More sharing!

And here is a Finn who was also finished last week. I had forgotten how *adorable* this piece is; he was so much fun to paint. I would not be opposed to painting more, if anyone has some nekkid ones! Ha! I want one for myself. You can click on any of these images to blow them up large to see the tiny details on him.

This little guy also has a new kind of dapple technique... where I actually pulled the paint up in those spots instead of painting on the dapples in washes and then blending them out. I know that Carol Williams will do dapples this way sometimes, but she works with oils, and thinner-- this is the first time I have tried it with mt acrylics-- and I really like how it looks.

It started as an accident, mostly because its been so horrendously humid and nothing is drying... I got a little bit of fuzz on him, and went in with a paintbrush to remove it, and scrubbed a little too hard! The paint came up, revealing the layer underneath. Well, it looked like the perfect dapple, ao I did a few more... and this is the end result. :-) I love it because it looks SO much more natural and soft.

Just sharing!

Some pics of a newly completed piece! :-) This little baby came out so darn cute, and so soft. The pictures don't really do anything for her.

The new mower

When Greg and I made the decision to make our lives as green as possible, we started actively looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint in every part of our lives. So, when our rider mower recently stopped working, and our lawn needed trimming, Greg made a decision to go with a more "hands on" approach.... a Classic Mower from Scott's. Yes... that is a push mower, powered only by Greg, to trim an acre of lawn and to try and tame the woods encroaching on it.

Here is Greg pushing the mower... with our old mower in the foreground. He's really into this type of equipment, since it is completely green and emission-free. The truth is that gas lawn mowers have a HUGE carbon footprint. Mowing a small yard is equivalent to driving 300 miles in a car! The emissions are enormous.

We have also considered getting a (cordless!) electric mower which we can charge with solar power. We are not sure yet what exactly we will get, but here are some choices:
http://products.howstuffworks.com/electric+lawn+mowers/All/award-all]
Doing even little things can help the environment. Composing the clippings or getting a mower like this to do your lawn makes a huge difference-- and cuts down an enormous amount of emissions put into the air. Its great exercise! Not for everyone, but they are inexpensive and do an amazing job!

Sneak Peak!

Sneak peak!! This little lady is a custom I am working on, to be offered next week. Can you guess what she is? A few hints... she is a trad. sized plastic... a *really old* plastic... one with exquisite mold detail, that I've spent many hours enhancing! She is such a little doll... I can't wait to do the full reveal.

She will be a bit more 'rose' colored when she is completed; these pics are just in progress. I need to a bit more blending too. So far so good though!

Eyes, the blue ring

The links were broken in the previous post, so here are pics that illustrate the blue ring seen on horse's eyes. :-) It also shows that brown sclera!

All about eyes

Recently, I had a client ask me about why the eyes on her horse (a dark bay) where so dark, when she sees other horses that I have painted with much more light colored eyes. It occurred to me then that perhaps there needs to be more information out there on why eye coloration happens the way it does, and why her dark bay horse has darker eyes than some of the palominos or chestnuts that I've done. Its not there is less detail in those dark eyes... it just is harder to see in lower light.

The EYES have it

Just like in people, the color of horse's eyes are genetic, and is effected by the same genes that pigment the skin and body color. Just like how its rare to see a very pale skinned platinum blonde with brown eyes, or a very dark skinned african american with pale blue eyes-- the color of the skin/hair effects how dark the eyes are. It has everything to do with the pigmentation of the overall creature.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj01LTPa0hEE4I9s1gHrBm1fbwimMkT1-P_PGGpZlomPVHZP5UeKPIJTltIEzHbSPa6uXNjiGmzBdiBm-eg32pFQaplz3L_HzyYAE3exgMi5kcQo0N7nhmtafgnatJTmo8qD6v9C6i8atE/s400/twoeyes400.jpg

In horses, the same rules apply. Black/bay horses will have the darkest eyes, and the lighter the body color, the lighter the eyes tend to be. Here are some color examples:

Bay horses:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/239/3161147474_fce82ede54.jpg?v=0
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3550755828_264a5b8cce.jpg?v=0

Gray horse (used to be bay):
http://www.azalearabians.com.au/pictures/eye.jpg

*Gray horses will have eyes that go with the color they were born. For example, a chestnut-gone-gray will have lighter colored eyes than a bay-gone-gray. Similarly, a light bay will have lighter eyes than a dark bay.

Chestnut horse:
http://www.equipedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/close-up-face-chestnut-horse.jpg
http://image.equinenow.com/119556_1/face_hind_horse.jpg

Palomino horse:
http://www.sugarfootfarm.com/Codyhd.jpg

The wild card are buckskins. Traditionally, they would have eyes similar in color to palominos, due to the dilution. However, if there is a lot of black on the face, or are smutty (darker colored) then their eyes will be darker as well.

Sclera:
White sclera is most common on patterned horse, such as appaloosas and paints, which count it as a breed characteristic:
http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens4888762module38060412photo_1244197970Eyes_Appy_vs_afraid.jpg

However, most horses have brown sclera, making it very difficult to see against the dark eye:
http://www.uh.edu/engines/horseeyereflection.jpg

Often times there is a blue ring around the eye as well. Here are two great pictures of that ring and also of the brown sclera:
http://k43.pbase.com/u16/crs/upload/5107082.HorseEye.jpg
http://i.pbase.com/u13/laurent_laveder/large/38511389.PC190021.jpg

Although there are some exceptions, most 'solid colored breeds' like TBs, QHs, and Morgans have very few individuals with white sclera. The exception comes in when patterned horses are present, or introduced, into the gene pool (for example, pure arabs come in sabino, and there is a lot of interbreeding between Paints and QHs), and this can change the pigmentation of the sclera because of the patterning.

Basically what it comes down to is... the darker the horse, the darker the eye, and visa versa. :-) Of course there are always exceptions, but this a good general jumping off point!

Equi-potomus

This handsome guy was another one I was able to finish last week and get on his way home. Although I love how he turned out (chestnut is one of my favorite colors in general!), and love the sculpture, he really took a toll on me to get finished. I grossly underestimated the surface area on this fellow, he just is one massive dude... I had to come up with some clever ways to hold him so I didn't get cramps in my hands. For most of his painting, I had my knees up at about chest level so that he could sit on them and so I could have both my hands free.

I have some new fun projects coming up soon too, which I can show the whole start-to-finish on. One is a Polaris that was actually started by Mel Miller. She gave him a new mane, but he still needs a new face (it is just a stump right now) and a new tail. I also want to do some more body work to make him a bit lighter. I'll be posting his progress as I get working on him-- he is a great piece to do 'tutorial' type entries on since he needs SO much work!