pony hunters I think.  This one won the class.  : )

Let the bodies hit the floor!

Or at least give me back my shelf space!  Seriously, ever get that feeling you have too many projects going at at once?  Let's count!

The top of my shelves hold the most active projects and there are 10 up there.  Yikes!

Second shelf is my minis, most of which I have a plan for but no time for yet.  Another 14 here.


The mini resin and painted G2 morgan are no longer here since this pic.


















Second and third shelves are my "get to them eventually" models.  Also known as the "I can't stand to look at you anymore" shelves.  Lol.  Add 7 more on the second shelf and 12 more on the bottom shelf (some not in photo). 

Ah, found one more hiding on the second shelf! 

Add them all toegther and that makes....errr...44!  Yowza, I didn't think it was quite that many.  And that's just what I have at on those shelves.  I've got some headless and legless ones in a drawer and a few on my windowsill that I've got plans for.  Oh! Then there's another 3 resins and a plastic custom in progress at a friends place!

Does anyone want any bodies?  XD



And a big thank you to those that commented recently!  I really have to get to bed (early day tomorrow, ack today!) but I will get back to all of you.  Hugs!

Flash CM Walkthrough : Part 1

So here begins the series of posts that I've been rather excited for.  If this one goes over well I may do more walkthroughs or indepth postings on customs in the studio.  I'll need to learn to take more photos between steps then, haha. 



Right, so first thing you (should) do before attacking a poor, innocent model horse is come up with a plan.  Your plan could be anything from a drawing or sketch you've done to a photo you love.  Should the photo not be one you took yourself, be sure to get permission from the photgrapher before you go any further than planning.  The last thing you want is an unhappy artist coming after you.  I stumbled upon this photo on deviantART and knew I had to sculpt it. 



Beautiful Kladruber Stallion  <3



 
After obtaining permission from the artist, it's time to cut!  First I removed the mane and tail since they are going to be resculpted.  Flash's tail is thin enough that I just snapped it off, but the mane needed to be removed with a dremel. 



Baldy!






















Sometimes I'll actually cut and reattach a limb, neck, etc. but usually I'm uber lazy and just heat the daylight out of whatever I want to move.  Yes, Flash has a totally broken neck at this point.  The point of the crest is too far back.  This is not a point you want to stop and start adding epoxy!


Ouch!




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Next I had to get rid of that lump on the back of his neck and once again being lazy, I heated up the neck, took a pocket knife and cut it off.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Really badly.  Lol.  If you decide that the heat and cut method is good for you, be sure to cut away from yourself.
 
This is where I forgot that I was documenting this piece and just started going nuts.  It's also not that easy to take photos with epoxy on your hands.  Anywho, using my top photo as referance I first built up my topline and the underside of the neck.  Then I went on to rough in the muscles and detail the skin wrinkles a little while the epoxy stiffer (about 45 minutes after mixing). 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He still need more work on the neck and will be losing his face next.  XD  Part 2 should be up within the week.

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. 

Weekend Wiped-Out

I had a busy weekend, at least as far as my standards go and it wiped me out pretty good.  My two friends and I went to NYC to see War Horse on Broadway, and it was incredible!  I'll have a seperate post on that coming up but I will say that if you get the opportunity to see it, go!  And now back to work on ponies.  : )  I got a Mini Maj and Smittyn in the studio last week and they just got thier first coat of primer.  A little bit of sanding, one more layer of primer, and they will be ready to paint!  Both will be sales pieces when completed, expect to see the Maj first.

Now I'm working on BAD and waiting on the mail to come!  I have two very exciting things that should be here today, I just hope this crazy weather doesn't delay them anymore than they already have been!

It's spring!  So why is it snowing?!  Gah!

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!

Fighting Mediocrity

Ever have one of those days where you just want to chuck whatever you are working on across the room and hope it hits a wall?  Yeah, I'm having one of those.  BAD is still too wet to put another layer on, so I prepped two mini resins today and wanted to try and finish prepping Terrang (yes, still).  Terrang is that model in my studio apparently.  The one that no matter how many times you go over him and fill things in or level out bumps, there are always more.  I'm continually temped to just say 'screw it' and start painting but I don't want the first piece I complete to have serious flaws.  This is where my penchant for working messy drives the perfectionist in me nuts when I have to go back and clean it up.

