In the Studio

The Copperfox Welsh Cob has come a long way since my last post. He's not quite ready to paint yet, but he's getting close. Finishing up prepping is one of the most tedious times in the customizing process for me. All the pieces are where I want them, and all the sculpting work is essentially done. I'll think everything is good to go, only to find another tiny place that wasn't quite smooth when I spray the primer. 

In the Studio

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures of projects I'm working on now that NaMoPaiMo is over. First up is the first of my two Andre resins (sculpted by Sarah Rose.) He's almost ready to start painting. I resculpting him slightly with a new braided mane and tail as well as shoes. I plan on painting him a very dark brown with some subtle dapples.

NaMoPaiMo - Days 6-17

Finally done with the dapples!

I'm sorry it's been a bit since my last NaMoPaiMo update. I've been spending most of the last week or so working on my entry's dapples, which, while important, are not the most interesting thing to see a bunch of in-progress pictures of. I ended up doing 1-4 layers of pigments depending on how prominent I wanted the dapples to be in different areas. After sealing with several layers of dulcote and giving him a full day to dry, he was finally ready for phase II of airbrushing!

Basic Technique for Light Over Dark Dapples Using Pigments

My NaMoPaiMo model in progress

 When they're well done, dapples can make a solid colored model a lot more interesting. There are lots of different ways to paint them, and for most models I'll use a combination of techniques. In this post I'll show you the basic method I'm currently using on my NaMoPaiMo model, which is a light-over-dark technique using pale pigments to paint dapples over a darker base color.

Quick Tips - Airbrush Thinner

Vallejo Airbrush Thinner

When I first started airbrushing, I just used water to thin my paint. This worked, but I was constantly plagued by several problems. I'd have to wait a long time between coats, because the water greatly extended the paint's drying time. Paint had to be applied in extremely thin coats or else it would start to sag or drip. But the most annoying thing was the tendency of the paint to bead up because it was just not sticking to previous layers.

NaMoPaiMo - Days 3 - 5

Jadakiss after the first round of airbrushing

 As expected, after the first round of airbrushing my progress on my NaMoPaiMo model has slowed somewhat, as I'm now in the tedious process of adding dapples.

NaMoPaiMo - Days 1 and 2

Jadakiss primed and ready to go!

Yesterday and today I've made some good progress on my NaMoPaiMo model, Jadakiss, and have been trying to make sure I take a photo after every coat of paint. This won't really be a tutorial, but I will be trying to explain what I'm doing as I go along and hopefully you'll be able to get a better idea of my painting process. My techniques aren't really the most efficient, but I like going back and forth with darker and lighter layers of paint since I think the color ends up having a lot more depth in the end.

Paint the Town

A few of the acrylic paints in my collection. From left to right: Vallejo Model Color in Chocolate Brown, Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic in Payne's Gray, Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic in Van Dyke Red, and Golden Fluid Acrylic in Interference Orange.

It's the last day before the official start of NaMoPaiMo, and I thought I'd talk about something most of us participants are probably going to use at some point during National Model Painting Month: Paint!

 

Prime Time: That Which Lies Beneath the Paint

Krylon Gesso Spray and Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

With NaMoPaiMo coming up, I thought I'd start a series of posts on some of the finishwork materials and techniques I use. Since a lot of people are probably in the process of prepping right now, I thought I'd start by talking a bit about the types of primer I like. Different people like different kinds of primer, and the most important thing is finding something that works for you. 

My NaMoPaiMo Entry

 

This year I'll be participating in National Model Painting Month (NaMoPaiMo). If you haven't heard of NaMoPaiMo, I highly recommend checking out the Official NaMoPaiMo Info Page. Basically, it's the same idea as NaNoWriMo, except instead of writing a novel in November, the goal is to paint a model horse entirely in the month of February. The first NaMoPaiMo was held last year, and while I attempted it, things just didn't work out for a variety of reasons I'm not going to get into here.

