More Work in Progress Photos 🖤

I have so many work in progress commissions and customs that I thought they should probably all go together in one big blog post. I have had a full desk of commission work that has been coming and going since early January, but I have been very forgetful when it comes to posting it to my blog and my socials, lol. I am trying to do better about that though! I did just join Instagram, and I have been more active over there recently.

Ok, into the customs!

This blue roan appaloosa Django is about halfway done. He still needs a lot more roaning, and several more layers of whites to build up better opacity. His blanket edges need to be tidied and haired too, of course! Then he’ll be getting his loud appaloosa spots. ✨

This Indian Pony ought to be a familiar face! She was featured in this blog post: Spotted Dreams Studio: WIP Wednesday ~ Roans Everywhere

She’s almost done now! I’ll be doing a few more layers of color on her mane and tail, and re-touching/perfecting her eyes and hooves. After that she’ll be ready for gloss!

This gal needs quite a bit more polishing up, but she’ll be done soon! I thought I had a full body photo of her, but I can’t seem to find it. Sorry! She is a purple roan tobiano. 💜

These foals are a very fun commission for a repeat client. Both of them are really just in their early stages, so their whites are VERY streaky looking! They should be ready for their glamor shots in a couple of weeks.

Here is a fun side project I’ve been working on alongside my commissions. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with her when I’m done with her or what color she’ll end up being. I actually really like her as a solid so far! Her base coat is far from done (look at those streaks and graininess!) but she’s not a rush project. I like having at least one “slow” custom that doesn’t have a deadline.

Sneak Peek of one of the completed customs!

I have two completed customs I’m excited to show you, but they will have to wait for another day. One of them is a sales piece (who just sold, sorry!) and the other was a part of a trade.

Speaking of selling customs though, I wanted to post a quick update on commission availability. Currently I am booked up until the end of May, HOWEVER, I may consider exceptions, so feel free to reach out. I will be opening my books for June/July sometime in May, probably. Until then, keep your eyes open for some fun sales pieces that have not been shown on my pages yet!

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a beautiful weekend. 🖤

PS

My new hobby room carpet has been delayed until mid-April, so I won’t be doing many herd member spotlight posts until then. Sorry!

WIP Wednesday ~ Roans Everywhere

YES. I know it's Thursday. The auto post feature failed me lol.

I thought it might be fun to do a little Wednesday feature on some of my work in progress models! I have a lot of roans in my studio right now, and today's post will put a spotlight on two very special little mares.

This model is a really fun piece that I'm working on for KellieRae Turnmire. She commissioned me to do a mini me of a custom Traditional Indian Pony that she painted. Isn't she cute? 

Here's her reference pic:

I'm having a lot of fun working with this model, as roans are one of my favorites to paint. This little lady needs several more layers of white and some dark shading to go before she can get details!

The other wip for today's post is this pretty paint G4 Quarter Horse, who is for Michele L.!

Right now she looks more like a cloudy bay, but she's on her way to being fully roaned! She has at least 5 more layers before she's truly recognizable. She's to be a pretty purple roan tobiano, inspired by a sort of blending between these two references. 💜

I have four other commissions on the table at the moment, but I'll save them for another post! Hint: Two of them are spotted ✨

Playing Catch Up

Well that was an interesting week. Ran my tail off yet I feel like I got nothing accomplished. My family member is home and doing extremely well. Thank you all for your prayers, you have no idea how much it means. 🥹 Things are starting to return to normal, but there still some things to catch up on.

I don't have too much to blog on, since I wasn't "horsing around" this week. I know AJ asked for a customizing post, so here is a rundown of most of my current WIP models. :)

This little lady seems bent on making me throw a tantrum. Every time I feel like I'm nearly finished, she goes and either has an accident or decides she wants another layer of white. I think she only needs one more coat and then edges cleaned. And details, and tail. Oh, and her legs need more blending.

This one makes me so so so sad. I had this guy all the way to this point of his black, one layer away from markings, and I decided to give him a quick coat of sealant. I forgot to double check the heater in the room (I prime in a basement which is only about 20 degrees F above outside temp). It turns out the heater failed to actually start, so when I came back down to check on him, the sealant had crackled. I sanded and sanded, but you can still see some faint little textural differences. *Sigh* When will I learn to always double check that the heater turned on??

