Coming At Ya - Calling It Done

I am also calling this one pretty much done.  I might still 'tweak' a few things, but not much more I think.

35.75" x 24" (bottom edge has a ding so I will cut it off) which makes it pretty close to life sized for a horse's head I believe.  I will be laying out another 'big' board this week I believe.  It is colored with mostly Ampersand Inks.

"Tassels"

An 8"x10" board that I worked on this week.  The tassels are put on the bridle as decoration and are often seen on bridles that were historically used as decorative attire for the horse for fancy events.  They may go back historically as a form of fly preventative to keep insects out of the horses eyes, but I could be wrong about that too :)  This quarter horse I photographed at a junior rodeo and I thought the tassels and fancy bling buckle made it visually interesting.  The original is available for sale.  e-mail me at cathy@aphelionart.com if you are interested in more information about it.

"Tassels" - 8"x10" - Scratchbaord Art

Mustang Colt

And this is a little 8"x10" board that I am working on of a mustang colt.  He was a late yearling or two year old that I saw for adoption at a sanctuary in South Dakota.  They had about 70 horses there in the corrals and something about this guy caught my eye and he is the one I would have taken home if I could have.  He had a very sweet face.  This was a couple of years ago and I hope he found a good home since then.

I hope to finish this piece tomorrow.

A pic of him from the corrals - I think he is super cute :D

Woman Artists Of the West Show Opens

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I had three works selected for the Women Artists of the West annual show in Rockport, TX.  I was not able to attend the show opening, which was last weekend.  WAOW is an all women artist organization with juried membership and juried annual show.  I was delighted to have all three works selected for the show, but am even more excited that two out of the three won awards! 

Publisher's Southwest Art Magazine

Award of Excellence full‐page ad - "Yielding"

This is the second time that Southwest Art has recognised my scratchboard work (the first being in 2009 as I was selected as one of their "21 under 31" winners)

and

Honorable Mention Gamblin

Accents on the Figure System - "Rustle in the Brush"

You can view the show catalog and results at: http://www.waow.org/RockportTexas-show/SLideshow-new/index.html

Pinto 'Stang update

My allergies have really been kicking my butt for more than the past month and I am so 'done with them'.  None of the regular drugs seem to be having much impact, so I feel congested, headaches and tired all the time right now, which is very irritating.  They started later than usual into the summer and seem to be sticking around a lot longer than usual for me too.  What a drag!!

Anyways, I did make some good progress on the mustang girl this afternoon.  I keep calling her a pony, but it came from the fact that I thought I might make her an indian 'pony' with feathers and war paint and such, which I will do eventually a board or two on, but decided not to on this piece.  In reality she is not a pony at all, but a horse.  Oh well whaterever you call her... here is the update.  I decided I didn't care for her markings with almost all white body and dark head.  It was confusing to the eye and thus I added a pinto marking on her side back into the image.  I still have some work to do on her face, but am getting pretty close to calling her done.  I am open to title suggestions too.

I made good progress on the pinto today.  Getting the smooth look of horse hair (especially white) is far from a fast project. I spent about 5-6 hours working today.

Pinto Continued

I worked on this piece more last night and some today too in between updating my website and adding some new sections.

summertime... BUSY

I feel like I have been on the go for the past month and will be off to Indiana in early July too.

Despite that I am trying to make time for my art, of course!

I believe I have pretty much finished up "A Rustle In The Brush" (16"x20"); I find backgrounds are hard to get good photos of as they always seem to loose some detail.

I also started a new horse piece of a pinto indian pony; obviously still a long ways to go.  Size is 14"x18"

Arabian Night completed

Simple and effective, at least that is my goal :)  I like it when I can let the black do some of the work for me and let the viewers eye fill in details in the shadow.

Detail look at the scratchwork on the piece

Scratch by scratch

I got a couple more hours of work in on the Arabian horse last night. 

Arabian Night

I started a new piece about 3 days ago that I am tentatively calling "Arabian Night"  It is from a photo that I took a couple of weeks ago during a photo shoot of two Arabian Stallions.  The photo in and of itself is not really all that spectacular, but I liked the light in his eye.  With a bit of photoshop to add drama and contrast I decided it would make a nice board.  Size will be 18"x36" which ends up being pretty close to life size with this crop.  It has been progressing quite quickly so far.

