Between the showers from Cyclone Cook

While Cyclone Cook batters down on New Zealand during the long weekend, I have started to get some early layers onto the Brabant commission in the studio! At the moment he has the base coats of acrylics on, and has two layers of pastels on the one side - you can really see the difference the pastels make to the base coat, bringing out a super softness to the detail that I absolutely adore.

This of course, is all before the roaning detail goes on top!

This side above has no pastel detailing on the body - only on the feathers.

And here we go with the pastel detailing - which includes black on the feathers and red across the body to really bring out that deep blood-bay body colour.

And my phone-camera didn't focus properly on the little guy here, but you can see the start of the detail happening.

It's a small start, but it's a start - the weather was holding me back pretty badly in getting this guy primmed but it has happened and now the paint work and detailing has begun!

The roaning is going to take some time, but on this little guy, I think it's going to be super worth it. The detail in the resin is going to really compliment having a super detailed pattern on him.

More updates coming soon!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend and enjoy the holiday with family and friends.

Well the little Brabant resin has arrived, and I have to say, I am super impressed with the detail packed into this small guy!

I had a box waiting for me at home - I haven't seen one of these for awhile!

Oh the memories this brings back!

Mummified pony!!!

So cute!! I do apologize for the TERRIBLE phone photo's, unfortunately the camera we have is packed away and without batteries at the moment, and well, fading light... But the detail in this guy is incredible!! The photo's the artist took of the resin just do not do this guy justice at all.

He even has little hair details on his flank!!This makes me super excited to pull out my new size 0 paint brush and dive in there for that hair by hair detail for his roaning.

A quick snap with his new laminated breed-information card which will travel back to the US with him to his owner.

And here he is, joining Raajah and Mini Darcy on my table - he will be the priority above the other two now, they will be sales pieces in the future, but the commission always takes first spot.

Prepping will begin now, and hopefully I can get some good weather on the weekend to prime this guy and get some base work done on him.

Photo spam over with for now -- hopefully some painting updates will start to leak in soon!

I haven't had a commission in the studio for a long time, mostly because of moving to another country, and the fact that I got burnt out and burnt pretty badly the last time I opened my commission books. I worked out that I can't have a bench of commissions staring me down waiting to be painted - it's just not something I can handle.

So I closed my books.

Now that I've moved, settled in (mostly) to a new country, I put the feelers out for a trade deal to get some of Sarah Mink's LOVELY Connemara models which she sculpted for Breyer in my hot little hands.

I now have my first commission in over 8 years making his way across that there pond over yonder, and heading his way down south to the land of the hobbits. And I will say, I am super excited about this little guy. He's a Brabant resin, stablemate scale, and when his owner said they wanted a roan done on him? Well, it was a deal.

The resin? "Cumulonimbus", sculpted by Anna Dobrowolska-Oczko - and the guy on the right is my inspiration for the coloration. I love my bay roans, they are a weakness. And I love the way this guy has roaning down the front of his face!


The Brabant, such a gorgeous breed:

Really do love these big draft breeds. I could drool over their pictures all day.

I will be posting pictures as I go on this boy, and of course, on the Rajah resin as well - I will no doubt be doing the same base coat on both these beauties, and then doing the roaning on the commission first.

I am also setting up my stream to be able to stream the painting of these resins as well - so if you haven't already, check out my stream at: http://www.twitch.tv/sophistique02 and look out for when I do a "Creative" stream. I currently stream gaming on there, but I will be doing some creative/art stuff as well in the very near future.

If you want to know when I go live, and what I'll be streaming - then follow me on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sophistique02


On a side note: Want to know how excited I am about this guy? I've already done a reference card for his new owner if they so choose to use it for showing:

Even nicely laminated as well :) Just part of the new service I will offer (along with an artist CoA for the paint work) for my work!


Until next time - have fun painting and customizing!

Where is Summer?

I'm still working on prepping the "Rajah" resin, I've gotten as far as putting Apoxie over the wire that is showing through the resin, and filling in the little holes and divets that shouldn't be there from when he was cast. Even gotten as far as putting a light layer of primer on to pick up those small bumps and lumps that you miss during prepping and sanded them all down.


He is ready for a full primer... however the weather is just not allowing me at the moment. I'm used to 35-40 degree (Celsius) heat this time of year, but we're barely seeing above 20 degrees the past few weeks. Whilst it's lovely (I HATE the heat), I think my body doesn't quite know how to adjust to not having a few months of insane heat - and of course, it means priming outside and drying time is scarce.

I think that says it all! But I will keep trying to get those primmer layers on so the base coats can commence!


