Updates: Good (and a minor bad)

Updates! Yay!  I know you were all holding your collective baited breath to see what the latest things on the amazing desk o'Jamie are doing.  (not really, it's more just my wishful thinking that anyone really reads this blog, but hey, maybe someday! *wink*)

Alright, so... I haven't made any progress on the frogs; things have been busy and oils take a long time to dry, so I haven't wanted to get everything all set up just for a few minutes painting time.  I should be able to work on them some this week.

Here is the little Schleich Tinker foal I had prepped and primered in my last post:

The top two photos are after 2 layers of my standard mix for undercoats -- it works for bays, chestnuts, and, in this case, buckskins.  I assume it will work for browns also, but i've never done one ;)  She also has the first layer of black on the inside of her ears, sides of muzzle, and between her hind legs.  The reason it looks spotty on the sides there is because when she's done she'll have a big bald face, and the reference photo has dark lip corners, but his actual little lips are pink.

These two are of the finished body color, mane, and tail.  The tail is grey because she's a baby buckskin, and the mane is a sortof mixed dark and fawnish color, again because she's a baby buckskin.  The black on the muzzle and around the eyes looks a little stark because the markings aren't done yet, but once that happens it will even them out.  Her legs and hooves are still white because the reference baby has stockings up over his knees and hocks, so I'll just paint these in with white acrylic once I get to that point.

And these last two are just some closeups of her little face.  Her muzzle is still white, so it got washed into the white cooler lid that she was standing on... You can see the blending on the sides of the muzzle here a little better, as well as the mane color. 

After I took these photos, I drew in the outlines of her white bits with a prismacolor pencil.  I tried using one of my Staedler Aquarelles instead, but it didn't want to stick to the primer.  Sometimes the Prismacolors are a bit waxy, but i've found if i only use them to do outlines of markngs and hoof details, it's not too bad. :)

Now, the minor bad.  =o(

My wife's best friend (and ex) from high school came to visit us for 4 days last week as part of a cross country move.  He's really into Ball Jointed Dolls, and so he kindof "gets" the hobby -- if not gets, at least appreciates the detail and whatnot, and also the expense.  So I was showing him my tack collection, and in his zeal to see how true to life my dressage saddle was, pulled one of the stirrup leathers clean off the saddle!  And he didn't even apologise, he just said "omg, i can pay for it!"... Well, i appreciate that you can pay for it, but NAN is in less than a month, and I don't have time to ship it back to the tackmaker, get it repaired, and get it shipped back to me before the show.  And the fact that that is probably my most necessary tack item makes it worse.  I've done a quick repair with superglue that should hold it for NAN, and I'll send it back to Jana for updates afterwards, but seriously!  I emphasized how fragile everything was and how thin the leather pieces were as i was talking about each piece and where it came from.  I don't get how "don't pull too hard on that" means *yank it to see what happens*.  So i'm pretty upset about that.  It added a level of stress that wasn't there previously, because now i have to worry about the repair holding in the heat in the car on the way to NAN, as well as tacking up AT NAN, and sitting on the show table.  I think it will be fine, but if it's not, there goes Atari's chance at a National Championship. =(  I need to get a new upper level dressage set anyway, but I haven't decided if I'm going to retire Atari or continue to show him, and his head is shaped slightly differently, so any bridle that goes with the set will only fit him.  The saddle fits Strapless as well, and would possibly fit the Weather Girl (though I haven't tried it on her because I doubt I'll be showing my OF ones in performance).  So i had that to deal with.

This week, getting everyone tacked, packed, and ready for NAN!  The BYO is next Saturday, and I'm pretty sure i'm going.  I don't know if i'm going to show anyone, but i'd like to show off logan's new 5 point breastplate, cm saddlepad, and bell boots from Jana Skybova.  She's done every english tack set i own, and they are ALL multi NAN qualified. :) (Shameless plug!!) So, going to print out my list, get everyone in one trunk, clean out the prop bin of things i'm not using, find western tack to borrow for my Shining & Sassy (she's entered in three classes at NAN, but i have no tack! Argh!), and make sure my binder is organized with documentation and things i might need.   I also need to make one collectibility card and i think one performance card -- I'll have to check the box.

Busy week ahead!  But I'm looking forward to it; I can't believe NAN's Three weeks away!!!

What's On The Workbench?

Well, finals are over and it's officially summer vacation!  I'm still waiting to hear about my grade in biochemistry, because that grade decides if i'm graduating or not.  So things are a little nerve wracking around here at the moment.... I'm also waiting on an email back from my faculty mentor -- I haven't heard from him in a while regarding my research, and I have a few things to get finished before I can write the paper and send it off to the reviewers.  That being said though, I'm officially DONE with my undergraduate work!! yay!! 

So being done with undergrad means actual time to paint and prep things!  Huzzah!  So here's what's on my workbench right now.  (workbench, of course, being metaphorical, since i have only my desk, which is sortof an all purpose surface at the moment.  Hopefully I'll be able to set up a studio space at some point with at least a worktable attached to the desk or next to the desk so I can keep projects going rather than having to put everything away and drag it out again, which proves to be a bit of a PITA. ONWARD!)

So this first one is obvious -- A Rose Reiner.  Dun It To Heck (Yes, that's his name -- he's also already got a full pedigree) is finished being prepped except for his ajax bath and will be ready to go to Lauren this week!  Huzzah!  He'll be dunalino with a fairly unique facial marking and one sock.  His tack set is already on order from Erin Corbett. 

The next one is a Schleich Tinker Foal... You guys might remember the tinker stallion i've been working on from my last post -- this will be a baby of his I think.  I'm probably going to do a baby buckskin minimal tobiano on her, but I haven't fully decided yet.

So these are the first in progress pix of the first frog I'm working on for the 500 Frogs project!  He's going to be a Northern Leopard Frog , but as you can see he has a ways to go!  After this guy, I have 4 more frogs to do, so I'm going to see if i can't represent frog species from across the globe for the kids.

This lovely purple frog is the one that my wife Livvy has been working on.  I'm not sure what she has in mind, other than she said he's going to be "purple and green."  So i'm looking forward to seeing what he or she turns out to be!

So there you have it -- what's currently on the workbench!  I have plans to finish prepping a Huck, Classic sized Keen, G4 Dressage Horse (yes, another one), and possibly a Cleveland Bay, and stripping and re-prepping a Stone WPH and a Schleich Andy this summer as well.  And, of course, we'll see what other kind of trouble I can get into in the mean time :)

TTFN!