My list of people I am very grateful to for their input :)

Ok, this is a very important post to me.

In this niche hobby of sculpting horses I have found my fellow artists and clients to be the most supportive I've ever encountered in any artistic endeavor. As such, I have been mentally keeping a list of people I'm terribly grateful to... Grateful isn't nearly deep enough term to explain how appreciative I am when these words or emails come in at just the right time to give you the encouragement to keep going, or to click on the light bulb moment about what you are doing wrong. ;)

PLEASE UNDERSTAND: These are NOT commercial endorsements in ANY way. These are artist's and collectors, who I think deserve my most heartfelt thank you's for the TIME they have taken and the insights they have gone out of their way to share with me.

Whether you share a simple word or two, or go all out and wrote pages or talked to me for hours about your impressions and tips - all of your input guys, ALL of it has REALLY been a motivator for me; as well as simply a huge help at times when I'm stuck!

Bless you all!

It's common knowledge I suppose that artists often need/want outside eyes from time to time, but in the past when I have gotten help as well but I just never took the time to write it all down anywhere (nor did I have a blog to serve this purpose so woohoo for blogs!). This time, with this mare,especially since she has changed so much over time (improved I hope!) and diverged from my initial measurements of the real horse, that I sincerely can't express how appreciative I am of everyone's input & guidance. Sincerely. Can't say it enough!! I also think it's important to note how wonderfully helpful artists can be to one another. Gives me big warm fuzzies to be honest.

So with that said, in no particular order or level of input or inspiration, my utmost thanks go out to:

Sandy Lysles, Jackie Arns, Danelle Gatcombe, Michelle Platt, Tom Bainbridge, Anja, Fluer Veldkamp, Sarah Rose, Melissa Mistretta, Mel Miller, Heather Roell, Mary Caudill, Cassie Black, Carol Williams, Tracey Tariska, Kim Kiley, Carrie Sapp, Marilou Mol, Danielle Feldman, Caroline Boydston, Carol Huddleston, Mary Hirsch, Kate Cabot, Ann Harris, Liesl Dalpe, Sonya Johnson, Rayvin Brewer, Sandra Hottinger, Janice Kall, Lynn Fraley, Maggie Bennett, Stephanie Michaud, Lisa Gruetter, Sheri Rhodes, Will Rhodes, Skye Scioloto, Tia Lurie, Becky Turner, Danelle Gatcombe, Saana Magga, Lori Odishoo, Celeste Gerber, Jenn Danza, Julie Pritchard, Kim Bjorgo-Thorne,Yvonne Davey, Pat Coulter, Tibbi Searcher, Erin Schaefer, Paul Saunders, Liz Shaw, "twelvetrees", Michelle Thorsteinson, "ode2chumly", "For the love of horses", Kim Shepard, Lynda Strohmeyer, "breyerhorselover!", Karyn Ketner, Melissa Nei, Heather Abounader, Tina DeCaussin, Teresa Buzzell, Amanda Zims, Jennifer Irwin, "'NaradaOF", Corrie McDermott, "trillwing", Cindy Williams, Heather Downing, Jody H, Paige Easley Patty, Shelby Sly, Kirsten Wellman, Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, Tracy Eilers, Daphne Mazuz, Ramie Nunally, Donna Lorello, Chris Nandell, Eliz Hinterkeuser, Jennifer Buxton, Kristi Sawin, Eliz LaRose
& There are so many more I can think of whom I've talked to in person or accidentally deleted their emails instead of sorting to a folder of comments. Anyhow, there are less than a hundred people there (so terribly sorry !!! if I've mispelled your name too!), shoot - I don't even know some of the real names there associated with the screen names (!) and yet I know I own hundreds of folks thanks for their input. Region 10 folks especially - thanks guys!

Again I cannot tell you all how appreciative I am of you putting up with me! Whether it was just a few words you went out of your way to share with me, ooooor whether it was hours on the phone or taking the time at a busy live show to repeatedly studying her and hand me a few clues. Thank you.

