Marwari Stallion

Lately I have been quite taken with unusual breeds. It started with the akhal teke and has progressed to the marwari. I want to sculpt and draw ardennes, boulonnais and falabellas. Here's my first marwari stallion.

Horses, Horses, Horses

My whole pretty much revolved around horses.  I view my horse hobbies as a sort job. When I am not working on my art, I am working with my mare on our dressage, well I guess its more like periods of immense spoiling and fussing broken up by moments of bending and circling! But whatever, she loves it! I get knickers and nudges when my hand reaches for the pocket of endless peppermints. 

Is this not a spoiled, princess face?

                                              

When I am not spoiling the little princess (she thankfully is not a brat!), I am reading, reading and reading about classic dressage and how to effectively ride dressage. Books by Jane Savoie and Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, blog posts by the Dressage Curmudgeon and Horse Listening, articles from Dr. Deb Bennet, videos from Will Faerber and of course instruction from my coach (to name just a few lol), my mind has been blown and my horizons expanded immensely! The new journey that my mare and I are on is so exciting. However the most important thing I have learned in the past few months has been exactly how much I DON'T know! In any endeavour it is vitally important to continue to learn and to grow, in riding and in art.  I might be miles away from the rider and artist I want to be, but gosh darn it I am looking forward to doing the work to get there!

Oh and this is the other factor I have to deal with whether I am working or not. This is her, "I just rolled in the litter and as soon as you aren't looking I am going to jump in your lap" face. 

Links:

http://www.equinestudies.org

http://dressagecurmudgeon.blogspot.ca

http://horselistening.com

http://www.art2ride.com/blog/

http://www.janesavoie.com/blog/

Warmblood Colt

Here is a new pastel piece, a warmblood colt done is grey tones with pastel pencils. 

Model Update

So I mentioned in my last post that my Shire had undergone some major changes; well here his is!
Ok so he has a LOT of work left and currently has the peg leg, but I fixed his head to look more draft-like, his sway back is gone and his legs and back got lengthened. These are not very good photos; his head looks so much bigger in the pictures than in reality! But I like the roman nose so much better than the original head!

And here is my other sculpture; Totilas! Extended Cantering Dressage Stallion. Ok I have to come up with a better name. So far though I am very happy with how he is come along. I definitely like working in oil clay better than sculpey. I like being able to smoosh out my mistakes

Ugh I have to mention the cat hair. Yes I have cats. Yes they like to get in the way. Yes they will and do sit in my lap while I sculpt. Hence all the cat hair stuck in the clay. Looks kinda gross, but I am such a sucker when they make the cute little mews, then slowly climb in my lap, then slowly circle, and then slowly lay down...Sometimes they are so quite and sneaky and I am so engrossed in my work that they get into my lap without me even noticing. 

Over a Year!

Welp it has been just over a year since my last post. At lot has happened since then, not just with my art horses, but with my real ones as well. For starters I got a new horse! My boyfriend bought her for me back in August and it has been wonderful the past 6 months having my own horse again. She is such a sweetie and is really happy at her new barn and in her new job as a dressage horse!
She is such a pretty girl!
This leads well to my other news, I now have hand made crystal and semi-precious stone beaded brow bands for sale in my etsy shop! The brow band Kali is modeling was made by me to compliment her coat colour. She has to be colour coordinated naturally! If you are interested, please check out my etsy shop or shoot me a message for a custom inquiry.    And finally I have a new website where I will be posting all my equine art; from flatwork to customized models to my own original sculptures. Check it out at Little Red Horses Equine Arts. It is very exciting! And Blue. It is also very blue. 
I also have updates on my shire sculpture who has under gone some drastic plastic surgery and a new extended cantering dressage horse, but I need to charge my camera battery first to get some pictures. Thats about it for now. I will try and update more regularly, especially since I have been getting in the habit of actually finishing my projects!

Life and Times of a Noob Horse Sculptor

So there are quite a few fabulously helpful blogs out there covering every aspect of the model horse world. This isn't one of them. But maybe, just maybe I can help others by relating all my mishaps - and trust me there have been quite a few so far.

Now I am no stranger to sculpting and casting my work; just on a small scale. Mostly pendant sized and even a medallion when I was feeling bold. Those were ridiculously easy to make and reproduce. The next few posts won't cover those. Rather I will talk about my attempts to sculpt, mold and cast my very own traditional sized draft horse (seen in post below) and Oh what a disaster that has been!

To start, sculpting the actual horses is pretty easy, relaxing and even a little fun. That is when you have the right materials and aren't leaving finger prints behind on a beautifully sculpted neck. I envy the artists who can produce meticulous horses out of oil clay. They also look so flawless and smooth. Then I look over at my one and only attempt and actually cringe in horror at the blobby, streaky, fingerprinted mess and that ends my hope of using traditional clays. Next came Apoxie Sculpt. Now this is actually my favorite material to work with, however for doing a full sized horse it gets very heavy and sets up too quickly leaving me to sand and carve rather than sculpt. So that left me with Sculpey and so far it is what I use for the first part of my sculpture. It stays soft of course until heated which allows for the creation of perfect little skin folds and muzzle wrinkles. The key with Sculpey is to use a heat gun to set any finished parts so you don't accidently squish what you just did. Of course this means the Sculpey isn't terribly strong and it is vitally important not to drop your work (which I have done) and while you are setting heat on your piece avoid those pesky finger prints I may have mentioned, and not permanently set them into your piece (which I have also done). Lastly never, EVER leave your unfinished, unheated piece around cats (which I stupidly have done). Cats are the number one hinderance to the sculpting process as they can't seem to resist crawling over an empty lap and rubbing at the piece in your hands. Not to mention the mess a long haired cats fur makes on soft sculpting materials. Even as I write this one of my cats is sitting behind me having a bath. But I am not fooled, I know she is just biding her time before wreaking havoc. Next time, the molding process where the fun really begins.

Original Sculpture

Meet Fergus a draft stallion. He was once a show champion, but spending the past few years as a breeding stallion/pasture pet has given him a shaggy mane, pudgy hay belly and swayed back. He is sculpted using sculpey, but I plan on making a resin copy to refine and put on the finishing details. Depending on how that resin turns out, I would love to release him as a resin edition!