A Round of Photos

So, since the website is down for major updating, the blog gets to be the star child here in posting a batch of those new photos for all the models I finished lately. I'm still learning the little differences between CS2 and CS6 (oh my) so photo editing is a bit of a pain right now. By editing, I mean cropping, adjusting color to get it as close as possible to the real model, and adding my copyright tag. My camera and light setup get me pretty close, but not 100% there. 

Last update you got a peek at the lineup. Well, more have been added since that photo, but let's start with those, huh? First up...drumroll please... is Roundapony! If you click the link you'll see Roundapony is a collaboration of sorts between lots of Colorado gals. He's Karen Gerhardt's Roudabout cob resin (I think she has only a couple of these left in resin if you want to buy one!), and is actually one of the master waste mold casts. That cast made it into Jennifer Buxton's capable hands where he got transformed from a Classic scale British Heavy Show Cob to a Traditional scale pony because 1) Jennifer has a *bit* of a *thing* for ponies, and 2) she only shows Trad. performance. Lastly, this cutie made his way to me! 

I am a huge fan of well-done customizing. To me, not only does the customizing have to be realistic, correct anatomically, and done with professional caliber, it has to "match the piece." It has to be changed, but remain the same if that makes any sense. How Jennifer managed to take a horse that was meant to be a British Heavy Show Cob and turn him into a cute little show pony and keep him ultimately the same horse I can't put into words, but she did just that.

This guy's color is so shiny and glowing in person I'm a little disappointed that the photos can't get that kind of detail. Seems to be a constant problem of mine. /Whine. 

He has such a cute face!

The braids came out great! Jennifer did such a nice job on them she gets to do more of them for me on another model! :D

I love how nicely he looks with his hunter clip too! And it was *so* much fun to paint! That pinto pattern really helped me show it off too with that white hair contrasted on the body colored ones!

As you can see, all that Colorado work really came together nicely on this piece! I'm always hoping to do more stuff like this as it's fun to work with ladies like Jennifer and Karen. Stay tuned for the next model up! You'll just have to wait and see who it is!

The McDermott/Scott Exhibit

Last post I promised a viewing of the small collection of Deb McDermott resins I've painted over the years. Oddly enough, after uploading them all to the blog, I realized they were all chestnut base horses! At least the new David in progress (see previous post) is a palomino. I've got another David, my final copy, I plan on doing in dapple gray. I've also got a Pearl (the 5.5" one) I'll paint something (still don't know what for sure) for a sales piece way in the future, and a customized Gomez I'm going to have a hard time parting with that will be a buckskin going gray. We'll see what else ends up in my "stable" in the future as well.

So the exhibit. I guess we'd better start with the horse that really started it all, a David painted homozygous tobiano. He was quite the topic back when I did him several years ago. I remember I had been struggling with dapples. I decided to try a different technique than the one I'd been working with at the time and I still use it to this day. Oddly enough, the David in progress took that technique one more step further in my quest to get amazing dapples. He was also the first horse I shot with my new camera and I was still playing with all those features trying to get a good shot. 

The next McDermott piece I painted was a Persuasion - the original big'un the little Pearls were modeled after. She was finished shortly after the David above. I remember being so jazzed with how he came out that I wanted to start another horse right away. Since Persuasion was my only other piece of Deb's at the time, I chose her thinking if I'd had such great luck with him maybe it'd cary over. It did. While it doesn't show the amazing quality of depth and color in the photos, this horse is probably my best chestnut *ever*. No joke. This is really a must see in person horse.  

Next up is another great chestnut. I warned you about the chestnut thing okay? This is Bint Soraya, another traditional Arabian mare. I do love the toasty color of this horse! I also remember struggling capturing that color on film. For some reason, with my usual neutral background, she was coming out orange in photos and   I just couldn't color correct it to where it should have been. So, she got a black bg and all was good. This mare was one that finished up quickly - a week! Some of these kids just go easily and without a fuss like that. Trust me, I wish they all did. 

Mini Pearl I won't post too many shots of since you already saw her two posts ago. This little gem is definitely the most recent McDermott piece completed, being just a few days old. Coincidentally enough, she is owned by the same gal as the Persuasion above. 

So, seeing as how I have so many chestnuts, I've got a new goal to paint more of Deb's resins so I can add some new flavors to the mix! :)