Friday, November 11, 2011

Poster Prints!

*Edited*  Only 2 Prints are now available- I wasn't happy with how "Autumn Ginkgo" was printing.  I need to re-do the file!  
"A is for Adopt" and "I Have No Egrets" are still available.

Seeing as many of y'all liked my "Autumn Ginkgo" and "I Have No Egrets" prints, I decided to make them available to order, along with my "A is for Adopt" poster print.  The first two are available as 5 x 7's (they look great matted in 8 x 10 frames), and the latter is available as an 8 x 10.  The prints will be professionally printed on photo paper with a matte finish.  They will be shipped via USPS first class mail, and domestic & Canadian postage is free! (International orders, please email me for a price).  "Autumn Ginkgo" and "I Have No Egrets" are $8 , and "A is for Adopt" is $10.  They do not include mats/frames, but those should be easy to find for their sizes. Please email me at sales (at) brightlyhude . com if you are interested!  It may take me a few days to get them printed & shipped, but I will attend to your order as quickly as I can.  Thank you!

:)

And the winners are...

Thanks to the random number generator, we have our winners!

Congratulations to:

A. Brushwork Tile & Shelf
Chris Allen

B. Jitterbug Artifact
Heather Wells

C. Arabian Halter
Vicki Foster Scott

D. Ringtail Lemur Sketch
Lindy Pinkham


E. Hippo sketch
Linda Dean

F. “I Have No Egrets" Print
Liz Strauss

G. "Autumn Ginkgo"
Rayvin

H. Black Appaloosa Pin 
Jeanene Bernardin

I. Grey Sabino Pin 
Susan Natschke 

J. Brigand resin
Becky Turner


Trivia Answers!

The winner:  Bev Manderfeld

1)    What is your name?
Everyone got this right! (I hope!)

2)    What is the name of my cat?
Jeanie!  I sculpted a pin portrait of her, & she was featured in a poster

3)    Which sculpture of mine had the largest OF run?
Skara Brae (at 50 pieces)

4)    How many different pins/pendants (not ornaments) have I sculpted?
17, counting the 2 different TB's (though I did accept 16, if you counted them as one sculpt).

5)    What movie inspired the name of the “Bring Out Your Chinas” show?
Monty Python & the Holy Grail

The bonus question was fun!  I certainly received a variety of animals- more than I'd expected!  Thank you all for giving me food for thought.  :)

Thank you to everyone who played- I hope it was as much fun for you as it was for me!  Winners- feel free to email me your snail mail address, or I will get in touch with you soon!  More fun stuff to come in the next  post....

:)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

10 Years, 1 Month...

Hiya!

Many, many thanks to all of you who have entered the give-away, trivia contest, and who have answered the poll!  If you still want to do any of these things, today is your last chance!  You have until 9 pm, PST.  Follow This Link to go to that blog post, with all of the pictures and instructions.  And here's a tip for the trivia contest- just about all of the answers can be found on my website, BrightlyHude.com, plus I've decided that if you answer the bonus question (so far, I think everyone who's entered, has) it will make up for one missed question.

Okay!  Winners, trivia answers, and a the auction for the black tobiano Callahan resin all to come tomorrow!

:)

  
My very first (usually messy) studio, with my little gray kitty.  She's still my supervisor!
The chicken wire was from a school project....

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Huzzah for 10 Years!

We're back!!!
Did you guess the names right?


