Ok ok ok....

The desire to play with wee tack makes me break all sorts of self imposed rules..

This, very intentionally, was taken from a bit of a funny (slightly higher) angle, sorry! It helps me to confirm that yes, there are still more leg/joint refinements I want to make.

Actually there is a method to my madness here. Waaaay back with a sculpture named “Flitwick” I learned a valuable lesson… in part due to my poor photography skills. I was set to release him and took all my sales photos and then really really didn't like what I saw. I literally had the box out for him to go to the casters and everything. I wound up saying "hold the phone" and went back and reworked him for 3-4more weeks until I had gotten the detail more precise and the proportions more to my liking. & The lesson being that if something looked wonky in my studio photos, it’s going to be seen by the eye to some degree or another.. -> don't just write it off as "bad photos". Because when working in scales, any minor oddity is magnified by the photo done right where the eye doesn't see the scale, just the flaws. In other words if I were sculpting a life sized cat I’d probably spot the weirdness just fine by eye. But beyond a certain scale photos are a very valuable tool. Used with care.

Photos also distort on their own as well. I’m NOT saying you should ever sculpt by photo. But I am saying that they do have some value as a diagnostic tool of sorts. Using photo editing programs to figure out what you want to change in real life before you get there.

Anyhow, I’ve taken a lot of photos of this guy lately to tweak the last things I want to.. before putting the veins down & primering. He’s in white resin & I’m using sticky/pasty “super white” Apoxie Sculpt to smooth over spots but I prefer the red (gooey/rubbery) Apoxie sculpt to get the final satin smooth spots. When I was a kid I watched my dad do this with bondo. Now we have something a great deal less stinky & toxic. Oh right, but my point here was that he looks a bit cottage cheesey in areas right now with his 2toned white coloration… so no, no more photos just yet.

But I could NOT resist playing with my tack.

He’s small on the 1:9 scale as a pony (14hh) sized horse. He barely fits into my tack for my sculpture Hazel but imagine how excited I was to see my new Aussie set by Jana Skybova fits nicely.. and that the hair of his forelock works for both the Criollo’s traditional Argentinian style bridles AND a normal browband. I don’t try to sculpt for tack but… well hey, with my tiny tack fetish how could I not have this in mind to some small degree? ;)

More very soon, I swear!

Oh ok... this is one of my quick photoshop trials versions of the changes I want to make still;

I don't do them pretty. I've been doing these since my half passing Duke sculpture and the practice, no matter how much feedback I get from folks, always seems to help me the best. (Outsider's input is invaluable too mind you - other human's critiques are invaluble as well - don't get me wrong!). Combined with photoshop, it's so much easier too to try a change out without messing up your work!

Ok, back to it now. ;)

PS - to be clear though, the tack is NOT a tool/test of any kind. :D That's just me indulging my inner child over here...! ;)