Tailwind Completed

I am calling this one done, though have not sprayed it yet with fixative.  I have done some research and found out the name of the horse in the photo and it is Circle Bar Pistol, an AQHA stallion.  I photographed him at the AQHA Ranch Horse Versatility competition in Denver in January.  I am contemplating contacting his owners and sharing the work with them.  My piece from a few months ago titled "Distant Gaze" is of another stallion from the same event by the name of Chic Packin.

A wee little bear and Tailwind progress

This past Saturday I taught my 3rd workshop... the weather outside was frightful, but the scratching indoors delightful :)  I started this little bitty 5"x3" board at the workshop as a demo and finished it at home.  He was just for fun.

I have made a bit more progress on my horse and rider as well over the weekend and today and have decided on the title of "Tailwind" for the piece.  I am getting close to done, but still more touch ups to do.  Not very good photos due to glare today.

A close up where the reins meet the mane and the mane meets the body - all textures have to differ for it to read right to the eye.

Walking The Line - almost done

close to done with the big couger.  Not a good photo, but you get the general idea :)

And a bit more on the horse too

Art Fair Weekend and New progress on works

Last weekend was my first art fair of the season.  Unfortunately attendance was quite low and sales were low as well.  I did get to educate more people about scratchboard and still enjoyed the time I spent there.  I found some time to work on my spinning grey horse and made friends with my neighboring booths (a photographer and a glass worker).

Here is where the horse ended the weekend

And last week I started to color Charlie, the big mountain lion.  Putting that first bit of color on it was difficult as I have spent MANY hours on the board already and color is something that doesn't always go the way that I want it to.  Anyways I have already spent another 8 + hours laying in ink, rescratching, putting in more ink, more rescratching... and it is getting closer to me ding pleased with the color version of it.  I am finding it quite difficult to get a decent photo of it as it has many layers of ink now and some show through as quite shiny and reflective giving quite a glare.... so excuse the poor photos, but here is the progression of color work on it so far.  Still many hours to go.

First layers of ink with minimal rescratching at this point

Now a version with quite a bit of rescratching to lighten things up for more inking

And several more layers of ink and scratching to get to where it is at the time of typing.  You will also notice changes to the musculature of his shoulder, as I didn't like the way I had it

Twirling... slowly

A wee bit more done on this piece.  This piece holds some new challenges for me that are going to take some figuring out on how to do them.

A Driving Force - Finished

My friesian piece is completed.

"A Driving Force"
10"x8"

Prints should be available soon.

Trotting along

This mornings update from the Friesian- you can see how I am working the upper muzzle area in fur even though much will be covered over with the mane.

And now this afternoon/evenings update- the last for the day.  I think I have picked out a title and am going to call him "A Driving Force"

Friesian Elegance - WIP

I started a smaller 10"x8" piece today of a Friesian horse in harness.  I really enjoy doing the leather work along with the horse- the variation in texture is always a challenge I enjoy.  I hope to finish this piece this week.  I think I am aiming this one toward the AAEA show if they allow me to use photos with references I did not take (have to re-read the rules).  I e-mailed last year to ask what category I could enter my scratchboard in and was told I could not enter it because there was no category!  But Julie Bender has entered her woodburning pieces for several years and there is no class for her either.  I e-mailed Julie earlier this year and she enters her pieces as paintings!!  So this year I am going to send in my entries, put them as drawings and see what they do with them- worst case they don't let anything in.  Best case I win some cash or sell a piece!  The AAEA show is hold at the Kentucky Horse park, which also happens to be where the Friesian Horse Association of North America's main headquarters are....hmmmm.... maybe someone will see is from there and not be able to live without it!   :D


 The lovely photo reference was provided by Daisyree Barkkar, a friend from wetcanvas and fellow artist.  Thanks Daisyree! 

I get asked sometimes how I do it when there is long hair (such as a mane) going over the top of shorter fur.  In cases like that I work the short fur in first and then the mane and forelock will go over the top, just as it is in real life.  However I do it darker and less dense than areas where it is not covered, as the mane usually obscures the fur and casts a shadow on it.  In my next update (or two) you will be able to see this in practice a bit more.

On the Prowl - WIP and Bending

I am working on a new mountian lion scratchboard that I have titled "On The Prowl" size is 12"x24" , which looks pretty close to cougar life size.  Here is my progress to date.

A close up look - I suppose maybe around the actual size, maybe a bit bigger.

And I guess I didn't post this one that I finished this last week too.    Well maybe not finished, I think I am going to work the tail a bit more.  This is a smaller piece 10"x8"  This ended up being a very tough angle to make look right!  Title on this one is "Bending"  It is colored with Ampersand Inks