The year was 2001- I had my studio & the kiln all set up in the living room of my small apartment in Long Beach.  I had passed the fire inspection; I had a city license, and a CA Seller’s Permit that read Velasquez Artistry, 10/10/01.  I was ready to make shiny ponies!  It was an exciting and occasionally overwhelming time.  Having learned my craft from Joan Berkwitz of Pour Horse Pottery (who greatly supported me, especially in those early years), striking out on my own in earnest was truly a “trial by fire.”  I was a Junior in college, pursuing my B.A. in Art from CSULB at the time I started my business, and sometimes it was quite the juggling act to do horses in between homework!  The summer months proved much more productive.  I’d like to say I learned a lot with each horse I produced.  Falconbridge and Brigand taught me about bases (never again, in ceramic!), Skara Brae taught me about OF production, Black Jack Davy was crucial to developing my CM skills, Sheila taught me about contours in sculpting (i.e. muscles are not necessarily flat!), with Jitterbug I figured out that a fancy pattern could be done in OF (if the run is small, and you’re up for a challenge!), and with Jellibaby, Toot Sweet & Callahan, I began to realize just how important it is to really study good reference material when you’re sculpting (and that you need lots of it!).  And in the background of all of this, I was continually being pushed, guided, and greatly inspired by other artists in our industry.  Many thanks to Joan, Kristina Lucas-Francis, Lesli Kathman, Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig, Lynn Fraley, and to every wonderful artist out there who’s taken the plunge into the ceramic realm, for your parts in making me the artist I am today.  I also owe a great debt of gratitude to all of my wonderful customers who have supported me through the years- you’ve allowed me to make a living doing something I love, and I cannot thank you all enough.  Lastly, I remain ever thankful to God who granted me these talents in the first place- I always and ever hope to use them to bear good fruit and I look forward to the places they will lead me in the future.

I forgot to thank the Academy… oh, and my dear, supportive husband, who put the ‘Hude’ into Brightly Hude (thanks, Honey)! 

Now then- I promised a bit of fun, didn’t I?


Trivia Game!

Let’s start out with a bit of Trivia!  Fun things you just might know about Velasquez Artistry/Brightly Hude.  To play, just zip me an email with the word “Trivia” in the subject line (Adalee [at] BrightlyHude . com). I will draw a name from the folks with the right answers, and the winner will get a $50 gift certificate!

Questions:

1)    What is your name? (and Quest/Color, if you like)
2)    What is the name of my cat?
3)    Which sculpture of mine had the largest OF run?
4)    How many different pins/pendants (not ornaments) have I sculpted?
5)    What movie inspired the name of the “Bring Out Your Chinas” show?
6)    Bonus question (optional)- What do you wish I would sculpt?


Poll!

Next up- a poll!  To the right of the main blog page, you’ll find these questions.  No contest here- this is just for fun & curiosity’s sake! What kind of Brightly Hude collector are you?

a)     I’m new- hurray!
b)    Been there from the beginning!
c)     It’s been few years now.  :)
d)    I discovered you maybe a year ago…
e)     I like penguins!

Give-Away!

Now for the Big Fun… Give-aways!  Who doesn’t love give-aways?  I’ve got 10 items I’ve collected to give away to 10 people.  They range all over the 10 years I’ve been in business (and the moving/packing really helped me to find these things!).  I’m going to list them, in no particular order.  If you’d like to enter, email me, or leave a comment here with the ones you’d be interested in winning.  I will draw names at random for them, and post the winners here in 10 days (so you have 10 days to enter!  One entry [and one win] per person, and I ask that you be a legitimate collector). 

Items:

A. The original “Brushwork Horse” Tile- set into a frame with shelf
B.  “Jitterbug Artifact”  This was the original I used in making a rubber JB mold- his legs all broke off in the process, so I decided to make him into an “artifact!”  The base is real marble.
C. A Traditional Scale Arabian Halter I made some years ago
D.  Original 2007 Sketch- “Ringtail Lemur”  Used in my old Cafepress store
E.  Original 2007 Sketch- “Hippo” Used in my old Cafepress store
F.  “I Have No Egrets”  Matted 5 x 7 Print, 2010
G.  "Autumn Ginkgo" Matted 5 x 7 Print, 2008
H.  TB Horse pin in Black Appaloosa
I.  TB Horse pin in Grey Sabino
J.  2003 “Brigand” resin- Produced by Resins by Randy.  Unpainted- a little yellow, with a choice of base to the winner (the natural ground one has a little primer/overspray on it).
Click for larger images!

 
A.
     


B.

 
C. (Too big for Brig!)


 
D.

 
E.

 
F.

 
G.

 
H.
I.

J.



