Monday, May 25, 2009

Ooo fascinating! (of interest to pattern/genetics fans)

Over lunch today I discovered a really interesting thread on Chronicle of the Horse (COTH forum);
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=196072
Lots of cool before and after pics of appies!

I'd get the word out more by sharing on breed/genetics hobby forums but cross-forum linking isn't allowed so I guess I'll just post it here. :)

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The sheer joy of finishing things :)

Ahhhhhh.... it's just such a good feeling. lol!

Well I wish I could say I'm done with my arab mistress there but hardly. Long ways to go. In the meantime I've put in good painting hours to wrap up (actually many things are very nearly wrapped up! woot!), one item. I'm just in a little state of euphoria over here... could be the fumes. I do wear my respirator mask religiously mind you but yeah... if you can smell the chemicals they're doing the brain damage (this sage gem from my dad who's.. well.. pretty darned out to lunch now). ;)

Anyhow, well here's that dude I shared earlier in progress.

I've gotten a sales page up for him too; http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/sales/view_details.asp?path=Gallery&id=691923

Looking to the poll.. looks like there are definitely enough people in favor of the first 2 tail variations to seriously consider something.. I'm just not sure what yet. Something in between? Something totally different? Dunno. Hmmmmmm.... Even if there's still a big divide in the end I may need to revist the notion. Meanwhile, like I said, she's got a looong way to go baby. ahh sighs. Yeah. See how long that euphoria lasted? :-/ Oh well. ;)




Monday, May 18, 2009

Poll time! :) Plus another sneak peek ;)

Ok, well at a show this weekend I got a lot of great input about Ms. Fiesty. There remains a massive dichotomy however about her mane tail. Thus, I've decided to do a poll.

I would like to say this first - mane/tail lifted OFF the body allows for much faster customization should I choose to do 2 hair types ultimately.

Anyhow, here are the options, I've broken them down by 1-4 "ideas" below. Mind you these aren't exactly where each hair tendril would go.. but it's an idea of how they would look ultimately. The mare herself is still under major construction. I'm unhappy with the face in areas and really feel the body needs a great deal more refinement in spots too. That said, since this poll will run for a few weeks I figured I should start it now anyhow. ;) Please keep in mind that these pics were taken slightly from above. It would affect how the hair lays. I'm trying to represent in photoshop 'fake hair' something very 3D.

Pic 1 - hair will be curling back on the mane, tail would be swishing


Pic 2 - mane the same, curling back, tail more straight but still swishing side to side some


Pic 3 - very little side to side on both mane and tail, but a tad of an angle on the tail so that one part could attach to a leg


Pic 4 - obviously more side to side on the tail, mane more unruly (and fragile)


And lastly - a sneak preview of Tiberius! :)


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I dunno man... I think she wants to be WILDER..

I think she wants a flingly mane - coming DOWN from whiping her head around... hmmm..

I may go ask on Blab about this... meanwhile I was just playing in PS again to see what sort of refinements I want. Ooops! Photo still reversed here.. lol!

Editing to add this on in... it's a little more congruous (plus in the right direction). I've photoshopped the ears & tried to give her more cranky nostrils.. as well as playing iwth the refinements I'm considering here (for my own 'what does it look like when I do this' factor).

Monday, May 11, 2009

Arab mare, Hazel's last hoorah & Flitwick :)

Well I'll start by wrapping up that last post to say I've learned that little leopard appy Flitwick took home a workmanship NAN card this past weekend. :)

& Here's Hazel's weekend results:

First in Other Sport/Carriage breed & first in workmanship for that class (two different judges)
This was her last show under my proxying for Janice. With these two cards she's now NAN qualified for the next NAN as well. In addition to the 16 needed for her Merit award, and the 2 for her to show in NAN this year (breed & workmanship - no risking the performance classes anymore for this gal - she belongs to someone & it makes me nervous!).

It's been a long year for Hazel. She missed a few shows due to injuries and now it's time for her to go to her very last public showing before she disappears from the show scene. I really want to thank her owner Janice again so VERY much for letting me campaign her like this. I keep sculpting these horses who's legs go in a variety of directions (lol!) and thus they distort and are hard for folks to get the gist of until they see them in person. Duke was by far the worst for this..

And speaking of flinging legs around.. yet another hard to photograph one in the works;


...this is just a photo of the Arab mare w/a "for fun" mane/tail again. Actually, I threw her into photoshop to fiddle with some things. It's odd but you can "see" better when you do tricks like use mirrors, look at pictures (and flipped pictures). There's still a LOT I want to work on so it's not worth going into more. I just figured I'd document her state for now here. :)

Friday, May 8, 2009

Spots for Springtime!

I've really been on this spot-kick lately. :)

I wrapped up one fellow here and he's off to his owner now. His whole gallery is here;
http://www.artbymorgen.com/galleries/FlitwickAPs/AP5/





I've been experimenting with some techniques and media that I'm really enjoying. It's funny how one 'pictures' something verses how hard it can be sometimes when a particular media is limiting you. Being able to achieve a vision is tremendously exciting!! :D

Soooooo I now share with you a sneak peek of someone in his basecoat at the moment. I can't WAIT to get to those tiny hair details like I did there with the above Flitwick artist's proof! But this bitty has to get another coat in oils before I launch off into that... sighs... waiting waiting waiting... but there's another spotty fellow I can play with in the meantime too. ;)

He wants to be called "Tiberius".
;)