Misty Monday

I love misty (or in Colorado's case cloudy) days. The weather obliged me this morning, wrapping our little valley in a blanket of light fog as the clouds rolled through. It was wonderful, even if it didn't last as long as I'd like.

Then it was time to drive to the new Smooth-On distribution center that just opened up in Colorado a few weeks ago for supplies. I am thrilled about this! It's only about an hour's drive and I don't need to spend a stupid amount on shipping. I basically used to pay so much for shipping that I could have bought another product instead. Not only is it a cost saver to have the center local, but it's also a time saver. No more waiting a week for product! That's wonderful when you have a deadline. Bad when they only had one gallon of rubber though when I needed two. ;) Oh well. Can't win them all. The salesman that was there was wonderful to speak with about the products, even if he was the reason that second gallon of rubber wasn't there for me. We both agree on which rubber is best apparently. :D Anyway, it was a good time visiting the location and starting my relationship with a rep who'll be seeing a lot of me.

Besides packing resins for shipping today, I did get a chance to work on a few more painted pieces. There is a live show coming up and I for once want to see some of my own pieces on those tables. The first is a Darling resin in bay tobiano with lots of white, which is a commission for S.P. Her other side will have even less color. So far I think she looks smashing and very much like a groomed paint you'd see on the hunter circuit.

The next was going to be my donation for the NAN raffle this year - a painted Llanura. However with the release of Quick Draw to my mailing list I decided he needed more exposure and asked my NAN rep if I could switch them out. So, I'll be finishing this gal up for the show anyway and also handing a cast QD to Teresa B.

I am debating on leaving her color like this or putting some dry-brushed layers of oils on her and see where she goes. Sometimes chestnuts turn out best when there's no plan in mind and you just let things happen. Either way she'll have a blaze and one little sock.

My problem is I'm being indecisive as I can see her in a few options at this point - rabicano roan, bird spot appy, the see-where-it-goes chestnut or leave her as is. You'll just have to wait and see along with me where this gal ends up!

Another "Quick" Update

During my "lunch break" I sit in front of the TV, cuddle with my dog on the sofa, eat lunch, and do some sculpting. Yes. I am one of those people who can't just be idle. Anyway. QD is making some progress! Now, you've seen this side a lot:

So I thought I'd take share more so you could get a better idea of him. Like actually seeing what his other side looks like (now that he has one)!

And this next one is just comical to me for some reason. You can really see that his left side is quite a bit behind work-wise to his right side. That inner left leg needs work, from the hoof all the way up to where it would connect to the chest. You can also see how one sided his face is right now too.

And here's the straight down view after the reworking of that booty! Much better don't you think? Getting there anyway.

And did I mention how much I love Super Sculpey? I am cranking out legs with far more detail than before!

That's all the new shots of him for now. We'll see how many more lunch breaks it takes to finish him. ;)

Sales and the painting continues!

So, first up, the gal who was going to buy Johann earlier had to take her kitty (very cute thing) to the vet for eyelid surgery so the sale fell through. He's back up for offers again so if you thought you'd missed out you have another shot at him. Lots more photos and information as well as bidding info on my sales page of the website: http://equine.aspenleafstudiosllc.com/sales.html

I have also been a painting fool lately. Now that the resin backlog is just about gone (only have a few stragglers left!!!!!!! Yes I am excited about this. ) I am focusing my efforts on the painted commission backlog. I did a rough count of how many commissions I currently have, not all of which are in studio at the moment, and I just about face planted. More motivation to knock that number (which shall remain my dirty little secret) down. Bring out the boxing gloves.

Plan of attack? KO the oldest pieces first of course. I spent most of this week prepping anything within reach so that when the painting began it could just flow to the next horse and to the next one, etc without being interrupted. I grabbed two Gawyn's, which are still needing that little finishing work on the prepping still - I'll take them on again next week, a Darling, a Legacy, a Justin Tyme, a Lorenz, one of the Copra Mares (head down one - I struggle with their names), three Reiners, an Ikran, Ahzam, Pixie, and a Darcy. Oh yeah. Momma was busy! Most of those last ones had paint work already started and I'm working on finishing them.

Of course, my airbrushes, which I use for basecoating, decided not to cooperate with me. My favorite for basecoating decided he'd like to get a big fat clog and would rather take a nice relaxing soak in Restorer than work. Lazy. My Micron, which I usually only use for finishing work, decided to be fragile and when I took the head off for cleaning him as well, it broke off instead and left a piece in the threading of the brush. Fabulous. Luckily, there is a gal at Meinenger's Art Supply who says she fixes these things all the time and it's easy and cheap. Bad news is that the part itself is like $50. Ouch.

I did manage to get a few things basecoated though before Lazy decided he was done.

Justin Tyme - he's going to get painted dark bay with 25% white tobiano sporting cat tracks.

Rose Reiner4 - finished color will be a bit darker than this, but those yellow oils are so transparent they really need to have more highlights as a base. He'll be a rich golden brown liver when he's done.

Not only did I manage to get this Legacy basecoated, but I applied a layer of oils on him last night too. The oils are still wet so he's a bit shiny. He's also on my "scrap base" which has a hole that was drilled crooked. It's perfect to hold him up while painting because I don't have to worry about dings and what not. He's in his unpretty stage right now, but he'll be gorgeous finished in a light golden bay.

Darcy will be a dark dappled buckskin. I had to darken her flank an chest area and now need to reapply the darker shading, which adds the dapples at the same time.

Pixie here is just adorable in a bay tobiano baby roan!

And this is probably my favorite foal sculpture to date - Ikran by Brigitte Eberl. I had such a fun time painting the Breyer foal "baby gray" that I'm doing the same thing here. Only instead of a bay base, I'm going with a chestnut base.

Check out that extreme hairing close up. Still not finished yet either!

I'll also be posting soon about a live show I'm holding in July. In it there's some scrumptious plaques I painted that were sculpted and donated by Kitty Cantrell. Members of my mailing list saw a peek at one. There will be lots more of my painting needed for all sorts of amazing prizes for the show. I'll just end the post here on that little teaser.