So, either email me at: Adalee (at) BrightlyHude . com with the words “Give Away” in the subject line, or post a comment below!  You have until 11/10/11 to enter both contests.  Winners will be announced on 11/11/11.  Best wishes to all, and thanks for playing!

:)

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Hold, please...

Brightly Hude Studio will be closed temporarily for moving!
Exciting things to come when we're open again! 
Stay tuned....
:)

Monday, October 10, 2011

10 Years Today!!!


Huzzah!  

I was going to type out a fun, reflective post on my 10 shiny years, but as it turns out, today is also: Moving Day (Part I) !

So I leave you with this collage I made a couple of days ago, with the 9 horses I've produced over the 10 years (I am working on #10 now!).  Can you name them all?   I will continue with the celebrating as soon as I'm settled into my new home and studio.  I've some fun give-aways to hand out, and other exciting things!

Stay tuned...!

:)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Resin Callahan

Hi folks!

In case you haven't heard, Callahan is available in resin!  Yep, my Irish Cob is ready to be painted in any number of colors and patterns!  What color will yours be?  Details on this edition can be found on my Yahoo Group or on MH$P.  And more pictures of painted samples can be found on my website (in fact, the Black Tobi will be up for sale soon... details to come!).  I'm so happy to be able to offer him in resin.  Many thanks to Barry Moore of BearCast for making that possible!

:)

Monday, October 3, 2011

Reflections

So... there's a lot going on at Brightly Hude Studio!  Not only is my 10 year anniversary of being in business coming up next week (the 10th!), but many projects are (*hopefully*) being completed because... we're packing up and moving!  Yep, my darling hubby is transferring his job down to the Portland area, so Brightly Hude will soon be an Oregon business!   I'm pretty excited- I do enjoy it up here on the Olympic Peninsula, but it will be nice to be closer to a little more civilization- with a little more to do and see.  Of course, one of the main projects I'd like to get done before we leave is the paint job on this dappled fellow:

"Who's that pretty horse in the mirror, there?"

It has been a joy to work on this sculpt of Sarah MB's. He still needs bit more work- but I'm hoping to get the mane, tail and details done this week.  And maybe mess with the dapples a wee bit more...  (Btw- he lives in the largely unused guest bath, because there is a cupboard there in which he is safest- hence the locale of this shot!).

Now that I've been at this professional art thing for a decade, I've been reflecting lately on my journey- the highs and lows- the milestones along the way.  I plan on doing a special edition blog post on the 10th to get into this a little more.  But as I was packing & cleaning the other day, I came across a box that dates way back beyond the start of Velasquez Artistry...  I almost hesitate to share (Joanie B. would call it "blackmail material," in her joking way), but I thought it was good for a laugh, so here you go.  Some of my very first horse sculptures:

"Horse Shaped Objects"

I don't 100% recall when these were produced- I think the two on the left were at age 14, and yes- they both were made of air-dry clay over a wooden skewer armature! (I am amazed they are this much in tact!  There are a fair number of cracks; especially in the legs).  The other is a sculpy & epoxy unfinished foal- I must have been 16 when I started this one.  I know it was after I met Kristina Lucas-Francis, for she was a great inspiration to me as I was starting.  This must have been the foal I abandoned before taking up oil-clay to do my first ceramic piece, "Sweet Kate."  I didn't realize I still had these pieces- not sure I need to keep them now that they've been archived, but it was a fun trip down memory lane.  Ah, memories...!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Girls Who Wear Glasses


Yep, I've joined the club.  Secretly, (well not so much anymore!) I'm happy I get to wear glasses now, if only for working/reading.  They are a fun accessory to me; I enjoyed picking them out (so many cute styles!), and I think they make me look smarter, or if anything, maybe a more organized, professional individual (ha!).  I suppose being farsighted, I can take a more cavalier approach- my sight is thankfully still great, but these give me a slight edge when I work up close, now that I'm getting (*ahem*) older.  My nearsighted husband, who has to wear his all of the time, isn't quite as thrilled about the fashion aspect of his spectacles, somehow (though I think he looks pretty darn good in them).  I joked with him that he wears glasses so he can see like me, and I wear them so I can see like him!  But all joking aside, I know how important detail is to my line of work, and if there is a simple step I can take to help me see better & work longer, I'm all for it!

