WIP: More Stuff on my Plate

I can't remember the last time I had less than a dozen horses in various states of in progress. I work faster since I can allow certain projects to dry while working on others.

Expect to see a detailed tutorial on braiding in the future:

WIP: New Formulas

Over the years, I've tried to perfect my color formulas. My only reference as a pony-crazed kid and an aspiring painter was old black and white issues of JAH, so it's mostly been a process of trial and error.

I rarely bother to write anything down as I've committed them all to memory, but until recently I haven't bothered to hold on to my mixes. Leftover mixed paint went down the drain to make way for the next layer. I don't even want to think about the money spent on paint I poured out, but the plus side is that I feel the constant remixing improved my formulas. I certainly haven't stopped tweaking, but I'm happy enough with my mixes to start holding on to a few. That meant more jars:


These jars represent three colors: bay, palomino, and "burnt orange" (more on this color's purpose in a later post.) To add insult to injury, I hope to buy several more this weekend. One of the resulting ponies:


Yes, after 12 years of airbrushing, I think I'm starting to get the hang of bay! I'm a little lost on this guy. I started out with good intentions to make him rabicano, but lost my momentum halfway through. I'm currently considering tobiano or minimal sabino, but I'm completely open to suggestions. He'll eventually end up a sales piece.




I'm hoping to complete this gal this weekend. I'm going to add a few white markings, but I was hoping to keep her simple so I could offer her at a budget friendly price.

Work in Progress (WIP): Fwuffy Pony

"Fwuffy" started as a experiment (messing with a different M/T style than I usually trend towards,) but I've been happy enough with him to move forward with prepping and painting. Ideally, he's the first of many new customs I'll be bringing with me to sell at Breyerfest this summer.

A Change of Direction

Anyone belonging to my yahoo group will know I don't sell my work very often. Over the last two years I've been hoarding my work for my show string. I had a few goals in mind I wanted to accomplish and selling any of my work ran contrary to that. Primarily, I wanted to show at NAN and Breyerfest to see where I stood nationally. I'm proud to say I exceed my expectations and my success has encouraged me to continue to work and to further push myself to improve.

We are very proud of you.

My father sent me the above as a text message last Saturday following a show. One of my parents will usually ask how well I did following a show when they remember I've attended one. They don't understand the details (I typically have to reexplain what a NAN card means) so I tend to keep it to "I won a championship/overall championship/overall reserve/etc." or "I got my ass kicked."

This weekend I got my ass kicked.

Considering the immense quality of the competition in Region 1 and particularly at the show this weekend, there's no shame in a loss. But the text I got from my father wasn't in response to the show at all. They were proud because I sold a horse.

In the past, my model work has been a source for superfluous amounts of anxiety for my family. They aren't horse people, and they consider the models seriously weird. In order to keep the peace, I've periodically gone into hiatus or had to hide my work. My family's change of heart is very good news.

This is the first time in my life that models have been my soul source of income. A month ago, my contract position ended. As you know, the economy isn't great. Hiring is moving at a snail's pace and most companies consider graphic designer (my day job) disposable. Actually, it's worse than that as I've primarily worked as a graphic illustrator: the most disposable of the disposable.

To make a long story short, models may be my primary income for a while. Expect to see new work pop up for sale on a regular basis. I have a few medallion-type projects planned for the spring which should be previewed here soon.

i has a blog

I've had this blog just sitting here for way too long.

My primary intent is to use it as a forum for updates on my works in progress and the occasional tutorial. My hope is to post images of the goings on of my work bench on a weekly basis.

I'm not planning the tutorials as a comprehensive how-to of model horse-dom. There are plenty of great resources out there already that fit this mold and I'll discuss my favorites in a later post. My tutorials are intended to be supplemental. I have a few unique approaches I've developed over the years and this seems like a decent venue to share.

My thoughts on other hobby and horse related topics may occasionally sneak in.