Mail Time!

Yeah, my photography sucks. Can't be helped.



But LOOK what I finally got in the mail! Took me months to pay him off, but he's finally here! Completely unscathed by his 10 day journey, and more beautiful than photos can portray.



He's everything I look for in a model. A Lipizzaner, doing fancy dressage, in realisitc colours! Perfect!



The dapples are perfectly subtle and absolutely gorgeous. LOVE the darker shading.



And that expression! *drool*




A very good mail day!

Bad Pony.

Jumper Pony has been fighting me. The last time I updated I was pretty pleased with his progress. I picked up the paintbrush the next day and proceeded to completely screw him up. He looked like a raccoon/pig... thing...
I was more than discouraged. More like.. mildly devastated.
I kept second-guessing my (very small) abilities and entertained brief thoughts of stripping him and starting again.

After ages of not even looking at him, I decided to pick up a paintbrush again. Two strokes in, and my confidence is back.
Isn't it amazing what the smallest amount of paint can do?

Anyway, here's how he stands now:











(note: shiny bits are wet)

Still a lot of tweaking to do. Especially around his muzzle/eyes. And the ears. I've hardly touched the ears. Oh, and his nether regions. That's still a battle in progress.

My love for this pony has been restored. So cayooot! And he's still smooth! No paintbrush marks on this little boy!
*beams*

Palomino Progress!

You could say it's going well....

Like.. REALLY REALLY REALLY well.

I mean, heck! My first ever palomino/resin and... I just love it.

In these shots the face had just had it's second layer of blocking- so it looks a funny colour (wet paints tend to turn out weird on my camera). I assure you it matches the body.

The body colour, however,  turned out SO good.

He's turning out exactly how I envisioned him. 

Does everyone get this excited when artwork turns out good? 

Yay pony!!!!!

The last you'll see of this pony!

The spotted portrait pony is DONNEE! (Well not really.. still haven't finished her tail... and her coronet area still needs a bit of clean up)
But I'm going to call her 'done'. AND I'm going to call her a success. I'm not going to lie, I'm super dooper proud of her. The colours all came out better than expected, and lines are sharp and she's SMOOTH. And I guess she looks mostly like the reference pony too, which is always a bonus.




The REAL pony has a lot of roaning... and after some experimentation I threw that idea in the bucket. I couldn't get the hairing to mesh nicely... so lets use out imagination, eh?

Have some more (blurry) photos:







Did I mention that I was proud of the forelock? 'Coz... I am. Really, really proud.





Hoof detail. Also something I'm proud of. (note: coronet still needs clean-up- dead bugs there to add mystery- at least that's the story I'm sticking to)



So there you have it. My second EVER finished model re-paint, and my first ever finished mane/tail sculpt.  *dances*

I even got a little reckless this week. The resin in my banner (jumper pony 'Zim') I was planning to send off to a professional painter, because I'm retarded and would probably mess it up. I've had him for a good 5 months, and have spent the time painstakingly prepping and priming him.
Do you see where this is going??



Oops. Basecoat.
He wants to be a palomino welsh with chrome. I have never ever painted this colour. Not even on paper/canvas. Should be interesting.....
I guess if I mess him up I can always strip the paint and start again, right?

It can only get better.....

Seeing Spots!

And now for something completely different....




My poor childhood model 'Blaze' was on the receiving end of some experimentations.  I felt kind of bad painting over his original colour. He was one of my absolute favourites when I was young. I always thought of him as a mean, villain stallion. He always had the pretty girlfriend horse.
And now he has spots!

My reference was this cute little man.



My version ins't 100% accurate, but I'm pretty pleased nonetheless.
I'm onto the last few layers of acrylics for the main body of the spots, and I'll add hairing details later once I finish experimenting with different kinds of paintbrushes.




I think this side needs more spots. Yup. Definitely needs more spots.

I haven't worked on either Cigar or the paint pony. Studying full time, working part time, volunteering at pony club and keeping 2 horses in work is HARD. I'm actually going through one of 'fatigue' stages which happens once every couple of months. Cue a week of feeling like death and doing very little.

Ah well. It can only get better.

Nearing Completion....

To say 'I learned a lot' from this model would be a gross understatement.
Not only did I sculpt my first braided mane and tail, but I also experimented with colours. I'm really liking the richer feel of it all. I highlighted with flat out ridiculous colours, and it came out lovely (IMO).
This new knowledge MAY result in re-doing Cigar for the nth time. What can I say?? Cigar may never be finished :P
 I have lots of new ideas for the next one too!

Ooooo I'm having SO much fun!

It got Better!

Another post about Cigar!
Maybe one day I'll finish him, and then I can stop filling my blog with countless pictures of the (slow) progress.

I figured this particular progress blog-worthy because, well... He has eyeballs now.



Obviously not finished eyeballs, but eyes none-the-less!
Maaaan it's amazing what a bit of expression can do for a model. I was getting more and more discouraged with Mr. Cigar- almost to the point of putting him aside completely.
Instead, I completely re-did his body colour and gave him some eyes and started his whites.
Suddenly, I'm not so discouraged any more.








He's coming together nicer than I expected.
In fact, I really like him. He'll make a nice edition to the shelf ponies. And well, he's a bit of a milestone.

The only things left to do:
- finish up the whites/hooves
-sharpen up the edges
-gloss eyes/ hooves

...and then he will be done!