In the Studio #9: In Bloom

When last we met, I mentioned I did not yet have a name for the little drafter horse I was doing for the Spooky SM Swap. That has changed. No sooner did I finish writing my last post when someone mentioned that with the masking tape, the little horsey looked like the Trojan Horse. Trojan Horse > "Troy" > Orlando Bloom. So the horse's name is now Orlando. For some reason I find it fitting. Anyhow!

A few days after writing my blog I went to Walmart to find some felt for coffin-lining and some ribbon for the treat bags. I didn't wind up bringing home any felt, but I did find this gorgeous spiderweb ribbon - I'm in love!

So now with the exception of filling the big one with goodies, the treat bags are both done. 

I've been on a bit of a kick with Orlando lately. Once I started working I found it hard to stop. One evening while my parents were out to dinner, I saw a chance to get some work done. So I set up "shop" in the living room and watched half of Rocky Horror. Good way to work.

I decided to try and do a bit of subtle dappling on Orlando's belly area, and in all honesty I'm happy with the result. 

About a week and a half went by and I hadn't done anything. Then I started to feel... "ill", for lack of a better word. Nothing contagious, of course - I won't work if I'm contagious, hence Orlando was so difficult to get started in the first place. Last thing I need is a swap partner or a client getting whatever I have. Anyhow, in an effort to feel better and get my mind off how awful I was feeling, I went to work. My dad had picked up some felt for me so I was able to line the coffin box.

I began painting the outside but focused mainly on Orlando. I did a bit more dappling and lightened up a few more areas on his belly and leg area.

I took off his tape when I remembered that I needed to highlight and shade still, so, not knowing where my masking tape was, I opted for Scotch. Works just as well. 

After fiddling with pastel dust and some watery white paint, I was happy with how he looked. I moved on to the hooves. When I worked on Friend of Mine, I tried to make the socks look realistic by painting hairlike strokes. I think it turned out much better on this guy, though.

Hairy goodness! The horses I was using as reference also had shaded muzzles... this part was tricky. First I tried with pastel, it didn't work very well, then I tried a grey wash, which worked out even worse. I finally ended up with black pastel (I believe I tried grey first). Again, happy with the results. He looked a bit odd, but I knew I had more to add to him before I was finished.

I ran out of space on both my palettes so I wound up using an old piece of heavy sketchbook paper. Hey, use what you have, right? I painted his hooves grey, made and mane flaxen.

After that I painted his blaze and made his muzzle pink, and then painted his eyes. He also got some green "ribbons" painted on his tail.

I can say with all honesty, he's probably got the cutest face of any horse I've ever painted. He just looks adorable!

Almost done! Now I just have to seal him and cover his eyes in nail polish. I'm ecstatic with how he came out. In my opinion he looks very realistic and I'm extremely proud of him.

I wanted to check to see how he'd look with his costume and treat bag, and I'm in love. He's not a bad model, either. (Also, like my Dremel Koala?)

I've done some work on painting the coffin box... I was happy to be able to whip out the glow in the dark paint again.

Doesn't it look like a face? That's actually what I used as a guideline for the vampire's face. 

Yesterday I also did a bit of work on Taskin, with the coffin drying and nothing left to do on Orlando. Orlando's mane and tail color were very similar to Taskin's coat color, so I made more of that and painted over his old coat.

He's not as lemon-y as he looks. Stupid camera. I then highlighted (no shading yet) and masked off around his mane and tail. They are black with reddish undertones, so if I got it on his coat I'd likely not be able to fix it very easily.

I did a basecoat on his mane and tail with a dark, almost black cherry color.

Granted, he looks a bit odd at the moment, but he's not finished yet. I also worked on his hooves and eyes and will continue on him at another time.

That's all I have for now - sorry it was so short! (I actually kept forgetting to take pictures of things this time around - oops!) Hopefully I'll write again soon - I didn't make any promises last time and here I am, twelve days later, updating! Let's hope I keep up with that. 

In the Studio #8: Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out To Socialize

Before we begin - did anyone get the reference? Anyone else have this video back in the 90s? Scared the daylights out of me as a kid...

Anyhow...

It's been a while. A very long while. It seems that every time I say "I'll write soon", life gets in the way. The past five months have been very difficult for me, but things are getting better now. Currently I'm involved in another Spooky SM Swap hosted by Model Horse Blab. If you remember last year, I did a realistic Thoroughbred who I nicknamed "Friend of Mine" (hey, that was my first "In the Studio" post!). This year for my second Spooky Swap, I'm back to doing realistics. I'll say Friend of Mine gave me a little less grief.

When I'm working on a swap I haven't sent out yet, I try to be vague. I don't want my victim to stumble across this and figure out it's their horse (though I have done that in the past - doesn't really make it THAT much less fun :D). So I have to be careful here. But I won't stint you all.

Usually when there's a swap going on, I don't really know what I'm going to do until after I get my partner. Once I have information, the wheels start turning, and boy did they turn this year! I lucked out and already had a body in my box o' victims, so it was off to the craft store!

