Introducing Gerrit

Well he is finally finished. My very first original sculpture, Gerrit, a Frisian Stallion preforming the Spanish Walk. Gerrit is a Frisian name and it means brave and hardy which is appropriate for a frisian horse as they were originally breed as war horses.
Originally I started this horse sometime back in 2012 and he was originally supposed to be a portrait model of Totilas in extended canter. My original in clay was very incorrect and to be honest a bit of a hot mess. I couldn't see the errors in it that I can now that I have learned so much more about sculpting conformation, anatomy and movement. So I jumped the gun and cast him errors and all, and have spent the past year working the resin copy into a correct, balanced piece.
Now the he is done comes the not so fun parts. I need to figure out how to advertise him and cast him; do I send him to a professional who does all the hard work or do I have his mold made and do the casting at home? How much to charge, do I add magnetic bases, etc, etc... Decisions, Decisions! Well without further ado, here he is, all decked out in primer. I am painting him to see what he looks like with clothes on so those pictures will be come up in the future.

Loss and Sadness

So even though I haven't blogged in awhile, I have been working A LOT on my sculptures. Wagner has now transformed into a spanish walking andalusian and I have started another new sculpture in clay and it is coming along quite quickly. I will post some pictures of both soon.

I guess though I came to blog today about the sad loss of my littlest cat, Piper. She was actually my mom's cat, but she came to live with me the past 3 months as she had IBS, esophagitis and pancreatitis. She needed up to 5 meds a day, plus fluids and a lot of food. I was basically a vet tech for her, giving palliative care. It sounds like a lot to put a cat through, but she responded so well. She was completely back to her old self. While she was here, she played with the grump, Mable; slept with Daphne on the couch and sat with me while I sculpted. She was a special little thing, who never grew up. One day she just wasn't eating as much and she wasn't herself. My vet came out twice last week to take blood and give me more meds. On Friday she called at 12:30 to tell me the blood work was bad. Piper had pancreatic cancer. 2 hours later and piper was the sickest she had ever been. We put her to sleep at 7 pm.

She was doing so well on her meds, I honestly thought she would be around until the summer. I knew this was how we would lose her, but it just seems so sudden. I never get use to this. Losing loved ones never gets easier, it gets harder with each passing. Knowing the pain that you have to endure the next time one gets chronically sick. I still have 3 cats, a dog and a horse to go through this with. It feels like a sacrifice; we get 14-16 years of pure love from these little people and the sacrifice is the pain of losing them and making the decision to put them down and end their pain. This is a feeling I will never get used to; a feeling I never want to get used to.

New Dremel!

So I finally have a bit of an update. I have been playing with my pan pastels the past month, working on my Catalina and a WG I decided to hair and repaint as well. Catalina is such a beautiful sculpture and she has been driving me NUTS! I just couldn't get her colours right. After 3 attempts and a very failed stripping session, the BF got me some new pan colours for my B-day and they were perfect. I finally got the buttermilky colour I was going for. And then I ran out of finishing spray and bought two cans of the wrong kind :( I have to get him to drive me back to the art supply to exchange them. It is really amazing how much he puts up with. I took over his house 2 years ago with my horse models, throw blankets and cats. Now the bathtub is a mess from all my strippings and there is dust everywhere despite my constant sweeping and there is always a faint oder of horse in the basement thanks to the winter blankets and dirty saddle pads. To be fair I have to put up with his stinky tennis clothes and various tennis gear, including a ball machine in the living room. I guess we're almost even :P

Anyway back to horses. Here is Catalina in progress while she waits for the proper spray.

I need to replicate this colour on her left side, then add the dapples and lighten her up a bit before the final details on the eyes, hooves and any white markings I add. Then mohair!!

I got a new dremel with a flex shaft which has cut my work load in half, so of course wagner has had more surgery Increasing my work load x3. His head has been lengthen and narrowed, new neck, repositioned front legs (well leg, still need to put the right one back on. He is currently a twin of my dog) longer croup, and I am currently working on narrowing and reshaping his chest and shoulders. He still needs his pasterns, fetlocks, knees and hocks refined. Long way to go, but at least it is in the right direction!

CM Breyer Totilas

Finally completed. I love how he turned out! Except his whites; he has bumpy white syndrome :S I have to work in even thinner layers of white, which is frustrating. Need to learn more patience.

CM Breyer Marwari

He is finished! I repositioned his head, re-sculpted his neck and mohaired his mane and tail. Originally I had re-sculpted his mane and tail, but wanted to give mohairing a shot. I pulled the mane off 4 times because I kept thinking of better ways to glue the hair on and I loved every minute of it! Gluing the hair on, cutting and styling! I ordered a whole bunch more hair and now all my OF Breyers are starting to look like victims...

What a pain in the ... back.

Welp I got a kidney stone. 15 years after my first one and I had taken such good care of my kidneys to prevent more; until last night :S AND I just got a call from my barn owner and the silly mare got a kick to the butt and its a bit swollen. What great timing, I can't ride and she can't be ridden! We can hobble around the farm together instead. Blah and we had been working so well the past few weeks oh well. On the model front I have made great progress with my Marwari and decided to try out hairing him with mohair. He's a bit of an 80's hairdo mess at the moment but I will get some pictures soon to show him off. So fair it looks awesome and will look better after he gets some styling done. I decided to paint him a shaded black with pastels and the colour turned out really nice. I just love working with the Pan Pastels.

Totilas Update

He is definitely still in progress, but love how his colour has turned out! He is a dark golden bay, minimal tobiano. I still have to do the eyes, hooves, nose, belly and fix his base. I ended up painting him in pastels because I too had to suffer through the sticky problems so many customizers have complained about. But with my guy, I used Krylon indoor/outdoor primer and it dried perfectly, but when it came to adding the base coat in oils, the stickiness surfaced. So I switched back to the pastels and no more problems. Same thing happened with the Mawari, so he will be done in pastels too, but I am also going to try hairing him! I got some mohair from Rio Rondo and have already read Carol Williams tutorial twice. Fingers crossed it works :)