Speaking of detail... I'm trying my best to pack a lot of it into the big beastie I'm working on now!  He is Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig's Stormwatch, in resin.  I don't often dabble in the world of resins (I really dislike the prep-work, and I feel I'm generally slow at the painting process) but I'm having such a good time with this guy, I may find myself doing that more often!  We'll see.  I thought I'd share some in-progress pictures of my Stormy- I'm painting him a dappled rose grey.  I'm taking a different approach in terms of painting him, based on what I'm experienced with using- namely, acrylic & ceramic paint.  The acrylic I'm hand-painting for the most part, and the ceramic paint I am airbrushing.  I imagine it would be something like airbrushing liquid pastels- it gives a layer of fine powdered pigment that I will finally seal when I'm done.  I started off hand painting the mane & tail in acrylic, as I knew it would be sturdy & would show through any ceramic paint I sprayed on top.  Here's his first layer of mane:


After I worked on the tail, I went and airbrushed a little into his mane & tail, and gave an overall shading of grey to his body.  This I dappled away using erasers, as I do with my ceramic pieces.  I will continue to shade and dapple until I get to the point where he has the amount of color and contrast I'm looking for, and then I'll seal him up.  I learned the hard way that once you seal ceramic paint, that's pretty much it!  It no longer takes well to dappling, as further ceramic paint just wants to stick to the sealant.  So I'll get him where I want him first, and then I'll seal.  Here he is with his first dappled layer all done.  I'm going to darken areas a bit more, and add some rosy-ness today:



Okay!  That's all of the exciting news around here, really.  I've got a small sculpture I'm working on, but he has a looong way to go before he's worth talking about much!  (He is kind of on pause until I get Stormy done- I feel like I'm on a roll!  I hope to get Stormy done & up for sale sometime next month).  Anyhow, I hope you are all enjoying the last days of summer- it has been a busy one for me & I can't believe fall is right around the corner!  Hopefully the coming days will bring more fun projects for me to blog about & share with y'all.  Until then, all my best to each of you!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Appaloosa Part II

Howdy!

To conclude our Appaloosa adventures, here are the rest of the steps I took to finish up the Callahan from the previous post.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures from the hand-detailing stage!  But here's the gist of what I did...

The paint on Callahan's eyes was scritched off to reveal white bisque.  On one side, brown and black underglaze paints were applied to create a brown eye- on the other, dark gray, light & medium blue, and finally black were used to create a blue eye, as requested.  Actually, I do have a graphic of my blue eye steps, from a former RESS article.  I'll post that here, since I own the copyright, and some of y'all might be curious:

 

The rest of the detailing involved a little more scritching, adding a few more spots in brown & black, painting growth rings & stripes in a shell color, washing light grey around the face mottling, kissy spots and undercarriage, streaking the mane and tail in black, and painting the chestnuts in a taupe color. Oh- and I sprayed his nose and under-bits with pink.

Next came glazing!  I sprayed Mayco's C-105 Crystal Clear (now, sadly, discontinued) in 3 solid layers (he actually needed a 4th- I had to run him through a 2nd glaze fire with another layer!).  This is what he looked like, before he went into the kiln:


I always think it is magical how they go from that solid, powdery pastel stage to the final shiny finish.  Here he is all done:






He was a tremendously fun piece to work on, and I hope his owner is as happy with him as I am!  Now it is back to the studio to finish up some other projects, and hopefully soon, fit a little sculpting in!  In the meantime, I leave you with some fun images from up this way.  Summer is slowly beginning to appear (not today, though!).  Our region is known for growing lavender amongst things- so of course we had to plant some in our yard!  Our really nifty English lavender is just barely beginning to bloom, but I saw a giant honeybee buzzing around our very much blooming Spanish lavender the other day, just begging to be photographed, so I grabbed my camera:

Our dog Clover was rather curious about it all and came over to investigate and see what was more important than petting her.  This pup tends to have two emotions- elation and self-pity.  Here she is doing her best "Why aren't you paying attention to me?" look.  Our vet calls it her 'Eeyore' face.  Such a silly girl!

