Preparing for a fun all ages workshop this summer!

It turns out that everything fell into place for me to go to Lexington KY this summer again to attend “Breyerfest”, a 3 day extravaganza of horses and all things horsie, for all ages. I’m going to be teaching a workshop there and will have a booth Thurs, Fri, and Sat nights at the Artisan Gallery held in the hotel formerly know as HIN.

So for the workshop I’m tasked with teaching malleable young minds to sculpt horses in a mere 2 hours. The kit is actually pretty comprehensive and I’ve seen some impressive results from it. There are of course really tricky aspects to sculpting, things that artists often take for granted until they try horses… and of course I’ll never be able to cover everything.

Thus the aim will be to find a way to inspire and teach kids what tools work for learning.

As to being inspiring, I figured it was only fair if I tried out the kit myself first. Believe it or not I’ve never sculpted with Sculpey (nor Gapaxio nor some others – Apoxie Sculpt gal that I was!). Anyhow, so this was my one off interpretation of the horse in the book with a head tuck and very very minor leg deviation... and of course a whole different build. Because the point being "all horses have the same build no matter how big or small"... and proportions not so different after all (although a little - even armatures rarely need to be modified). Weighty topics eh? lol! (I'll have to try to be a bit more fun that than I'm sure). ;)

Anyhow, sooo… if you look closely at the 2^nd picture here you can see the cooked flesh coloring of his hocks. I have lots of friends who use Sculpey and I’ve seen these macabre overcooked bits hanging around in their studios too… so at least the playing field is leveled somewhat in that I can tell the kids what not to do (good god whatever you do – believe people when they say NO to the toaster oven concept… I have a friend who can pull it off but only because she’s doing tiny heads in there… fire danger yikes!). My favorite is how it bubbles when overcooked. I’ve also undercooked it so far. Good times!

Meanwhile, I did try to create a horse that matched the pose of the book.. which a fairly simple modification to make it more Fairytale Friendly! :D

To me it strongly resembles two well known artist resins, my fiancé disagrees but well, I dunno. Cantering in static, stand alone positioning only leaves a few options for poses. The armature is a bit thick so I went with the heavier horse. I can’t decide if he’s more Shire or Friesian. ANYHOW, bottom line is I may leave the off side undone so that can be see “in progress” too for the attendees. Obviously if it took me a day and a half to make that I can’t possibly expect anything much in the course of a few hot and sweaty hours! ;)

I’d love to hear any suggestions from past, present and future Breyerfest workshop or other sculpting workshop attendees. I’d really like to make the most of 2hrs and supporting materials, while not being overwhelming.. and not being toooooo dry or too flakey. ;) I have so many ideas for them, yay! Love having fresh young minds to convert – opps! – I mean mold! ;)

********10 minutes later adding this in... *********

OPPS! Ps to all this... as I was looking at the uploaded photos I realized the 2nd armature wasn't bent yet fully.. (back hocks not "added" yet, had to bend those in to match the pic in the booklet)... truthfully I literally just popped him out of the box and put him down next to his more mature brother. ;) Bent his head under, moved his legs just a tad and mostly to make him stand and snapped the pic.