Sun and Fun

It’s been really lovely here the past week, which I hope means some I’ll be able to do some cross country schooling soon. I had a fabulous jump lesson this week- Cochise went over all sorts of scary new kinds of jumps with little fuss and no muss. Afterwards it was even warm enough to hose the horses off a bit. It only made a small dent in all of winter’s sweat and grim, but it’s a start.

Cochise and Emily drying in the sun

In the model horse world, I finished up my donation for Plastic Ponies on Parade, a Michigan live show benefiting animals in need. I painted a micro mini standing draft mare to a chestnut tobiano with mapping and little blue ribbons. Her hooves and lower legs have been refined to escape the micro mini blob look. She’s super cute.

Next up- working on my blue roan draft stallion, who still needs a name.

Martouf is done!

And just in time. I’m heading over to Caryn’s house today for a customizing day. I’ll also be dropping off a horse I repaired for her and the newly finished Martouf. He’s going with her to the Swap & Shop Live Show while I’m in Hawaii later this month. Generally I’m not into proxy showing, since the best part of a live show is being there, but I’m really pleased with how Martouf came out and I’d be tickled to get him in the ring before, oh… September? That may be the next time I get to a live show.

I finished Martouf up last night with a few last minute details, layers of matte coat, and then his final eye gloss. And I took some quite glamor shots, although they’re a bit washed out and don’t catch all the detail. I’ll be adding him to my grey gallery page shortly, and I’ve made him a page in the Equine Resin Directory. I also added some updated pictures to my site’s other pages.

Bookcase the cat helps me take pictures of Kaylee

I hope one of these days I can take the time to update my photo show photos- they really need some work, and I have a number of horses who don’t have a picture at all.

Anyway, here’s Martouf!

Martouf’s rose gray color is a combination of pastels, acrylic hairing, and white charcoal pencil. His mane and tail are acrylics. Big thanks to Caryn for gifting me this lovely resin!

Furry Foal Friend

Well, I haven’t been very good about keeping up the blogging. Things have been busy, as predicted- Friday was my twelfth straight day of work. I’m enjoying this weekend immensely. Believe it or not, I hope things will get busier soon- because that will mean we’ve bought our dream condo, which even has a little room for me to use for crafting.

I’m attending a little live show next weekend. It’s all halter, which is good because I can’t even be tempted by lofty performance goals. I’ve got my class sheet drawn up so I won’t miss classes. I even managed to get one of my in progress ponies finished in time to show!

This is Kaylee, a First Draft resin (Mary Osedo) in bay sabino. She’s about stablemate scale (1:32). She’s about 95% done here- she still needs more layers of fixative and painted and glossed eyes. But I’m confident I can get that done by Friday, if nothing else.

My First Medallion

One of the other projects I did this December was to paint my first medallion. I couldn’t post earlier because the recipient of the medallion reads my blog, but the gift’s been given, the horse is out of the bag, and I can post some pictures.

It was quite fun to paint a medallion. It was simple in that it was a manageable size and only had one side, but with a lot of potential for wee detail as well. I think I spent half an evening painting the inside of the horse’s ear. I did more than usual in acrylics, too, which is always challenging and satisfying.

This medallion was sculpted by Sarah Minkiewicz-Bruenig, but I don’t know it’s name. I painted it as a portrait of my friends Arabian gelding.

It was exciting to get to paint a traditional sized eye! There’s just so much room in there- like moving from a twin bed to a California king!

I don’t have room in my collection for medallions, but I definitely see why people like to paint and collect them. I sure wouldn’t say no to painting a few more for sale or commissions

Finished Gifts

Things have been pretty quiet around here. I’m finished my crafty gifts and don’t have a lot of motivation to start more crafts, or blog. I think part of the reason I’m not as motivated to blog is that I’m using WordPress all day for work, so it doesn’t seem quite as much of a down time activity.

I was very happy and proud to deliver both my portrait of Violet and my 1:48 scale Dr. Who to their recipients. I added pictures of the finished portrait to my Bay & Black gallery.

The wee Dr. Who is at home in his terrarium, exploring what really does look like an alien planet. He looks so good, I’m so happy I decided to make him!

I’m not sure what my next project will be, but it will definitely be after the new year. Soon I’m off to California to celebrate Christmas, and I don’t see any hobby time happening before January at the earliest. I hope you all have lovely, safe, happy and warm holidays.