:)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Appaloosa Adventures


Hey there!

Zowie- did May really fly by without me posting anything?  I guess I got really carried away by BOYCC!  What a weekend that was.  I had so much fun seeing old friends,meeting new faces, eating very well, and oh yes- playing with shiny ponies! 

For today's post, I thought I'd get a little more technical and discuss some of my methods for finishing ceramic horses in a particular appaloosa pattern.  This sort of blanket/near-leopard pattern is one of my favorites, as it has so much scritchy, fiddly detail!  And when I was asked to do this kind of pattern on the bisque Callahan from last year's sale (I know- I'm woefully behind!  I do have some good excuses...), I was happy to oblige.

For anyone new to this blog or my work, I generally work in low-fire earthenware (with the piece being initially bisqued to cone 04), with layers of underglaze paints, and finally finished off with a top coat of clear, fired-on cone 06 glaze. 

Let's get started. I did not think to take pictures of my very first steps, but they are easily described, and pictures of them would have been pretty boring!  Step one was to mask off the mane and tail and airbrush a thin layer of white over the M/T (it helps me to clean up the edges & do a little scritching at the hairline when white goes on before any other color). Next, I sprayed black over that, in a gradient pattern, according to my reference photos.  Then the masking got removed, and everything was tidied up.  Another bisque firing at this point sets the underglaze paint, makes it a little sturdier, and helps me not to risk rubbing it as much when I proceed to other parts.

This I have a photo of- I painted the spots!  It is hard to tell from the photos, but this horse is a dark bay so again, according to my references, I painted either dark brown or black spots by hand.  (Ooh- he got a layer of white airbrushed first!)  I went over the brown spots twice, as the brown isn't always as opaque as the black.  You can see the points of the horse, along with shaded areas along the back are black, and the middle areas are brown:


Now, because the hand-painted spots are rather sturdy, I didn't bother re-firing him at this point.  I spimply moved on to the body shading.  Using dark brown and black shades of paint, I sprayed in a very direct manner, the areas in which I wanted some color.  I had to use a very light hand airbrushing the barrel, as I did not want a lot of contrast here- I wanted it to be subtle, so the pattern would appear faintly.  He ended up like this:


He's not too exciting yet- that comes with the scritching!  I made his roany, ticky pattern starting with an x-acto knife, in the areas where I wanted sharp detail.  After that, I lightly touched some of the areas with a bit of sanding sponge, and followed that with 2 different types of eraser.  One type was a Stanford white plastic (vinyl) eraser that came in handy stick-form.  I could sharpen it to a nice point with an x-acto (though it being rather soft, I had to do this quite often!).  Sometimes I use an old typewriter eraser too (it holds its point longer), but I wasn't sure where mine was at the time!  For *very* soft detail, I used a rubber eraser, formed into a point. 


Using my white plastic eraser, on the blanket, I went around each of the spots to leave a characteristic "halo" around each of them, and at the same time I exposed the white of the blanket:


Here's what the glamor side looks like, with most of its scritching done (I left the sock masking on as long as I could to help it from getting dirty from scritch-dust that tends to stick to the tape residue left behind!).


Now for a close up of the head.  The white plastic eraser was helpful in removing paint to get that mottled-skin effect.  I will be going back in with hand-paints after he's been bisqued again, to keep him from looking too stark there. 


What next?  Rinse and repeat!  I tend to work on one side all at once, before moving to the next.  Here's a photo of the start of side two.  He's actually all finished with scritching now, and currently in the kiln.  When he comes back out and I begin the hand-detailing process, I'll take more pictures and continue on with Part II of this series!  Thanks for reading, and feel free to ask if you have any questions.


:)

Monday, April 25, 2011

Claybody CM- Coming Along...

