Next up...Reiner #4

My brain muscles got a work out at work today so while they'll be superman strong tomorrow, tonight is sadly lacking in the thought department. Hence, boring title. Pictures will make up for it!

I figured I'd move into the next Colorado horse, but then I realized that every horse photo'd with the exception of Dainy Darcy in that group shot was a CO horse. Funny how that worked out. Either way, Jane's Reiner is next. 

 He's the fourth Reiner I started, and I've still got a few more to paint. He's another I took off the base and then added Rio Rondo slider shoes on back/reg shoes on front. And another that didn't photograph near as well as he looks in person. 

 It's the layering thing. You can kind of get an idea of the depth of color in the angle shots where the eye gets a different angle through the color rather than looking straight on. 

Jane and I were talking about how we both agreed that all our favorite Reiner heads had nice big blazes. They really do look good on this horse! And I kept his a little interesting with those jagged edges.

Until next time!

Painting Peek!

Lots of horses are getting painted and preparing to get out the studio door over here! I haven't had time to crop or edit (to correct color when necessary) any of their photos yet, but I have these guys pictured below photographed and uploaded to my computer. I have a Victrix in there as well, though she was a day late to join these for their group photo shoot. Probably a good thing as my background was barely big enough for these five!

Stay tuned for more photos of these five and the Victrix shortly! And then five-six MORE horses after that! I'm on a painting spree!

P-p-painting

Jennifer Buxton mentions we've been having pretty cold days in Colorado on her blog. I'm up a few thousand feet from her, so we usually are about 10-15 degrees *colder*! It was -15 last night. The Saint Bernards are happy as clams. Myr is his cold, crabby self and hanging in there. Rocky, I'm convinced, is part polar bear. He is totally content to be out in this kind of weather. 

I, am not. It was a great day to crank up the heat and stay inside! I figured I'd been spending a lot of time updating the blog with ceramics that it was time to post on painting again. So, since I got a lot done tonight, I'd show you a couple pics!

Technically this guy has been done for quite some time. But I never got around to taking photos of him until now. 

 That color is super cool in person. Because it's layer upon layer of color, and those layers aren't fully opaque, you see this depth with the undertones coming through.

 Hints of burgundy an blues and purples shine through here and there depending on where the light happens to be hitting. This guy was a commission and his owner will be thrilled to have him arrive. 

Next is a Mini Pearl. This is the little one, not the more LB/Pebbles scale one. She's also a commission, and I *know* her owner is ready to have her home! ;)

I absolutely love the light flaxen mane and tail on this piece. Lots of movement to paint on! I also love how her face came out.

I've got lots more horses that had a lot happen to them today, but only took photos of the ones that needed to ship soon. Photos take a lot of time so I decided to use that time painting. I know that means less eye candy, but it also means a blog post for later. :) 

Some photogenic studio updates

I'm due (long over due in fact) for a web update - not just the gallery but the in studio page as well. I don't have the time for that large of a project yet, so I'm taking the quick way out meantime with a little blurb of studio projects.

Remember several years back when I did this guy? Well, his owner and I had the most unfortunate luck of this being a rare case of a leaking resin that doesn't rear its ugly head until well after the paint has been applied. We traded the bad body back to Lynn for another and are having a second attempt at this guy. He's almost finished, just need to add more gold to the highlights and then add the dark to the other side.

Another one of my long time residents. This Lorenz is finally up on the assembly line and looking good in his dapple gray coat! Little fleabites are being added to the flank, shoulder, elbow and neck areas right now. His legs are blocked in but still need work on this side. The other side needs everything. :)

Two Reiners on commission are just about finished! The top needs his m/t and hoofies completed and I'm waiting on a Rio Rondo order of shoes to give him that finishing touch.  The bottom just needs to have his feet finished and he's ready to be sealed and sent home!

These next two are sales pieces that I'm squeezing in. Ikran, above, has been getting little hairs drawn on here and there for probably the last year. He's not very high on the priority list as I'm working more on commissions and resin orders. Since you last saw him in an earlier blog post, I've added more hairing work and then a layer of oils over top of that hairing detail to set everything in. I'm extremely pleased with the way he is coming out. I love this little sculpture, which certainly helps. It's probably my favorite foal resin out there today, though Morgen's Little Man Mango is right up there with him.

 This guy however, I should have done in the next couple of days. I <3 mini's. Freshly released, he's Sarah's Little Lonestar and I'm trying a new way of painting on him. I had an idea for a "short cut" of sorts but wanted to make sure the look would still be the same and just as nice. So far, on the two horses I've tried it out on it's working out great! This means faster production, which is always a huge benefit! Still need to add the shadows and blanket on the other side and add the white markings on the legs and face. So far he's sailing along though.

And I'm trying to integrate a plastic piece in now and then too. I like the change in medium to kind of spritz things up a little anyway. This gal is more performance oriented with her neck tucked and head on the bit. I've added braids and squared out her tail more. The braids need to be "dechunkified" and some smoothing needs to happen, but after that I think I'm ready for painting. Still no clues on color for her yet. I'm thinking a medium chestnut but I'm not nailed to it. Suggestions are always welcome. :D

Also in the studio is a new sculpture project. I'm almost finished with the little Welsh pony mare, but I had to start this guy before I exploded with pent up creativity. Another warmblood? Fraid so. Why? A few reasons. One, I had a friend comment on how odd it was that while I was an "English type" rider (dressage/eventing) I had a lot of western style resins. I thought it funny when I realized how right she was. So, I'm endeavoring to give Depeche a buddy. Another reason for the second dressage oriented piece is completed business related. When I can afford to and take the time away from work, I ride at a high-end dressage barn. Let's just say I believe there's the potential for some jobs there. I very much want to branch out into bronze work and start focusing on commissioned sculpture.  So, I need a portfolio piece that showcases the recent skill level I've reached that would appeal to the buyer I'm trying to attract. 

