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 :)

Wagner!

Wagner is now completed! I'm putting him out on forums, here on my blog and my facebook page to get opinions on him before I have him cast. He is going to be the best I can make him before I start selling him. I still have to contact casters to get quotes and time frames. Now isn't the best time to officially release him since Breyerfest is next weekend, so I definitely won't be taking any orders or opening his edition yet. I just want to get him out there and let people know he's a comin!

Here are some primed photos of him. I'm also going to give him a quick paint job so I can see and then show off how handsome he is in fancy clothes :P

In Progress Custom Breyers

While I have been doing the finicky details on Wagner, I started customizing some Breyers again. I haven't painted a model in such a long time! My old few are painted in Pan Pastels and while I love the look and medium, I wanted to branch out and try acrylics and straight up oils. I recently completed Silver in a palomino tobiano. I tried the acrylics and the finish was coming out streaky and kinda lumpy, so I went over the paint with pastels and it softened out the streaks nicely. Since these are all for my own learning experience and stay in my collection, I don't mind if they aren't perfect :)

Next I started on Breyer's Cleveland Bay in oils and its going pretty well! I quite like working in oils. He is still in progress. 

 I have also started work on the new Mawari and Totilas. Like so many other artists, I have had problems with paint and primer adhering to them. I striped down the original paint, and still the primer was coming off on my hand and the oils weren't drying properly. Oy so frustrating! So these two will be done in pastels. And so far the pastels are working perfectly. Totilas will be dark golden bay, possibly with some minimal tobiano markings and the Marwari, well I'm not so sure yet, but I think I am leaning towards a perlino. No pictures of the Marwari yet, he is still a sticky, shiny mess. I did however resculpt his tail and repositioned his head and neck. I'll add some pictures of him when he isn't such a hot mess.