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!