She's come a long way since I started her
Then:
http://www.artbymorgen.com/galleries/sculptingjournal/

& Now:



The people along the way have made the journey worth it. :)

How-to contact me if your emails are NOT getting through (bouncing or no response after a reasonable period)

News as of early April: I have a second email address which resolves a LOT! arbymorgen@yahoo.com


I have now turned the comments on and allow "Anonymous" comments for non-blogger subscribers.

Here's what happens if you use "Comments" to contact me:

1. You post a comment ANONYMOUSLY (this is KEY -> "anonymous" being selected is very important!)
2. Put your email or a way I can look you up to contact you
3. An email comes to ME but the comment does NOT get posted... and if it contains sensitive info like contact emails I will delete it after I retrieve it. Then I can send you my phone # so we can work sales info out sans the hassle of bouncing emails. :)

That's it really. It's not perfect but I prefer to have multiple ways to be contacted.

Alternatively I am also a member of "Blab" and "The Watering Hole" and "MH$P". Submitting msgs through those are great ways to contact me as well.

I'm so proud of myself for figuring out how to turn the comments on. Such exciting technical challenges in ones life. Eh? ;)

Someone snag this as a reference!

What a crazy breed cross: Percheron x Hackney!
http://www.equine.com/Horses/ad_details.aspx?lid=548461&search_id=b95884c9-9cb2-485a-9499-d1b0002a965c&p=2

Draft cross possibilities are so endless. Tx to the person who shared this with me!

I have to admit I came here with an ulterior motive. I wanted to see if I could turn the comments on. I'm not seeing the option to however. :-/ There's a moderate comment section above so I suppose at least I can remove any "adult" postings that crop up. I'll go look at that after I submit this. :)

I just had to share this tip.. :)

As I'm working on her pictures now I got to this one head on pic and FREAKED out. So I whipped it into photoshop, cut out a square (once it was aligned straight), and did the flip/invert/reduce to 50%.
Tada!

I mean there is only so symmetrical you can be but dammit I tried really hard here so whew! The lighting can trick your eye pretty bad. I have so much more to say about that in general (like a whole new post on "this concludes how NEVER to start a sculpture" - lol!), but back to photos.

BTW, yes I will be posting Hazel's sales info later this month but if you want the low down, first dibs, ya gotta join my yahoogroup.

March 8th release for Hazel...

That's my goal. If I am successful in the next few days and get her in the mail to the casters early next week.. theeeen I will be confident in announcing that date firmly to my yahoogroup and preparing sales material (photos and sales terms).

For now it's my goal. I'd really hoped to be ready by March 1st. Frankly though I'd rather perfect some of the details.

I *do* need to take on money shortly after shipping (one reason alone is that I insure to the hilt and have paid $85 for faster shipping/bigger triple boxing in the past). But also because once the horse is at the casters, they want money for .. well.. casting. :) Quite a bit. I've never understood casting without knowing the mold and casts could be paid for.

Meanwhile, veining is going nicely. I just dig her feet with nail holes & nails (not extra holes, but just those little divots above the crimped nail ends. I'm on the fence about 3 or 4 nails per hoof. I had a long talk with my farrier about how he'd shoe a horse for all-purpose but tougher work like eventing. I've long ago decided to leave calks off because a performance fan can always make wee ones to tack on, but calks aren't desirable in a LOT of things Hazel could potentially be doing.

And what's keeping me company right now while I'm delving into all this finite last minute fiddling is this:
Chosen by a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart (Audio CD)
by Susan Richards (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1569474192/bookstorenow600-20
I'm listening to the version read by Lorna Raver and recommend that specifically. Her way of delivering the dry humor has forced me a few times now already to lift my tool from poor Hazel because I am laughing too hard.