In the mean time, during those quiet times at work (which are rare... *cough*), I'm starting to map out some measurements for a possible attempt at my first Original Sculpture. Yes, I've said it before, not once or twice, probably more times than fingers I have on my hands... but I really want to push forward with this one this time! I've sourced myself some stryofoam for the "armature" to keep it lightweight, and have just finished working out the rough measurements.


This OS I'm planning will be a sport-pony (Connemara, Warmblood/Sport-Pony type) jumping - not just popping over a little jump, I'm talking about those amazing ponies that jump "Pony Grand Prix" which ranges from around 1.20m (3'9") to 1.30m (4'2")! They are mini World Cup Show jumpers!

Adorable right?


Now to work out what 1/9th scale of these mini Grand Prix machines are - I went with the bigger end of pony sizes, at just under 14hh (140cm in real life terms). Now, if there is one thing I am terrible at, it's maths... however I was lucky enough to find this amazing site which has a calculator which scales down sizes for you!


http://www.scalemodelersworld.com/online-scale-converter-tool.html


140cm in 1/1 scale to cm in 1/9th scale = 15.56cm. BOOM, there is my height measurement! Divide that by three to give me the "head" size (3 x horse head sizes is roughly a horse's height from ground to withers). How did I know that, check out this awesome guide on measuring out your horse's proportions:

Handy right? So now to transfer that onto my reference picture, this will give me the idea and measurements I need when I sketch out the shape of my sculpture on the stryofoam (hopefully sometime this week!).

It's not glorious by any means, but it will give me the correct base to work from. Hopefully next update with either be base coats on "Rajah" or the armature of my sculpture - or both?

Happy New Year!

Firstly, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone!


I hope everyone has a fantastic 2017 - and let's hope that 2017 is a lot kinder to all our beloved Celebrities this year!


Ok, so studio news, what am I doing currently? Well creative juices are flowing in my mind, it's just a matter of finding a few minutes to sit down & get the fingers working with the brain. At the moment I'm prepping a "Rajah" resin sculpted by Jennifer Scott.

This is the big boy: (photo © Jennifer Scott)

He is an absolutely gorgeous model in person, the subtle detail really makes him pop even thought he is naked.

And once he is prepped? What colour was I thinking for this model? Well... I REALLY want to make him pop, so I spent a many hours trying to see if these gorgeous horses came in bay sabino. And guess what, they do!

Once completed, I will be making up some reference cards with breed information, and these photo's to show that Marwari's really do come in sabino for the avid Live Shower (so that there is proof of the breed and colour etc). I will then be starting something new, which is to offer a certificate with each custom/paintjob I do, which will have a photo of the model, description and a blurb on there with my horrific signature. I've seen this done before, and I love the idea just to add that something a bit special to the model.

So watch this space for in progress photo's!



2017 here we come?

Holy crap, it has been a long time since I've worked on any sort of website or blog - but here I am, building a new website (yes it's a freebie site, unfortunately the wallet is very, very skinny these days), and getting a blog on that new website up & running! (or at least, the return of my old blog)

It's being a long time since I have dabbled in the art world, but I am slowly returning. It took me some time to really find my mojo again, which involved moving countries and finding a super supportive man who is behind me 110%.

 

So what's happening in the new studio? Well, sadly all, and I do mean ALL of my model horses (completed pieces, blank resins and plastic bodies) are still in Australia and I'm hoping to get them shipped over in the next few months. However, I do have with me, a few resins which I plan to paint which arrived from Jennifer Scott of Aspen Studios, and I also have a brand new pot of Apoxie Sculpt and Super Sculpey!

I am currently creating some new pendant jewelry pieces which I hope to have listed on my new Etsy store in the new year. I also have my tricky mind wanting to create a sculpture which if successful, will be sent off to a casting studio in the US to be cast and sold in a one or two mold run.

So fingers crossed 2017 is the great return of art from Dream Merchant Designs!

Below is one of the pendants which has been sculpted - and is now awaiting some color to really bring it to life!

Giselle up for sale (and medallion progress)

My custom repainted "Giselle" model is finally up on MH$P for sale - for all the info, see her MH$P 
Advert here!

She was certainly the start of the "re-spark" that got me back into painting, sculpting and all things arty.

A lot of work has been completed on the Journal Cover/Medallion - I'm actually starting to find out how much it would cost to cast this guy and sell a few as a medallion, and keep around 5 or 10 for journal covers/myself and go from there. I'll start advertising for interest as a medallion piece when it's a bit closer to completion.

Yesterday was basically the day spent doing the background, and I have to say, it was a great call from my partner to change the original flower design on the top left hand corner to a feather instead - very good call!

I'm liking it a lot - just got some refinement to do with the horse (and then attach him) and put on his mane, and then detail the border and/or background (still really waiting for a good idea of what to do for those to hit me).

Productive weekend at least.