 

One of my latest projects has been this Claybody Custom Callahan, which I've now dubbed "Morrissey," after an old family name.  Now that I'll have access to a kiln again, I'm jumping back into my preferred medium- although what I *really* need to do is to finish a new sculpture, so I'll have a new horse to produce for y'all!  But since BOYCC is coming up, I wanted to have something new and shiny to sell, and this guy is it.  He will be offered first to attendees of BOYCC, and if he doesn't sell there (after all- they will have an OF Callahan they can purchase there, amongst things!), I will offer him to my Yahoo Group.  That aside, I thought you all would enjoy pictures here of his in-progress, scritchy little self.  He is a dappled dark bay sabino.  Yes, I thought I'd double the fun with spots and dapples!  The dapples are a little hard to see in the state he's in- after he is glazed they should shine through a little more clearly:

The flash made the colors seem a little off- but you can kind of see the dapples.

Several layers went into his coat- after a priming layer of white, straight black was airbrushed on, and that layer was dappled.  Next came his base coat, a couple of layers of brown shades, and finally, more black on top.  His mane was hand-painted, and his tail will be a combo of hand-painting & airbrush work (I purposely left the tail out of the pic above, because it is 1/2 unpainted at this point!).  Speaking of the mane & tail, those were the two areas that received the most claybody-ing.  I'll post side by side pictures of Morrissey & the original Callahan when this fella is all done & shiny.  I've still a little ways to go on him (I want to add in some even finer sabino hair-detail, do his eyes, kissy spots, etc. and his tail of course!), but it shouldn't be too much longer.

And this is entirely non-horse related, but I thought I'd share with you these lovely sights from Washington State- my husband took these photos on one of our walks last month.  It is really nice to be living close enough to the ocean for a casual stroll!  (The dog always enjoys it too- so many neat smells!)  True that we have our share of gray days, but the beautiful scenery around here makes up for that, if I may say so. 


 

 :)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

A Shiny Dream Come True

Picture this:

A visit to Pour Horse Pottery where Joan Berkwitz herself, and I, help you paint your own CM Glaze horse.  With enough food to eat, and friends to visit with & work alongside, to fill the day. Then- a relaxing evening with more socializing, merriment, and (of course) chocolate, in a lakeside bungalow.

Sound pretty good?


How about spending the next day with even more ceramic equine artists?  Learning to china-paint on specially designed porcelain medallions with pro Karen Gerhart, having Joanie show you how to repair your beloved broken pieces, learning to sculpt your own medallion with English artist Kelly Savage, learning about European Chinas with Pauline Entin and Kathy Williams, or discovering more about Digital Photography and Photo Showing with Mel Miller? Oh- and having large buffets served at every meal?


Even better, huh?

But wait!  Why not, on Saturday, throw in a specialized ceramic horse show with some of the finest examples of earthenware, bone china and porcelain horses you'll ever see?  Oh, and a couple more buffet meals- plus a sit-down banquet dinner with awards galore:

 Joanie will be making 30 of the new Hoscars!

But we're not done yet!

How about more showing on Sunday, more food, and another trip to Pour Horse for more visiting & learning how to make molds with Margaret Olson?

Pretty darn cool!

Joanie & I are so thankful to all of those who have been supporting the convention.  You can learn about some of the projects they are working on for BOYCC, on their blogs.  Sarah Minkiewicz has been working on a super special centerpiece on her blog, Musings at Minkiewicz Studios, and Lesli Kathman has shared on her blog, the name-badges she is making for all of the entrants:


A lot of good stuff! And it is going to be a lot of fun.  We've got friends coming from far and wide- will you be amoung them?  There are still a few spots available, if you aren't signed up, and have been considering it.  To learn more about this fantastic weekend, please visit:


I almost forgot!  Joanie has been hard at work on producing a very limited edition Pour Horse OF Callahan run.  This run will be available only to BOYCC entrants.  Here is a pic of a couple of the tests- the exact color hasn't been quite decided to my knowledge, but will be something along these lines:



See you there!  :)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Spotty Goodness