It's a memoir and I'm sure it will soon be bringing me some tears, but for those who read earlier about my own horse, sometimes it's good to stop and appreciate the good and bad together. Anyone who's had pets for life goes through these things eventually. Anyhow, I am a whole decade younger than the author but I really can relate to a lot of what she's going through. A big thumbs up recommendation there. I don't normally rave about the many books a week I get through the library but this one really stood out as worth mentioning. :)

Ok, break over and back to work/listening! :D

Capillary conundrums

This;
http://1strealty.ath.cx/hwfarm.com/Sales/Pics/Daydream%20HW/Galopp1.jpg
and this;
http://1strealty.ath.cx/hwfarm.com/Sales/Pics/Daydream%20HW/Galopp3.jpg
really show the EXTREME of what I could justifiably put on.
Since I was on the hwfarm.com site and it's easy to post, THIS;
http://1strealty.ath.cx/hwfarm.com/Sales/Pics/Dumbledore/Dormello9.jpg
is more along the lines of what I'm thinking... a heavy breed, even with a thicker hair coat, still has some evidence of capillaries when it's galloping all out.

Capillaries are tough. They need to blend in since they usually have a softness around their edges that isn't defined the way I've typically seen them on sculptures (painted on last and are almost too crisp, or worse imo, far too large). All the same, when people finish the horses and there are many (sometimes more, sometimes less) layers of primer, paint and finishing sprays on... well, the detail is either gone, or raised up.

So I'm going to work with a material that bleeds a tad to blend them in better. We shall see...

Peeee-ewwww! Stinky!

I'm now at the point where I'm filling in/adding details akin to what you might do in prepping. It's REALLY important to casting to not have sharp edges on the mane and tail or too many grippy bumps. What happens with those undercuts is that they grab at the silicone mold every time a horse is removed. In short order the subsequent castings have blobs on them where the tears (little holes in the mold) are. In spots like the nostrils, making sure the insides are super smooth ensures that hte mold will pull away easier. But it's so easy to leave grooves that are too deep when sculpting manes and tails. And even little lines will pull.

SO, what I do now is sit there and define/smooth with Apoxie Sculpt (red is the smoothest I've found). Then I sit around with a jar filled with primer (sprayed from the can), and a brush and a jar of thinner and brush over these areas to make sure the smoothness is coming along well.

Can make you HIGH (and destroy some brain cells while it's at it). So I'm taking a break. The mask (of course! it's a must have!!) I wear has left lovely marks across my nose that seem to be permanent so I wonder if I've got some rosacia (sp?) type skin reaction to the dang thing.

Anyhow, I snapped a few pics and I'm tickled with how her mane revisions are coming along. :D Once the mane and tail are satisfactorily smoothed (probably another day?), I can turn to crispening up some details and adding the veins.

A week. I think I will be completely done in 7 days. I'm very excited!!! WOO HOO!!!

1 wk/several books on tape later.. :)

Well hopefully despite the blurries the 3rd comparison photos these will clearly show how bringing down the hair where the mane meets the neck more clearly defined her poll. It's a tricky region I didn't overemphasize at first because I really wanted to have a nice blend from body to mane.

Also, although I don't have a great comparison photo for it, the first pic there shows how after getting the heartgirth bigger her back muscles over the croup looked very weak - so this is her with a stronger back there. This photo was taken from the height of her ears or so pointing down so I don't have a previous comparison for it. The best I have is that blurry 3/4 pic (second from the top).

All the while I'm doing these things I'm also smoothing things like ear/lumps, teat blending, pec shapes etc. The hocks are really the one big area I've got to fix before the veins and wrinkles and hairs can be started/done. The points of bone that are most prominent there are too prominent and not quite angled right. Argh! :)

What I've been working on...

Terrible pic but it shows the areas well enough. I've fleshed out that right side more.

After careful scrutiny of the photos I took last week and feedback. I remeasured and in a few spots (blessed be the contour tool!), I'd sanded down the right side a tad too liberally too.

Anyhow, you can see the heartgirth addition sorta in this (super duper dark pic but it's just to spot check myself). You can also see the thicker trap area and slightly different contour of the ribs (better "sprung" ribs now top to bottom basically as I'd sunken them in a tad more on that side).

I think it makes her look a little less long from 3/4 views. Granted the pose is just going to make the horse look long and my photography skills are not going to help much. All the same, we shall see. :)

One idea I like...

:)
pretty self explanatory I guess. I did take a LOT off there a little while back.