I have been wanting to do this pose for years now actually. It's a bit different from what you normally see in the model world. He is cantering, but he's only got one weight-bearing leg at this time in the gait. There are so many trotting ones I didn't want to go that direction, and I still wanted a versatile horse for other events besides dressage so I didn't want to sculpt a very specific movement like the half-pass or pirouette. And while we have a lot of horses in the canter with three weight-bearing legs like Depeche, there really aren't mane with just one. I believe that's because of the need for either a base or pegs. This guys will most likely have two. One in his right back leg, and then one in the left front.

So, yes the update was a bit long, but in that there were lots of photos to see, I'm sure you'll forgive me. ;) There are still many more horses in progress, but their paint was drying or they were at another otherwise impossible to photograph stage.

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.

Misc. Monday

Just a hodge podge of stuff today. So, in no particular order:

We have another peek of the Johann. I just love this little resin. Morgen's stuff is just so nice! And, this small traditional scale is just *wonderful* to paint. I should take a photo of the neighbor's horse, who is my inspiration, and post it here. Maybe next time. Johann will be up for sale by the end of this week!

If you're a member of my mailing list, then you've just seen the post of these shots. I have a client that needed a sculpture example of mine for a job I'm hoping to get. Of course I can just send a stark white unpainted piece so I quickly painted this Llanura resin up with the airbrush I use for my basecoats. She actually looks pretty nice in my opinion for a quickie paint job!

More Llanura.

And some more. If you want to see the whole spectrum, you'll have to go the mailing list's group album.

I just love this shot. I think it shows off how spectacular her tail is. :D

And let's finish off on a great note! Vicky Norris took her newly-completed Reiner commission to the Mini Balls & Tejas live show. She tells me he won a first in workmanship and a second in breed. She also tells me that he won his two performance classes she entered in. Photo is complimentary Vicky - thank you and CONGRATULATIONS!

If you have photos of *your* Aspen Leaf winners, I would *love* to post them here!

Domination of the Dapple Grays!

Yes! This August my studio is being dominated by all the dapple grays getting finished up and hopefully ready to go out the door by the end of the month. Another appropriate title would be "Death by Dapple Gray".

My poor white oil pencil keeps getting shorter and shorter. Pretty soon it will be just a little nub of a thing and I'll have to toss it. I hate tossing pencils. I will work with them until I cannot find a sharpener that will get the job done - usually leaving me drawing with a little 3/4" stub of a pencil, fingers protesting at working with such a small object.

Any artist will tell you that dapple grays are the hardest color to paint. They've definitely been my personal challenge for the last decade. However, something crazy happened while working on the Stormwatch. I had my airbrush base roughed on in there and was taking my white paint to try to tone some of the darkness down when my hands started to move of their own accord. Seriously. I remember thinking to myself, "That's odd..." while I watched them go. Within 30 min I had a section of blocked in dapples that looked fantastic. Now white painted on top of things tends to make a blue gray hue so I took some pigment and dry-brushed burnt umber and black into areas to warm it back up. Add another layer of finely painted white hairs on top of it, add cool contrasting flea-bites and bam! I had a dapple flea-bitten gray I could be proud of.

Of course I couldn't stop there. I got to thinking, "What if I did this?" and "What if I did that?" and had to grab the next commission order that had been neglected due to the complexity of it's color - a portrait gray on an Esperenza (the original) body. This order has been gnawing at me for a while, but I have learned from experience that when I struggle with a horse, just set it down and there will come a time when everything will fall oh-so-easily into place and the end result will be a million times better than if I were to have sat there and fought with it. Sure enough, this piece's time has finally come and I am moving on her! I feel I've matched the owner's mare perfectly! I've already painted over the other side of the piece and the areas already started to continue on with this new technique.

Here is the mare that she's a portrait of:

The last two pieces are sales pieces - the Rose Reiner and the Mini Ziryab. Mini Zyrab was another experimental piece and while I like the look of her, she's a different technique than the two above. I'm also working on a Rose Jezebel in dapple rose gray using the above technique and I'm finding out it doesn't lend itself as well to that small small scale. This is the reason I call them experimental pieces. I learn what works and what doesn't on what scale. I think I'll try a hybrid of the two techniques next time on a mini and see how it serves.

Mini Zyrab painted with wet on wet oils and then pencil detailing on top:

I'd like to see her dapples smaller and less uniform, but I'll continue onto her other side with the intent of matching this one. I'll know for next time to shrink them up.

And below is the Rose Reiner sales piece done in a more contrasty darker dapple gray with a lighter fore.



So I guess the story of this whole bit is that even if you have been painting forever, it's good to try new things out. The learning process is NEVER over and there is always room to achieve more. I for one am excited to start applying this technique over different base colors - I have a Gomez I am customizing for my own show string that I'll be painting dappled buckskin going gray. I'm eager to see if this technique will translate!