I guess I am a sucker for spots.  I own a very spotty dog.  I keep finding myself painting spotty horses.  I guess it all began when I discovered that I could do a decent sabino, way back when.  I got excited and wanted to do more, so Joanie of Pour Horse let me paint a run of Black Sabino Clydesdale pins.  After that, I turned my sights on the tobiano pattern, and started practicing that more.  The VA Black Jack Davy run really helped me to polish my skills with tobiano, but also let me work more on my sabino patterns, as well as the other various overo patterns.  It wasn't until I did a CM run on Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig's Spinnaker that found out that I had a knack for the Appaloosa pattern as well.  I don't think I'd really tried it up until that point- but I was glad I waited, for the previous horses under my belt made it more attainable.  I was excited that Miniature Horses came in appy and pintaloosa, for that meant I could keep practicing with Jellibaby and Toot Sweet, which I delighted in doing.  And then of course, when I discovered that Irish Cobs/Gypsies came in appy- I just had to give Callahan a whirl!  Fun Stuff.

Now that I've finally sat down to paint a few Toot Sweet resins, it was an easy call to try to do an appy one.  But man, what a difference!  The choice was easy, the execution... well, it is proving to be a bit harder with this different medium.  Thankfully, some of my techniques are applicable.  But others- not so much.  With my ceramic appaloosas, there is the additive process in airbrushing the shading and hand painting the spots- but so much of it is subtractive- scritching, erasing and sanding.  Here I'm finding more, that I need to add in the little hairs to get the look I want, which is testing my skills & challenging my brain more.  But 'tis a good thing!  I'm always game to stretch and push myself.  I may even discover something that I can translate and apply to ceramics- who knows?!  In any case, I thought this Sweetie was coming along enough to share.  She still has a way to go, but I thought y'all would like to see her in-progress.  I'm kinda happy with the way some of the halo-ing on her spots came out. That was an interesting thing to play with- the halo effect is something I find challenging in ceramics, and I've never really been able to get it the way I want yet.  A few of these acrylic spots have hit the mark, in my mind (now to make them all do that!).  Anyways, I hope you enjoy the pictures.  I'm working on a resin Jellibaby to go with this mare- she's not quite as far along, but I will post pictures of the two of them together when they are both done!


:)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Callahan Resins to Delight and Please


The bisque Callahan master was sent off to my resin caster the other day! Yes indeed, there will be Callahan resins for sale in the future! I need to wait for my quotes to come in before I can give any idea of pricing, but as soon as it is all decided, I will pass that info on to the members of the Brightly Hude Yahoo Group, which will be the primary venue for selling the castings.

In other news, a big thank you to the many people who participated in the sculpting poll! It was looking pretty close there for a while, but a clear winner turned up in the end. Hmm... looks like I'm going to have to point my brain in a more American Indian Horse direction! I've got a few ideas already... now to flesh them out!

:)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

And the Winners Are...

ArabsRule (who gets "C") & MAO (who gets "B")! Or, as the number generator from Random.org decided, #3 and #12 (I didn't count my one comment in the mix!). Handy thing, that random number generator. Thanks to everyone who played & made a comment! Thank you also, to those who've participated in the poll. The numbers are all pretty close right now! If you haven't voted and still want to, the poll will be open for 5 more days.

Thanks!

:)

Monday, March 14, 2011

To Sculpt, or Not to Sculpt...


Callahan needed his back lengthened, at one point...

Hey folks!

I thought I would try out the poll feature on this blog, just because I could! You will find it on the right hand side of the main page. I've been looking at reference pictures of breeds and poses over the past few weeks; I am hoping to hit the clay soon! Right now, I'm just wondering which of these ideas I should begin first- a couple of them have been floating in my brain for a while, and one of them is new. So, if you choose, you can voice your opinion & see if this helps to inspire me to get going on one or the other! I think I'd like to do all of these breeds at some point, but right now I've been going back & forth on which one to initially tackle. The breeds are: A Neapolitan Stallion in Levade (an extinct, historic, 'Baroque' breed), a Foundation Morgan Mare (probably running or trotting), or an American Indian Horse (a svelte stock breed that comes in every color!). So, what'll it be?

:)