In the Studio - Jumping Around

 

I apologize for not posting here lately! It's about impossible for me to get any serious time to work with my computer during the holidays, but I'm finally starting to get caught up and I have a couple more posts I plan to put up this week.

How to Decorate a Base With Static Grass - Part Three

 

After parts One and Two of this series, our base is looking pretty good. It's covered in a nice lush layer of static grass, and if you wanted, you could just finish the bottom and leave it as is. But I wanted to add a nice dusting of snow to this piece, so I'll be covering that as well.

In the Studio - Painting and Sculpting

Using a telephoto lens probably wasn't the best choice here; poor Truffle looks a bit squished from this angle.

I have a lot of different projects going on a the moment. Probably too many, and I probably should just pick one and finish it before moving on to something else, but I've never been able to get that to work.

Lots of Spots

 

I've been working on the second artist's proof Truffle quite a bit over the last couple of days and thought I'd share a picture of my progress. He still needs a lot of work, but I like the way he's going and think he'll really start to come together once I start working on his points and blending everything together.

How to Decorate a Base With Static Grass - Part Two

 

If you haven't already, I recommend reading Part One of this series, where I showed you how to prep a base for static grass application. In part two, I'll show you how to go about adding the static grass.

 

How to Decorate a Base with Static Grass - Part One

I first learned about static grass last year while looking for tutorials on how to make plaster rocks for a diorama project. I thought it looked pretty cool, and a few months later I was able to get a static grass applicator and think it's the best tool I've tried so far for creating realistic grass for model horses.

 

Most of the static grass tutorials I've found have been on model train sites. I haven't been able to find any model horse sites that even mention it, so I though I would do a tutorial on it here and hopefully introduce more people to this cool material.

In the Studio - Spots and Sparkles

I've just realized I haven't done a post here in over a month. August ended up being a really busy for me, especially since I managed to do a trip to see the eclipse, but hopefully I'll have a bit more time to work on horses now.


Diamond Ring just before totality in Grand Island, Nebraska

Hopefully I'll also have some more substantial posts finished soon, but for now, here's a quick update on the two Truffles I'm painting:

What I'm Doing this Weekend

Sadly, I'm not able to go to Kentucky this weekend. But I though I'd do a quick post to show you a few of horses I'll be working on.

First up are the two Truffle resins in the photo above. I'm having a lot of fun with the unicorn. His color was inspired by a certain frozen beverage that was all over the internet earlier this year.

I just started painting the leopard appaloosa last night. Right now I'm working on getting the layout of his spots right. With appaloosas, getting the spots right is probably the most important thing. It doesn't matter how nice everything else about the paint job is if the spotting pattern is unrealistic or appears contrived. I see some things on this guy that need changing already, but that's easy enough to do at this stage.

Next is the pulling Shire, whom I've decided to call Boxer, at least for now. He's still a mess, and the gold bead eyes are kind of creepy, but I'm making progress.

Lastly is another new sculpture, which will hopefully start to look more like a Thoroughbred at some point. I'm tentatively calling this one 'Hello Seattle.'

So if you are going to Kentucky this weekend, I hope you have fun, and if you're not going, at least know that you're not alone!

In the Studio





Tonight I thought I'd share a couple of picture of models I'm currently working on.

 

First up is a Truffle resin I'm resculpting to a unicorn. This guy was a second that came out of the mold with an incomplete tail. He is one of the few Truffles I've made so far that has a magnetic base. There's still a bit more resculpting and a lot of prepping to do before he's ready to paint.

And this is a new sculpture I'm working on. He's 1:12 scale and still very much a mess at this point, but hopefully you can sort of see what I'm going for. I've gotten a bit further since this picture was taken; he doesn't need a block of polymer clay to stand any more and all the aluminum foil has been covered up.




 

Unpainted Truffles Availible!

 

Two unpainted Truffle resins are now available! Click Here (or on 'Truffle Resin' in the sidebar) and click on the PayPal button to order.