Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Peer pressure.. ;)



I know... I know... I have done this before but it's definitely an improvement. Necks definitely get shorter when they throw their shoulders forward like this. And draft crosses have shorter necks sometimes. Still, a little extra balances it all out.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

FEI Petition - passing along

Petition is here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fei/index.html


The above screen shot is from the pictorial essay in "Horses For Life" magazine: http://horsesforlife.com/HorsesForLIFEOnlineMagazineJune2006
That issue is worth looking at if you ride horses or watch competitions of horses on anything other than a long rein. :) Lots of biomechanics and physiology in there of interest. Far too much controversy for me to get into here. Just passing along the link for those interested in signing.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Something completed at long last...

No, not Hazel, although I'm really having a great time now giving her character and refinements/details. :)

A sculpture I released in July of '06 and finally wrapped up painting one of my own few copies of:

I have sent a msg to my yahoogroup about it but here's his gallery link:
http://www.artbymorgen.com/galleries/dinky_AP1/descartes.htm

Back to shoeing Hazel now... :D

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Why is NOVA not on right now???

Programmers are cruel. TV is just really irking me these days... According to the online info THIS is supposed to be on right now:
The Ghost in Your Genes - Nova
An examination of the gatekeeper role played by the epigenome, which can shape everything from whether people develop diseases to whether they are fat or slim by turning on and off specific genes. Also: how a person's habits---good and bad---may affect future generations.
Well instead I am looking at UConn Husky discussion. All the other stations are playing what they are supposed to. Growl.

While I sit here I played with an overlay that is really a terrible match. The real horse looks to be an Arabian and the photo is taken at an angle to which I have no good corresponding angles... but I made this anyhow;

I think what interests me most is that the real horse has those jaw muscle lines you occasionally see in some breeds at some times. I like the look as it depicts more heart and soul in the effort but am not so sure it's appropriate for a thicker build. Although that Halflinger pony I posted a month back had some of it so I suppose I just may sculpt in some of those. Anyhow, the photo comes from this page: http://geocities.com/marylandjousting/hof.html

MAN am I frustrated at PBS right now (CPTV). It's so rare something I'm really wanting to see is on during the day while I'm working in the studio .. well given my few channels in the sub-basic cable options. Growl.

Off to work anyhow.. got to keep working on those ears.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I had to do it.. I had to do it..


Moved the ear. From some angles the forward ear just looked too goofy, so I angled out to the side..

Quick Hazel check up..










I decided to do this for my own sanity - the multilayers get a little hard to discern, I don't think I'd make the best marble sculptor.. conversely clay is SOooooo much easier b/c of the uniform color. Despite using a gray primer that matches the Apoxie Sculpt I still get a marble effect when I start sanding, and the same goes for any layers below. So far white has been the one color that doesn't do this marble-izing over layers; however it's so sticky and pasty I just stick with the neutral color (which is cheaper too).

Anyhow, camera batteries ran out before I could adjust the lighting so I only snapped off these really quick. To compensate for the washed out detail I popped em into photoshop to contrast the heck out and answer some questions I had while I was at it... here ya go:

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I have a thing for spots..


Can you tell?

That's another base coat just being started (started yesterday). And you probably won't see this horse again either until it's done... which could be ages from now truthfully.

This is only the third color I've picked for this sculpture I did in 2005. I came across many mustangs with the roaned out overo coats in my referencing of the sculpture itself and have been wanting to do this one for a while. And I love the sabino-esque roaning that goes along with these types of mustangs so often. You wonder are they grey? Are they roans? And of course since it's usually a feral horse not so many people ever know.

Hmm lessee what else I can update on. The 3 other painted horses I showed btwn Aug and now are coming along. So are Hazel and the classic scale Morgan gelding there. Every day I sit down with Hazel first in the morning and apply some "patching" as I like to think of it. Little nooks and crannies and details smoothing out. Then I take whatever Apoxie is left over (not much usually) and build up that Morgan's right side (which is starting to be less skeletal too). Then I give each horse that's dried in the painting cabinet some attention. Until something is really ready to focus on for longer. That appy dinky is really coming out well and will probably be ready the soonest. Then there's the champagne overo Enviado who's color in oils is nearly properly champagne luminescent enough to me ..so once the body coat is smooth and I can't find any spots I'll turn to the mane and tail.. & then seal him up .. & thenb start working the overo pattern back to the right feathering. Then the wee details.

