Horses and A Day in the Life

I just recently received a new order for a custom, and this is the picture I received: I took a look at the picture and had the typical thought process of, "What a pretty horse. Plain, simple bay. That will be easy enough. Silly guy has clearly been laying down, look at all that dust [I realized my mistake later]! What a nice barn... etc." And the the detail pictures started rolling in and I got the shock and thrill of my life. What a fun custom to do! And what a strange color. As her o wner says, " I like to say she’s part zebra."  Yes, I would say that is accurate... Look at those legs! Part Okapi might be more accurate. And look at that back! Does this count as counter-shading? The colors doesn't stop there. It also extends to her front legs... And her brightly colored face. Thank you C for letting me post these pictures on my blog! Your mare is stunning and I look forward to getting started on her!

It has been almost a month since my last blog post. How cringeworthy! Meanwhile, I have been working on several customs. All of them have been traditionals. These first four are all from the same customer. The custom Brunello and the Dark Bay Idocus with four socks don't have their final gloss coats in the pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot to take final pictures before sending them off. The foal is still "under construction" at the moment. She still requires a couple of back socks and a blaze. I will try to get final pictures for her. I also finished a Silver Dapple PAM And a small Bay Lying Foal As well as a custom Shagya Arabian I feel very productive. That's seven customs in less than a year. They aren't LSQ but I am learning. For example, I learned that if I sprayed every layer of my white paint (just as I spray every layer of pastels) with a matte spray, it doesn't collect the dust. I feel like Columbus discovering America all over again.

Earlier this year, before COVID-19, I had the opportunity to take care of the horses for a friend. He had two geldings and two mares. While he was showing me what to do, I had the opportunity to talk with him about my hopes of getting riding lessons and maybe actually owning a horse. Suffice to say, he ended up offering me riding lessons on his registered Tennessee Walker/Crabbet Arabian Cross Rolling Thunder. (The picture makes him look sickle hocked)  He also offered me the ownership of this mare in exchange for chores. I was naturally thrilled, but was bothered by the fact that I will soon be leaving home to finish my Bachelors Degree. However, he still offered the riding lessons and would teach me how to train Sweetheart, who has never had a rider or saddle on her before. The COVID-19 never allowed that to happen, but I still enjoyed taking care of his 30 y.o. Crabbet Arabian Hannah. She is Rolling Thunder's mom. It also afforded me the opportunity to...

I was looking back at my photos and finding old customs that I have done in the past. Some are customs I have sold, some are customs I have kept, some are customs I hate, and some are just... customs. I will now review them, and tell you where they are now! All of these pictures are examples of past photography attempts, except for the overo Missouri Fox Trotter. This guy is sitting in a  body box with a broken leg after a tumble from a high shelf. He is also covered in a new coat of pastels where I let my little sister play on him. This guy still exists at my house. Right now he is trying to have his splashed white pattern finished.  This horse, too, is also sitting on my shelf. She will be donated to a local Mustang Center. This girl is a custom for my sister. She loves Black Tabiano Georgian Grandes, so I made on for her. This horse was sold a long time ago. I like to believe he is sitting on a shelf somewhere being loved. This was my first Traditional...

I know, two weeks since the last post! I had a couple of posts I could have done, only it seems that my camera seemed to find this an amusing time to disappear. I'll find it some year, but apparently not today. However, I do have a few photos on my laptop that I can use for a post. Recently, I started up an Etsy page . One of the things I have started selling are custom horse portrait sketches. They are a lot of fun to make, and not too hard. Of course, they aren't perfect replications, but they aren't too bad in my opinion. I would say that the trotting horse is the least perfect of all of them. He needs a little work. Well, one post! It's not much, but it is something! Once I find my camera, there will be more interesting things to put up here. :)

As I look back on my (two) previous posts from the *cringe* not so far past, I can't help but smile at my feeble attempts at photography. My attempts are still feeble and sporadic, but I hope I can say that I have improved. More horses have been added (and removed) from my collection, and their photographs have improved. These are my newest and latest, and I hope I can honestly say that they are not too bad. Post Script is the best horse in my collection, and my only Breyerfest model. Hakan is soon going to receive a new coat. I was not as enthralled with him as I hoped I would be when he arrived. Gypsy Pam, while rather old, scuffed, and "vintagy" looking, is still a favorite on my shelf. Ravel's photo didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped. I needed to take the photo from a different angle (I think?)

One of my favorite things to do when I am editing my Breyer photos is to play with the colors. While clarity is key, I find that color is the second most important thing that I look for in my photos. The more color I can get the better. Below are some pictures of a before and after editing. Note how much more beautiful they are when they are more vibrant. Latigo Dun It is my new Breyer and I love him! His dappling is so beautiful, especially with his silver-colored mane and tail. He is soooo photogenic with his stunning coloring! While the two pictures above aren't exactly the same, they are the same horse taken at the same time of day with the same camera and with almost the same angle. As you can tell, the bottom one is much more edited. He can still use a little work as the light around the face is a little too much and is washing it out and reducing the clarity. The image could use a little straightening and cropping, but you can tell how editing can affect the qual...

One of my favorite hobbies is photographing model horses. It is fun and also a little challenging because of their small sizes. Playing with color and finding just the right lighting for each separate horse is fun as well. Zenyatta, my sister's horse, is a fun one to use because she goes so well with so many different backgrounds and colors. These are some of my photos from last summer. This photo is very edited, with the color tuned up to as vibrant as I could get it. I have to admit that I find it very attractive. The horse in the back was in a bad spot though. That is something I had to play with. Here is one with the back horse moved. It looks better, but I didn't edit the photo as much. This one definitely needs a little more color to make it a little less bland, although it is pretty as it is. This one I took inside. You can see the difference in the lighting. I used felting wool for footing. I would love to use something a little more realistic, but this is...