Don't you look at me like that, that's cheating.

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

Flooding, Clipping, and Watching Paint Dry

We got hit with a ton of rain on Thursday (it was Thursday right?) and while there were no issues with my house, my BF's was a different story.  I spent the weekend taking shifts with his family to Shop Vac their basement.  Funny part, they don't technically live in a "flood zone" but the ground was so saturated that it was just coming up through the French drains. 

Note: I hate French drains.

Back home today, I got to put another layer of primer on the resins from a few posts ago and deal with more little boogers and dents in Terrang before priming him again as well.  (He still has little dents.  Sheesh!)  Now I get to spend time watching primer dry.  Three days of drying in fact. 

Another note: I hate Rustoleum primers.

In other news, Beauty doesn't seem too thrilled with her new clip job either.  Lol

Should I even bother saying that I'm going to aim to get color on Terrang before the end of the week?  Keeping goals seems to be a short coming of mine.  Oh well!

Dreary Day

Like most of the counrty, I'm being swamped with rain. Makes for a good day of getting things done indoors. So I guess you can thank the weather for an actual update with model horses today. Terrang is 99% done. He needs a little more detailing on his tail, one more layer of primer, and then I can finally paint him! Yay! Well, provided I don't give in to the voice telling me to redo the mane and tail. But yeah, time for photos! I'm pretty pleased with how he came out so far.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This photo makes me think the his legs are too short.  Maybe it's just his uber long neck becuase they measure out correctly when compared to his head.  Do you guys think I should lengthen them?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Aie, I just noticed that my cloth kept getting in front of his feet.  They are all the same size and length, honest.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yes, I desperately need a photo booth, the shadows are not appealing.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And a few close-ups of the tail.  I'm pleasantly pleased with the flow, but I'm not terribly fond of the detailing I did.  Must resist the urge to tear it off!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like always, all photos are clickable to em-biggen. : )

Spring Cleaning

I really need to decide if I'm going to use all caps for the first letter in my words in the titles or just for the very frist word.  I feel like I keep switching back and forth, mostly becuase I can't remember what I did last time.  Lol.

Another non-productive day in the studio.  Mostly because I wasn't there at all today.  My friend Christine and I arranged to have a riding lesson at a local barn.  I can't remember how many years it's been since I had a real lesson.  It also reminded me how much I dislike hunter horses (ow my legs).  None the less it was great to ride a horse that was in shape and jump around a course again. 

Now I still don't have time for plastic ponies.  First I have to clean real pony tack.

Does someone want to help?  Please?

A case of the blahs + puppy!

Feeling totally uninspired today.  Terrang was to get his final sanding and detailing done, but I just am not in the mood to do it.  So I keep picking up various projects in progress, looking at them and determining what still has to be done, and then putting them back.  I'm gonna blame it on the rain. 

And more random photos.  I swear this is a model horse blog.  And we will get back to those asap.  Until then, puppies!  More specifically, my 'new' puppy.  He's just over a year now, but he was oh so cute when he was little!

"My toy?"

Now, he's a hundred pound monster and goofy as anything.

Indeed a face only a mother could love!  Hopefully we'll be back to ponies soon.

Losing some hair

Not mine!  Not yet at least.  I got an Arista in the studio about a month ago in a trade.  She needs to be prepped eventually, but first she ended up getting a hair cut.  Didn't you know bald is in?  Haha

She still needs to be prepped before I can give her a new hairdo and I must say that I am in no rush to do it.  She has seams to rival the old Ebrel casts (Ouch!).  Arista was going to be for sale, but a good friend laid claim to her already.  As such, she has requested that Arista be braided up so I might see if I can do a tutorial on that if anyone would be interested.  I've got a couple other walkthroughs in the works, including a step by step process of a custom from conception to finished piece.