While I wait for the Belmont here...

And I have a second to do this... I'm going to just commemorate the fun hairing job I did last weekend on this gal for hoots. :)

The color came out rather interesting to me - it's hard to tell how rough this is, I just sprayed grey primer on and then hit her with red primer from another direction to contrast. Talk about primative airbrushing! (straight out of the spray can).. it's fascinating to me that you can't really tell how two-toned and gritty she is.. well, I guess you kinda can. Don't worry tho -> I've already sanded it all down. In fact I took these a few days ago to play with some changes I wanted to make in photoshop before making them. These are the altered pics actually I just realized too. I didn't quite at first looking at thumbnails because she looks more like this now (I liked the changes). :)





and this last one was with flash, the contrast was hideous so I grayscaled it here (too distracting!)

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. :)

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. ;)

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! :)

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).

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. :)

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".
;)

Just sharing stuff here

A quickie silhouette snap shot of the arabian lady. :)


She's starting to speak to me again about what she wants to look like. I'd gone up with her head and back down again b/c that wasn't working for me. I've changed a great deal about her abdomen, back, tail & muscling in between since I had a couple folks look at her in person too. Still fiddling with her nuances tho soooo it aint so pretty when the lights come up. hehehe! Poor girl! She's getting somewhere I think tho. :)

And a random share of a fun video and then a public service announcement.. first lessee if I can embed this;


And then the public service expose on "Current Trends In TWH Soring"
Videos here; http://www.youtube.com/user/foshvideo
(had a hard time sitting through all of those because it made me ill - just warning you!)
The Rowdy video I dug up when I was reading through the discussion (I like Rowdy) over on blab here; http://www.modelhorseblab.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86160

On a dare...

I tried my luck selling bitty's via a new method...


(after the show of course.. I was judging and I figured the Aussie trenchcoat might be awkward to wear.. nevermind hot.. this is all said tongue in cheek of course). ;)

In all seriousness tho I've now shown my nifty cool cold cast bitty to many people in person and they are all pushing for me to find a way to create bases to sell these. The issue I'm seeing is that the general (non-hobby horse item collecting) public wants these type of mass produced bronzes for around or under $100. My cost with a wood base & adding in a cold cast bronze ground scene under him would be around that. So there is almost no profit or a negative profit at that price. SOooo I need to think about it. Ideas welcome. I have many myself at the moment.


Need a better picture in the sun.. the bronze (it's a powder mixed in with the resin) really makes the details crisp.

I've known many artists who sculpt or paint who sell essentially for the cost of the materials. At a loss even. Nevermind the notion of getting paid for your time. The general public doesn't value purchasing art directly from artists nearly as much. Hmmm.. to stew to stew...

Anyhow, while fun, the method of selling via trench coat isn't all that productive. I wouldn't recommend it. Trying to always think out of the box here I guess but this time I gotta report back that it seems a little less effective, lol! ;)

There are no eggs here! ;)

Just a reminder that there will be no eggs hidden on this blog..

And that it's T-minus 2 and a half hours now until eggs magically appear on my web site (www.artbymorgen.com)