Painting Baylee

Edited 3/7/10 to add the final picture of Baylee. He's ready to be packaged up and shipped out.

Here are pics of Baylee being painted. The first picture is after being primed and a basecoat of acrylic brushed on. The subsequent layers are pastel dust with sealer being applied after each layer. I remembered to take pics after most of the layers so I think there's only one or two missing.

A new mane for Baylee

Joanna said she could be patient so I made a new mane for Baylee using one of the 2 part epoxies that I had ordered. I made the mane last night and finished the underside today when the first part had cured enough. Now I just need to allow 24 hours for the last part to cure, do a little sanding and Baylee will be ready for primer again. And then on to the fun part of painting that I have been anxiously waiting for. :-)

What a week!

First of all, I'm just totally overwhelmed by the responses I've gotten to pics of my work. I can't begin to explain how much the kind words and support have meant to me - thank you so very much. I have a number of orders - enough to keep me busy and out of trouble for quite a while!

I've decided my little artistic venture needs a name and I've asked for suggestions from my friends on GHS. My one request for the name was that it contain "Sundust" - in honor of Angel (Angel of Sundust) and Sierra (Ebbs Sierra Sundust). So far suggestions have included - Sundust Sculptures, The Sundust Sculptor, Sundust Clay Creations, Sundust's Creatures, Sundust Horses, Sundust Studio, Sundust's Creations, Sundust Inspirations. Oh and let's not forget Kate's best idea - Barb's Busts! LOL!!!

I've had a cold all week so haven't gotten much done. I did get a chance to play with all my girls today. They are just so much fun! I picked up an empty feed sack and shook it to get Josie going. While she's cantering around the pen, Lola goes wooshing by me and starts galloping circles around me - little showoff!! They both know the game and when I say "good girl", they come in and collect their cookies and then take off again. In the meantime, Molly wants to play and is running around trying to bark while she carries a rock in her mouth. And Sierra stares across the fence at us, waiting impatiently for her turn. Yes, Sierra and Libby got their turn too - they are just such good girls.

The piece of Baylee is on hold for a couple of days until my orders of epoxy clay get here. I'm going to experiment with that to see if I can get a longer mane on him. I've ordered 4 different kinds (Apoxie Sculpt, Apoxie Clay, Fix-it Sculpt and Amazing Sculpt) to see what I like to work with. I love having an excuse to  try new materials!

I've worked on Sierra a bit this week. She is about the size of a Breyer Classic size horse. I don't know if you can see the changes I've made but here are pics from today. The right side is further along than the left - probably because my reference photo is from this side. :-) Time to go find some more pics and get the left side worked out.

 

 

Sierra - full body sculpt

Baylee is almost ready to paint. While I'm painting him, I hope to get some work done on this sculpture I started of Sierra back in December.  I set it aside at the time so I could learn to paint with pastels. And then I started working on another project, and then....well you know how it goes sometimes. :-)  When Baylee is finished, I will be starting another sculpture (similar to the ones of Angel and Baylee) of the Do-Man. My first official commission! I'm so excited because I had so much fun working on him the first time - this will be even better.

 

I'll have to get some pictures of the Breyer Stablemate that I painted up to resemble her and also the ones of Brenda's Gracie.

Sculpting Project - Baylee

This is my current project, a sculpture of a friend's horse named Baylee. I'll post reference pics at the top and then keep adding pics as the project progresses. My friend knows I'm working on something but hasn't seen the pictures yet (and won't until it's done).

 

  

  

Below is a picture of a Breyer Stablemate that I painted with pastel dust to work out Baylee's color. It turned out just a bit darker than I planned.

I started working on the sculpture on the evening of 1/26/10. You can see the results above. My husband made a comment about a "goose"! The next day the real work began and now there's definitely a horse there.

 

  

  

More progress on 1/31/10.

  

  

Here's an update on 2/9/10. The sculpture is getting close to done. I'm getting anxious to start painting him.

  

  

  

  

  

 

These will be the last pics I put in this post. I'll start a new post for the painting process. Here is Baylee in the process of baking. The foil is covering pieces of damp paper towel that are put over the thinner, more delicate parts so they don't overbake.

 

And here is Baylee with a coat of primer on.

 

  

 

Another Sculpting Project

This is a little project that I did as a surprise gift for a friend. It is meant to be a likeness of her TWH stallion, Pushin The Mile aka Do-Man.

Molly Dog

Our neighbors adopted Molly from a shelter but as often as she could, Molly would come and visit me. She often helped me do chores and I would take her back home before I went back in the house. Our neighbors loved Molly and had good intentions but she was indoors all day while they were at work. Their other dogs handled this fine but Molly didn't. They were unable to keep her in a crate and she did a lot of damage while loose in their house.

One Sunday afternoon in June, I got a tearful phone call from the neighbor's daughter. Molly and their Staffie, Rupert, had gotten in a fight over a toy. Rupert got the worst of it and was in surgery. Molly was scheduled to be put to sleep. They didn't want to but didn't feel like they had any choice. Would I take Molly?

After work I walked over to their house to get Molly. She was hiding under the dining room table where she'd been ever since the incident. She came right to me and I took her home.

I started taking Molly for runs with the ATV. First just a mile, then two and she just kept going. We have BLM land a couple of miles behind our house and eventually I  let her run off leash ahead of the ATV there. Molly ran and ran some more. I think there was a smile on her face the whole time. We bought a Yamaha Rhino so we could all go out together. Once she was in shape, Molly ran  20 - 40 miles a week - her choice of speed and distance. This was consistent for a year and a half. Needless to say, she's buff.

An unusually snowy, icy, cold winter this year has made it hard to get Molly out consistently for her runs but she's been ok with it. She lays on the couch and watches a lot of Animal Planet. She helps me do chores and races up and down the stacks of hay and straw bales. She looks for mice and barks at the birds in the barn.

We think Molly's the perfect dog and don't know what we would do without her now. She's good with the horses and made friends with the donkey. She likes the mini horse because she can lick her nose. She's a wonderful trail dog when I ride. She's polite when  neighborhood dogs come in our yard and when she meets strange dogs on the trail. And she loves visitors - especially if they leave their car/truck door open and she can get in and snoop around. And of course, she does a great job of taking up most of the bed at night!

Funny how the perfect dog finds you when you're not looking and don't even think you need a dog.