The same thing happened to this little guy. He was in his base layer (that's masking tape on his back to help outline his snowcap blanket) when I gave him a shot of sealant with the black model. Crackles for him too, but I haven't started his sanding.

This little flaxen is actually last year's NaMoPaiMo model that I was just never really happy with. I grabbed him off my shelf and started to re-do him. I smoothed his original color and will be starting his re-shading soon. Yikes! His mane really needs re-done too!!

I'm also experimenting with new temporary lighting arrangements. This time of year, my porch receives little to no sufficient lighting for photos. My back patio receives too much, so I'm stuck with a long spell of bad pics when I need them. I'm not terribly happy with the results of this experiment, so I will be trying again this coming week with a new set-up.

The model shown is SDS Spiked Punch. I show him as a Selle Francais.

Thank you again for your patience during this trying week, and for your prayers. Things should be back to normal now. :)

Updates and Light Housekeeping

Hey there all! Happy small business Saturday. I had a nice Thanksgiving post lined up, but I realized too late that I had made some mistake and it was no longer in my blogger account. I must have deleted it on mistake. So, happy late Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a fantastically fat day.

I have the basecoat on my SM CM, but I don't have any photos right now. I'll be sure to get some before I move onto shading so that you can see her. I'm playing around with some gold tones at the moment.

The Merry and Bright BB really tempted me this year, but I reined myself back in. I only loved the Django (although the Corbin's pattern is gorgeous!). I would have gotten one if Django wasn't the most popular. The odds of trading for him is slim to none. It did make me scratch my head, though, as to why they used Mirado AGAIN after him just being in the Halloween BB. I've been looking forward to Cassidy's next appearance, but I guess not yet. She doesn't really fit the Driving Forward theme, so I doubt we will see her in the SM line-up, unless they use her as a LE.

Chadwick was not a temptation for me. I don't collect glossies (says I, after announcing my love for the aforementioned glossy deco Django) and I dislike his weird cheesy palomino color. He'll probably look waaaayy better irl, but I didn't feel the need to risk it. I like the mold though, I have Winx on it.

Last bit of news. We are approaching 1000 views, and I am planning something fun! I will be saving the big bash for the one year anniversary (public publish anniversary, not private creation anniv.), but I think that you will all really enjoy what is coming!

You all are truly awesome. Just look at what you've helped me accomplish! These are screenshots taken from my Blogger Stats Dashboard at 4:09pm on November 26, 2022. They demonstrate the quantity and statistics on the view averages.

This is the list of countries that have visited my blog.

These are the devices that have logged on.

These are the browsers.

The list of referring URLs.

136 blog views so far in the month of November.

934 blog hits in just about 3 months!

Thank you. Thank you for being a part of my dream. Thank you for being who you are. You are the best.  ╰(*°▽°*)╯

SM Standing Stock Horse Custom: The Birth

As I mentioned in my last post, it's winter. Dead cold, white and slushy, icy and frozen, winter. A couple days ago, I was at my desk, and looking for a project to inspire me. I thought about polymer clay, I thought about needle-felting, etc. I finally settled on a SM body I had laying on my desk.

Rough shape, huh? Yeah. She used to be a whiteware paint and play Boomerang before someone used her as a test piece, and well, let's just say she'd had a rough go of it. I cleaned her up and sanded her, and took her off to the "priming chamber" AKA an old Bath & Bodyworks box in my basement.

The first coat of primer did wonders. I don't have a photo of the second coat.

After drying, she sat on the toolbench all of this morning, getting a little more air circulation.

Now she's upstairs, sitting on my laptop while I am typing. She's ready for her basecoat! I am planning on her being a flaxen chestnut overo, but she may decide otherwise. ;) They are often very opinionated! I will be chronicling her journey along the blog. I plan on taking her slowly, enjoying the process, and taking loads more time than I need. I want her to be a fun time filler, not a stress based deadline.