When I started shopping I still wasn't sure as to whether or not I wanted to do a deco or realistic horse, but I did have ideas. I wanted to use another coffin box - that was not only fun, but made packing much easier (stick da pony in da box, he can't get broken as easily). I also knew I needed more orange craft acrylic, and I had a new idea - I wanted to make him a little costume. I chose a ghost, since it's simple yet fun, and decided I wanted to give him a trick-or-treat bag to go along with it (the body is a Belgian with his leg raised, so he was kind of asking to be holding something). I found this fun double-sided paper in the scrapbooking section, but then had the idea that I could make a matching treat bag in a larger size for his owner. So I wound up with three pieces of this paper. 

A few weeks passed where I couldn't really work, and had to wait until about a week and a half ago to even prep and re-prime the body (he'd been primed before but it was a very poor job). One evening after recovering from one of the worst sinus infections I've ever endured, I decided to work on the costume.

The real body was still drying from primer, so I had to use a horse from my own collection. First order of business was to make sure the little bugger stayed put, so I put some Quake Hold on his hooves and placed him on the coffin box to raise him a bit. Now to cut out the pieces for the costume.

Hey, if your work doesn't involve some degree of fun, you're just gonna be miserable.

I started by cutting out small pieces of the fabric I picked up and marking the area I was going to cut... with a colored pencil. I really could use tailor's chalk.

The costume was going to be in two parts - the cowl and the body piece. I would later sew them together. I made two pieces using the outline of the head, and then eyeball measured a small strip of fabric to go between them. Then I pinned everything together - yes, it's inside out, but that's how sewing works. 

As you can see, he's looking very ludicrous. It'll get better, I promise. Now it was onto the body piece. This was trickier as the horse isn't symmetrical. But, you work with what you got. I cut two pieces and used some more thick strips to go between, as well as a piece to go across the front legs and chest (I'm just now realizing how bad I am at explaining things - sorry!)

Now we're getting somewhere! To the sewing machine!

Simple, but it works for what I need it for. Most of the time. The problem I face a lot of time is that whenever I actually have motivation to sew, my mother is home. Now I love my mom, but I am in no way joking when I say if she so much as LOOKS at a sewing machine, the thing will break. I learned that the hard way when I got my first mini-sewing machine for Christmas and unboxed it in front of her. So I have to work late at night, in hiding. 

Another problem I ran into is the tiny, tiny scale I was working on. That cowl I made earlier? Let's just say it didn't work out. I will be trying again of course, but I may resort to hand-stitching. The body piece, however, worked out in my favor.

Last night, I decided I would finally start work on the horse itself. First thing I do when I have a primed horse is buff - sometimes I use a cotton-y piece that fits onto a Dremel bit, but usually I opt for the old sock method. Old, clean sock, I will add.

I like this angle because it's artsy.

I did a good deal of work last night. After a good deal of stressing about what color to make him (I'm a really indecisive person) and a friend finally deciding for me, I set to work. I put on my iPod, using it to not only entertain me with music, but also for reference. I could have used a computer, but my laptop is too big for the little space I have on my desk, and the desktop... -shudders- Plus my iPod works just fine. 

Between coats of paint, I would go over and work on the treat bag. This wasn't fun. The desktop was not cooperating and wouldn't communicate with the printer, so I couldn't get the template printed for maybe forty-five minutes. That doesn't even factor in the time it took to find the right template.

(My boyfriend decided it would be funny to take a photo of me looking at Pinterest.)

After a lot of tedious cutting (and failure with a glue stick), I had all the parts of my treat bag cut and scored, ready for assembly. Now back to the pony (he doesn't have a nickname yet.)

With every horse I do, I try different methods. Each horse is a learning experience and a bit of a lab rat. I found quickly that the grey automotive primer I use makes it so pastels won't show, so I had to do a few light base coats before I could proceed. I also decided to see how the horse would look if I mixed the pastel dust with water and painted that on (it was after that dried that I realized I wasn't taking pictures - stupid!) It made an interesting undercoat. Honestly it looked a bit like I was painting with pumpkin coffee. As that was drying I glued the treat bag together, watched a few videos from Rocky Horror (used a bit too much water, oops), then went back to working on the main coat colors. 

The horse I was looking at for reference has a light underbelly with dappling. Not sure if I'll attempt the dappling just yet, but I did want there to be a bit of a marriage between the chestnut and the lighter, creamier color. So I turned to stippling. Using a stabby motion and later a brush that's probably for stenciling, I scattered the color a bit to make it more natural than just a line.

(I was wearing shorts I promise you.)

It took a while but finally I had a decent main coat color. I over-painted the areas that will later be lighter. The thing about acrylic that I love is that it's forgiving - you can paint over it without much problem.

(It was commented that with the way I covered his mane he looks like the Trojan Horse. Maybe I'll name him Troy.)

With that, it was nearing 4:30 AM and I was getting exhausted. I decided to work on the horse's trick or treat bag and then go to bed.

Not sure of the dimensions of the big bag, but the little one is about an inch tall. 

That's it for now, folks. I do plan on working more tonight. Hopefully I'll write soon!