Anyhow, it's late, I ramble. I haven't seen any spiders here at the computer when I've been back over here but I'm still intrepid about em. ;)

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Spiders and exhibitionism…

[little creeky sage Yoda voice] Apropos to the Halloween season this story is!!!

I have been in a complete state of befuddlement lately apparently. There’s lots going on in many areas of my life so I’ve just been trying to keep an even keel and maintain the day to day order. Hazel is really starting to charm me so the detail focus is a big part of that. Right now I’m doing what many are used to doing in prepping: filling in little nicks and knacks to smooth them, measuring little aspects and matching them up. Then comes detailing to the n’th degree… no point in detailing until smoothness and all the matching up is achieved.

I have 3 old CD players and none of them want to play my books on tape CDs anymore. I love to listen to books on tape while I work (all generas – fiction and non). And the tape decks are long past the point of safely running borrowed library cassettes (love that crunch!) so I’ve resorted back to TV for background noise. UGH. That would certainly explain some of my state of mind indeed! I’ve made the human resources decision that radio (even clear channel sanctioned) would be better for the brain than that mush. Anyhow, so this week when the video store told me that I only had returned 2 out of the 3 movies we’d rented last month I was really lost. I made the fellow go look back on the shelf because I had a distinct memory of trying to stuff all three into the drop slot. I also made them check the slot too (blushes) in case the 3rd had gotten jammed in… I don’t put these in many places but I began a wild search for the 3rd after this. Tearing apart my car. Digging around behind the DVD player in dusty long ignored crevices. I was totally at a loss for where it could be.

In the midst of this yesterday I decided to go to the bank and deposit the boarder’s payments.

Horror ensued when I couldn’t find my envelope of checks. By yesterday afternoon as bank close time draws near I’m getting really distressed and home and mind are in complete and utter disarray.

A far more aggressive search for the checks begins. So I’m sitting, surrounded by piles of paperwork on the floor in my office area (the one living quarter portion of my studio apartment is sectioned into “areas” of course). I’m in a true funk and trying to recall the past 3 days and the very few places I’d gone to. There really weren’t many opportunities for it to have fallen out of my purse.

As I sit there I don my headset and clip on my phone. I don’t even remember who I needed to call at that time. There was a bumpy tickle on my neck. I look down and it’s not the headset cord, it’s a big fat bellied spider. I blow him off quickly and forcefully (he made a little thunk hitting the wall!) and try to regain composure. Justification for my phobia: Once upon a time when I was 18 and an indentured servant (ala “working student to a dressage trainer), I found myself covered in thousands of tiny little baby spiders. Ever since then I’ve been a lot more prone to arachnophobia. Anyhow, so I try to pull myself together as I sit there with the phone on and decide to check my pony tail.. nada. And then LO! Another spider walks across my shoulder! AAAAAAAIGH! So now I’ve removed the phone and am shaking out my shirt and prancing about the house. Where on earth are these things coming from!!! (I still don’t know btw)

15 minutes later I’ve recovered and haven’t seen a return of the 2 (!!!!) spiders. I have now promptly changed the days itinerary and done a major body/clothes inspection in the bathroom. I am dressed again (different clothes too). I go back to make the phone calls but my friend calls me first. I am halfway through telling her about the mystery spiders as I peek and poke about the place (who cares about pending bankruptcy from a lapse in prompt depositing)… when yes, ANOTHER FRICKING SPIDER crawls over the very same shoulder.

I live over a little block of shops. My apartment faces the rear of the building and I can easily talk to folks in the parking lot. Being the tiny town that it is we all know each other and bake cookies and swap gossip and all the rest. But yesterday here is what my neighbors and friend on the phone were treated too: Me leaping and squeaking over by the windows atop a chair and couch (farthest from the point of origin of spiders as near as I can tell), which were of course wide open. Ripping every stitch of clothes off and pulling out pony tails and shaking hair vigorously all the while.

I spent a good deal of the day after that on the phone on a simple chair with my feet tucked up under me (in a third new outfit of course), suspiciously staring across the room wondering where the mystery spiders could be spontaneously appearing from.

The video store turned out to be wrong. A second clerk did indeed find the movie on the shelf after a long talk on the phone.

The checks were in my purse all along, folded up neatly though btwn two phone numbers.

Hazel got some attention before my nerves were shot to hell.

I went out last night.

I still don’t know where the spiders came from though… [shivers and looks around]. I don’t want to sit here too long typing…. So I’m going to go hide in the other room now and see if I can find a station on the radio that I can stand. Cheerio!