Bluebird Studio

The end of my Diary of a Heartbreaker is his sale, and it has begun. Tinged with a little sadness, as this is the last link I shall have with the precious baby, but also everything crossed he does super well for Jaime, for the artistry of his finish is divine. I may have sculpted the little dude, but I swear Jaime has breathed life into his body and soul into his eyes. I adore him, and would love to bring him home! The link for his Auction; http://www.ebay.com/itm/290752395245?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649 A HUGE thank you to Jaime Baker, for taking this fellow on, bringing him to life, and for taking him to Breyerfest and including and updating me with each little step on his big journey in the USA! Also a thank you to Liz Cassel, his wonderful proxy shower at Stone Age Live, thank you for your care and attention!

Done :) All he needs is the acrylic rod for his back hoof. The bubby is then off to the USA to be painted and shown at Breyerfest by Jaime baker. Hard work does pay off ...and dreams do come true ;) YAAAAY! Happy dance*happy dance* Sanding is over!

After a joyous Christmas and new years spent with family and friends it is great to get back to the studio (aka; the kitchen table). Heartbreaker is on the home straight, and it is time to make the final push and finish him off. Through holding his back leg when applying primer, sanding etc, the repositioned joint showed its weakness and cracked. So it was out with the Dremel. I made a channel running vertically down the centre of the front of the leg, then built it up slowly with baking soda and glue. If this was a larger horse with more weight, I would have inserted some thick wire for added support. I will now fill the hole with Apoxie sculpt, for an un-noticeable fix. The little black circles are where I have gone over him carefully and marked the places that need a little more attention, this way I don't forget where they are, as many of them are minute, they are easy to miss. Unfortunately the annoying creature also took a dive off the table and has broke...

Wax on ... Wax off ...  Wax on ... Wax off ... Wax on ... By the time a pony gets towards the end of the CM work, he has had 5 or 6 coats of primer, but as you can see they get sanded back again. Each successive coat (often swapping between colours) highlights faults and flaws in Captain Obvious style. I do have to be very careful around details like eyes and wrinkles that they do not get lost under the coats of paint. The little guy is to be pastelled when his sculpting is complete, and nothing grabs pastels like sanding marks, and grainy primer, he needs to be as smooth as a baby's behind. So there is going to be a whole lot more before I can call him done. My lest favourite, it is a complete bummer that it is the longest, fiddliest, most time consuming, and the absolute critical part of CM'ing. Raspberry*thumbs down.

Okie dokie, a pony was dropped and an ear snapped off and into pieces. To be honest though this sort of thing happens to me more often then not, I am ridiculously clumsy. It is because of this that I have a tub of ears, already made up and cured, ready to plonk onto any unfortunate victim. So a quick sort through and I have found a match in size. The ears are only roughly made and quite thick, this gives me plenty to work with in matching this ear to the existing one. Uh-oh. LOL, this happens more often then not too, I am actually surprised I was not still attached to the ear and horse as well As you can see the ear is too big, and too clunky also the wrong shape. Never fear, that is what sandpaper, and carbide scrapers are for :) It still needs Apoxie added to the base for correct shape and some liddle wrinkles and ear fluff. So there we go ...an easy fix.

Note to self - Do not drop pony on his head, disaster ensues.

So sorry for the time span between posts, I was really hoping to keep the momentum going with Heartbreakers CM! My real job and finishing off a few more commissions pushed the CM work back. I have been fiddling with him in fits and spurts, he has ears (Laura Skillern has the BEST tutorial on sculpting ears on her Blog, I highly recommend a visit to 'Don't eat the paint'). I make my ears and eyeballs up in bulk with any left over Apoxie I have no use for. I make them lots of different sizes from stablemate to traditional. They are very easy to sand down to fit any horse. This way I always have ears on hand, and there is no waiting around for Apoxie to dry :) Right now, I have about 20 little pairs made up. Unfortunately I jumped ahead a little forgetting to take photos along the way :( not too far though :). So onto his lower lip. Another sausage, this one is rolled to the correct length, taking care to taper the ends off. You want the ends to fi...

As a portrait artist, faces are my 'thing', I enjoy creating them more then any other part of the horse, and have usually finished the face in the very early stages. On this guy I am only re-sculpting the bottom half of his face, as the eyes he already has are fine, they will get eyelashes, but that is it. So let's begin :) First assemble all the players. Pony, Apoxie Sculpt, for face work like this I use the Aves safety solvent for smoothing (it stays wetter for longer then the metho, and does not make the clay sticky like water) a soft cheapo brush. My sculpting tools are an orange (cuticle) stick, a sanded and shaped wooden skewer and a toothpick. Pony is ready, his face is already roughed up from where I dremeled his features off. Following my reference photos, I add to his profile, giving him more forehead, continuing right down and including the squishy bit between his nostrils. Once I think I have it 'about' right, I use my finger in the solven...

Remember I mentioned the importance of good reference photos? Well there is no point having them if you don't use them :) I have taken a photo of the foal into Paint.NET and made it black and white, then used pencil sketch to make it more contrasty (I am sure that is a word :) if not it should be). Then, with this altered photo in front of me, and a Sharpie in my hand, I mark the areas I want to change. The areas I want to carve out are shaded, the areas that need a gentler hand are lined. I then end up with a graffiti pony like this; The area at the base of his neck, and at his elbow are bits I will be adding to, the rest will all be substantially carved out. Mmm, spaghetti leg! Next is more Dremel work ...*happy sigh* I love my Dremel.