Nanowrimo

Yesterday, at 3 am, I completed Nanowrimo or National Write a Novel Month. To complete it, you have to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I did it, ending with 50,041 words!

The next step is editing my story, but that shouldn't be as intense as writing it! Feels kind of weird to not have a deadline looming over my head, but if you enjoy writing, I highly recommend doing Nanowrimo. 

Even if you didn't participate, the forum has tons and tons of valuable and helpful information! 

                                            National Write a Novel Month Website

The Day After Turkey Day

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and enjoyed the food and family time!
I went away to see family in New Jersey, and it was fun.
So today was not a real studio day, but I did do something sort of productive!
I get magazines such as horse illustrated and various others that I have picked up over the past numerous months. Normally , whenever I get a new magazine, I read it and then cut out the pictures I want for my photo binder. I have gotten kind of behind on cutting out pictures.

I pick pictures for multiple purposes. Some are great for markings

and others are great for poses. I could have a whole binder full of gaited horses.

I also cut out cool names!

The funny part? I haven't even gotten through half of the magazines!

How To Sculpt Those Moving Manes

In honor of today being my last day of school, here's a how-to!

How to Sculpt The Moving Mane

Ingredients:

Horse

Wire

Super Glue and Baking Soda

Apoxie
Sculpting tool

First find reference pictures of what you want the mane to look like. This is the most important part. If you don't have a reference picture, how will your model turn out right?

Now I use wire that you can buy at a craft store. You do not want it to be flimsy like a noodle, but you want it to be loose enough for you to be able to move it but stiff enough for it to hold its shape.

Next, with a marker, draw where you want the holes to be. Then drill them in. They do not have to be deep.  

Cut out the number of pieces of wire you want in the length you want. Make the wire pieces longer than what you need. It's always easier to chop off than to add on. Hold the wire with your hand while you pour super glue in. Then sprinkle baking soda onto the super glue. Repeat until all of the pieces are done. 

Take out some Apoxie and put it onto the wire. You do not want a ton. Just enough to cover the wire. Here is where you figure out how long you want the mane. Only use Apoxie to cover where you will want the hair to go.

Here comes the patience part. Let the Apoxie  harden/ cure. 

Here comes the fun part! Mix some Apoxie and roll it into fat noodle shapes. Layer it onto the cured Apoxie, in the direction of the hair.

Using water, I blend the noodle shapes.

Now I get out my sculpting too. You can use anything from actual tools made for sculpting to paper clips. It all depends on what you like. This is what I used for this

Press into the Apoxie and make divots in the general direction of the mane. This is not the detail part. This is just to keep the mane from being in one shape. I smooth the mane with a stiff paint brush dipped in water.

Now here comes the detailing part. 

You can use the same tool or something different. It's all up to you. Look at your reference and start drawing into the mane in the direction of the reference. Don't go all in the same direction. Vary it a bit. Have some strokes be long and others be short. Once you are done, use the paint brush to get rid of the extra bits of clay and smooth it down.

There ya go! You have a flowing mane!

Birds of a Feather

Diablo had his feather sculpted. He is just getting more and more Friesian-y (made up a new word) each day.

Just loaning body parts

Diablo has gotten his mane and tail taken off. I though about resculpting a completely new tail, but he needs it to balance, plus why sculpt a completely new tail when you have plenty of OF ones? Using body parts from other models, keeps the custom light. OF parts stop the custom from becoming a hunking brick.  Anyone guess who the tail is from?

Then apoxy was added. Silver is really fined boned, and while Friesians are not Shires in conformation, they are much more bulky than Silver.

The Silver Lining

Silver is the word. At the Leesport show, I bought three Breyer Silver bodies. I have started hacking up one (that sounds healthy doesn't it?). This guy is going to be a Friesian stallion rearing. Has anyone noticed how whenever a Friesian is in a movie or a book it is seems alot of times to be named Diablo? I  just think of the Saddle Club (the original cast ones) where the one Friesian was called Diablo. And the Diablo series, by Gabi Adams, the Friesian is also named Diablo. So guess what my Friesian's name will be? Yup, Diablo.
 My Silver body's head was a little off. Someone did not have his head lined up. That was OK since Silver's head really isn't the look I was looking for. I did think about resulpting it, but I have plenty of bodies that were willing to loan their head.

So first, the heads were chopped off and the new one attached using foil, supper glue, and baking soda.

Poor Silver :)

Anyone guess who the new head came from

 Outline of the feathers were then added.

Show Report- Resin halter

Here are the resins I took pictures of!

Painted by Kimberly Smith

Painted by Kimberly Smith

Show Report- Custom Halter Pt 2

Here are the rest of the Custom Halter Division. Again, I do not know who these horses belong to. If you do, please comment! Or if you know who did the customizing/painting!

This was sooooo cute!