Pizzaz Painting

Okay, so I'm a *huge* fan of Deb McDermott horses. I love that woman's work. And, her style of sculpting and my style of painting just seem to mesh really well. The end results are usually fantastic.

So naturally, when I got a chance to paint another David any way I wanted I was a very happy panda. He is probably my favorite sculpture by her to date. Here is a dark dappled palomino with some soot coming along. I love the way the overo markings just create even more movement in this piece and add just that much more "pizzaz." I'm usually not a huge fan of flashy paint jobs, but this guy has so much presence to him already, he can handle it without being overwhelmed.

This side is just about finished. The mapping needs to be added to that tummy spot, and more white needs to be applied to that leg. The m/t of course gets saved for last with the hoofies and base.

I adore this model's head. Honestly...just look at it! How could you not?

And those large eyes are great for painting. Can you believe this blue orb is done 99% in colored pencil?

Where's the other side? Not quite ready for photos. :) I need to add the layer of raw umber to bring out the soot and block in the markings on that side. Honestly, that's really all that's left to do besides finish the details.

I'm thinking I might have do grab an idea from Danielle Feldman's blog and do an artist collaboration post of pieces of Deborah's I've painted. There's not many, but the ones that have been done are definitely lookers!

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. :) 

In the Works Wednesday

So I like the idea of a at least once per month "In the Works Wednesday" column. There's always stuff going on over here, it's just a matter of taking the time to blog it. The latest stuff as I bet you've gathered is the ceramic side of things. Molds, bisques, and now...glazing! It's been something I've wanted to do for a while now. Getting to this point has been a culmination of all my cold painting and molding skills combined. 

Since the type of glazing I'm doing is overglazing, it is very similar to cold painting. There are a few differences, but they are minor and I've adjusted techniques I used while oil painting to work with the slickness of the china. There have been some other challenges to pop up - like reds. 

Red glazes don't like you. You glaze a fantastic red horse, put it in the kiln, and take your horse out to see that the color has disappeared/fired off in the process. It took about 5 fires to find out what worked best. While browns that had a warm cast would give you a slightly reddish tone, I wanted fire-engine red abilities. I found it in a product called Rose Glow Additive by Jean Nordquist. It stabilized my reds enough so that I could fire them and not have them fire out. You can make out the red tones in the horse above. 

Another challenge is not so much with the glazing, but with photographing. The horse above looks glossy, but she's not. Even the matte horse below looks shiny. The glazing just seems to reflect every little bit of light, which makes photography a nightmare. I will be dusting off my photo cube shortly. And, because I am doing many layers of transparent glazes, the colors are wonderfully deep and change depending on which way you look at her. It's a really nice realistic quality...that does not photograph. By the photo of the Darcy above, you'd never guess the amount of color and layering in that dark topline/forehand area. It just shows as one big mass of dark. I also see lots of unusual angles in photos of these guys to try to capture that changeability. 

This Darcy was meant to be a buttermilk buckskin, but she just kept telling me she wanted to be a dun. So, I've caved and given in to her wishes. I'm debating leaving her this chestnut dun, or making her a bay dun with the black legs and m/t. I'd love to hear thoughts from people as she'll be up for sale when finished.