Pieces of Ponies

So, while the snow has been coming down I've been guiltily spending time sculpting. I needed a break from the painting just to freshen myself up a bit. After pouring another layer of rubber on Mimi and Baldur (Morgan mare and Icelandic Horse stallion), I decided to make a little more progress on a little filly I'm having lots of fun with!

I find myself wanting to do more "dynamic" poses lately along with the older mares. And I do like a challenge. I really like to take an element that I'm a little unsure of and really come to terms with it by incorporating it into sculpture. Darcy's element was the parked pose, Gawyn's was the drafty bulk and how to make all that hair peformance friendly, Baldur's is capturing the weight distribution and angles of a galloping turn, etc. Each piece had challenges, but those pieces had more readily described ones. This next piece incorporates leg angles in the movement as well as really dynamic shoulder action. Legs don't just move up and down, they move in and out too. It's hard to tell how much movement this pieces has until I put the legs onto a body, but I'm really happy with the results so far!

The leggies are pretty much as far along as they're going to get at this point. You'll see they're not all the way done near where they'd connect to the body. This is because I want to sculpt that part in - one for more stability of the sculpture, and two to create a smoother blend incorporating the "separate digit" from the piece. It'll look more seamless that way.

Thanks to Liesl Dalpe for the inspiration of sculpting the legs separate from the body! This method of sculpting really works so much easier for me. I can pick up the legs and work around all the angles without trying to cram in a long-handled sculpting tool into a tight squeeze. They are also much easier to measure lengths this way. 

While I like her young face, you'll notice I messed up and sculpted the eyes too far down the head. I've photoshopped two of the images to show where the eyes will end up. Now if only they were that easy to move in real life!

My favorite order of sculpting things seems to be start with the head (my absolute favorite part of a piece), then get the dirty work of the miserable legs out of the way next (I *hate* sculpting legs but I'm really making an effort to get better at them!), start the easy work of the body and assembling the entire piece as a whole, and then finish up with my second favorite part - hair. 

That's all the peek you get! For now. :)

Snowy Sunday

This morning we woke up to see a lot of snowflakes! Not too much had stuck from the previous night, but that was about to change. I looked at the barn to see how the ponies had fared through the night and laughed when I saw them.

That's Rocky. Our snow lover. As you can see, the reputation of "hardiness" in Morgans is well earned. 

A little less snow after a shake. Where is Myr you ask? Well, he's demonstrating the reputation of "smartness" the Arabs are known for. ;)

I can happily report that it is still snowing extremely hard and we have gotten at least another foot since the morning photos were taken. I hope it snows 3 more feet! We desperately need anything wet here in Colorado.

Brigid "Shows Up" Painted!

I received a photo of a painted Brigid from one of my customers today. This particular photo was one of the more fun ones as it involved ribbons and titles!

Owner Shay Canfield just sent me this image of her "Cherry Cordial" - a Brigid resin painted to red chestnut by Beth Hoffert. This is Cherry Cordial winning Reserve Champion Sport Breed at Sea to Bay live show today! Congrats to Shay and Beth and Cherry on the win! :D

And yes, Brigid is still available in resin and being cast by MVS. All orders placed have had their ponies shipped out so there'll be virtually no wait on new copies ordered. Interested in purchasing her? Please go to her web page: http://equine.aspenleafstudiosllc.com/sculpturesresins/brigid.html

The New Web Design!

So, it's taking me a while, especially on those resin pages as a lot of those particularly needed updating, but the new website design launch is hopefully a thing soon to come! You've noticed the blog design update I'm sure. I wanted more of a lighter feel with a hint of whimsy. I think with the curvy script (still very easy to read) and the lighter less symmetrical background design with softer colors, I get that feel. 

Here are some peeks at what's to come! First up is the Equine Art index page. Nothing fancy, just a simple intro and gateway to all the site's equine areas:

Finishwork is the new title for the gallery section. The title bar, side buttons, and creamy background are the main design changes which move throughout the site. The Finishwork area will of course be up to date! There are a lot of painted ponies that happened since my last update forever ago.

The resin section of the page is also vastly outdated currently. So, this will be a very much needed pick-me-up to this section! You'll also notice that instead of calling the area "Sculptures/Resins" it's just called LE Resins now. Keep reading to find out why.

Yep! Since I'm into ceramics now, they need their own pages too! Since I'm just starting out, obviously this section will be small at first; but it will grow! I'll have a page for each sculpture I cast in ceramic, and probably a one off finishwork page showing some examples of my work on other's clinky pieces. Seriously, because who doesn't like eye candy?

So, you can see while it's nothing major, it's still in my opinion a great improvement over the current one - and not just in means of being up to date! Another very important part to the site update will be the policies that will now be listed in the sales area. I'm done with the finishwork and clinky sections. The next biggest section to tackle is the resins, and I'm almost halfway there. Policies will take a little time, but otherwise it'll be ready for the upload/reveal at that point!