Day 3
More Building of the basics
As we begin to build up more tones in the mane and tail I often wonder at this scale is it enough. For photos much like drag you can "paint" for the angle. Drag artists often make the joke they are painting for the back of the room, and sometimes I do notice people will exaggerate things on micros or stablemates for that added pop. But I do live shows, not just photo shows, so the idea of exaggerating doesn't always read well in the ring. I think that's a fundamental shift for some of the current mini painters out there. How much do you push that spatial contrast for shadows, highlights, and tones? Super smooth blends can look dull to more flashy shaded models.
Just thoughts moving forward with things. I'm always open to play and do things that are more or less stylized. Partially why I do not take commissions as I like the liberty that experimenting brings. For those of you kind enough to actually read this blog, I would love to ask, how do you feel about stylized manes and tails, or highly shaded and highlighted models that are micro scale. Are you more of a live event person, do you participate in photo shows?
Apollo
Just a layer of brightening his mane and tail. The photos don't show it, but in person you can see some hair strokes.
Daisey
More layering thin white and cream into the mane and tail. Nothing fancy just getting things ready for more blending of body tones, skin pinks, skin greys, and hooves.
Jessie
A nice dusting of both an ochre and fine gold pigment just to help give that healthy shine and shade up her topline. This is where most of my "Belgium" chestnuts or lighter flaxen chestnuts start to get there golden or brown coloration on top. With pastels this is where things can go orange too quick, so this will be done by lightly glazing oils over. so super thin, super transparent builds.
Magnolia
Some more blending of the silver in her tail, and a bit of deepening of her golden color. From this point she will be blended with oils to help finish up her body color. I've added a cute little blaze down the center of her face.
Offerman
More mane blending, and I also filled in his face marking a tad more on his blaze. From this point he will be getting another round of oils just to even out the grainy appearance from the pastels and add that oil sheen.
Thunderdrone
Deepened the body with pastels, while also blending the mane and tail a bit more. This one will also need to oil touch up, and then we can start getting into the tiny details.
