Art Experimentation - Paper Clay Model Horse

Paper Clay model horse. Yes, you read that right. Paper clay? Ah, sounds, interesting...
Well, it is. And this, being my first ever experimentation with paper clay (take note, not paper mache), I figured it deserved some attention. Considering also, that this is my first.... show a little sympathy for the way it turned out. (Nah, it was actually pretty good for 1st attempt.)

As for the clay made of paper, I found this recipe on the internet which used very simple ingredients like toilet paper and glue - and was thrilled with the results! It can be lump if not mixed properly, but when the mixture is right, it goes on/ molds beautifully.
So exciting! Be prepared to see more and more of these 'experiments' using paper clay, as I practice and learn by mistakes (as it goes) my own methods of creating masterpieces. I do, in future, intend to get a lot better at my sculpting art and actually start selling. Hopefully soon.

Shire Horse Model - Handmade, handpainted.

Actually, I think I should take this back to the beginning. To where I started. As I was fumbling about... trying to make something out of all the ideas whirling around.... and this is how it began..
(The original drawing outcut, prior to fixing up... note: I didn't trace this one. I think proportionally, the stomach area should have been longer, as well as perhaps the neck.)

All my lovely cardboard cutout pieces, as I began to create.... an armament and a base for my model. Hmmm. Do the legs stand up, or hide in close to the body... eventually I wedged cardboard between the legs and the base.

The armament covered - foil for padding, covers the cardboard layers and creates excellent base for moulding/sculpting onto. Also lots of sticky tape used at this point.

The same armament/foundation again, only this time it has been finished off with some wonderful layers of masking tape. Not only does it provide for excellent adhesive for the sculpting clay, but the masking tape actually adds padding where necessary. Yay!

During sculpting! This process took about 2 hours after I had made my clay, which took at least an hour also. All up, I think it would have taken quite a few hours (after painting/drying time) to complete this sculpture.

Top view also. This one took a lot of time to mold whist wet.

And now, for some completed photos after the long arduous work of painting. The painting process itself took a minimum of 5 coats of acrylic paint and much detail/photographic references. The completed horse is coloured/designed to look like a Black and White Shire Horse breed, complete with Shire Horse markings, colouration, body physique, docked tail, and characteristics.

Where does inspiration come from - and the thought of repeating history

It seems my blog is missing some words lately. Photographs are great, as are many millions of projects, but there is always something to be said for words - literally.
Okay, ignore that part. My point being, it is time to write again. At least, it will be soon.
I'm not sure what though. Something will come, and when it does, it will be, I daresay, a profound and relevant revelation.

Something new under the sun.
You know, something interesting that I have discovered lately, is that, despite what King Solomon stated in Ecclesiastes (there is nothing new under the sun) new things are being discovered all the time. A lot of old principles are being discovered, too, but new things are being 'created' inspired, etc.
Thinking on this topic the other day, I had been asking God for divine inspiration regarding some of my more recent artwork.
And yes, this may sound silly, but the thought did cross my mind that I would only be doing something re-hashed of something once done.
How silly of me! God has been showing me that despite ideas being repeated over time, there is still always something new - providing God is the inspiration leading you to that new something!

He particularly pointed out to me that being the God of creation, as He is, well, there just isn't anything He cannot do. So, well, if God made this earth, thought of all the incredible and amazing things we have around us today (I shan't list them all), how much more so can He still create, and reveal to us also!

God truly is the author of inspiration - when ideas dry up, ask God. There is no end to His ideas. To His brilliance. To the genius of God.

Vintage Sunbaking Dolls - Photography

While we were away, I stumbled across some lovely, quaint little vintage dolls in the quaint little vintage house we were staying in. They appeared so calm, so at peace with this world yet lost in their own. Sunbaking dolls - many a child's best friend and playmate, with a greater insight than we know.

Australian Wildlife Photography - Frilled Neck Lizard

Sunbaking. Ah, the life. Looks like heaven actually. This rather large sized fellow happened to be minding his own business while I was shifting sheep about. He was handsome enough - and still enough - for me to race inside and grab my canon/zoomie. What a beautie. I am glad though, that I didn't have to get too close.

All photographs copyright me.

Upcoming model repaints..

 Yes, this is the very same horse at the heading of the previous post. As I have clumped all photos of the past 4 weeks together, though, this one is more accurate of this model's current stage. Here this model is coated in 3 coats of grey base paint, and 4 coats of white... and he is also subject to a colour change... originally I intended to paint him dapple (hence white)... but I am thinking more that a rich, bright red and black bay will be more striking.

The same model in the last post, this one also is prepped and awaiting his first layer of colouration! Oh, the excitement... I still have not decided on a colour/range for this model, but I am thinking somewhere along the lines of a Chestnut/Palomino Quarter Horse type.

Again, the same model (as above) prepped and ready, other side view. From the original model, I kept only the mane hair, ditched the tail & forelock. I am debating removing this mane entirely, but for now it can stay. Painting around real hair isn't actually that easy.

Change of pace... as well as horses (which are by far the more popular model), I also collect and repaint dogs, of course, as they are my favourite species. This model is a Giant Schnauzer, probably going to be black or salt/pepper variety, realistic-looking.
Half painted here, undercoat visible.

On the subject of dogs... another miniature model. This one is really quite old, and has been collecting dust for some time. Originally felted, I repainted (without undercoat, I might add =/) this guy about 5 yrs ago. Now he is being undercoated and redone - realistically. Poor beggar.

- One of the 'raw' $1 horses I picked up recently. Still only the very first coat of colour, I intend this one to be a palomino of some kind - and likely a Quarter Horse or Stock Horse variety. Keep watching for this one.

One of my 'experiments', this dog (if it appears that way) was actually.... a goat. As its a miniature, I had a hard time shaping this one correctly, but it now (after much carving) takes the form of a Doberman Pinscher (in miniature) and will likely be painted as a Black and Tan (or correctly, with Red Rust points).

A cheap, sad looking, very bad anatomical little donkey model. Keep watching this one - I intend to make him a very adorable Welsh Mountain Pony.
There is hope for rubbish bin rescues....

Second side-view of Welshie to be. Don't let his horrible anatomy put you off - he will be adorable once completed.
I must say, the head is a bit offputting, however...

And, finally, another old repaint - covered in fluff. Ergh, poor thing. Yep, another repaint with no undercoat, and one I am not too proud of. Nevertheless, he shall be rescued, and may once again be a realistic canine.
Originally a Gordon Setter (as pictured here, before that he had a tail), I am not exactly sure what I will make him to be. Perhaps a Spaniel type would be more fitting.

First, to scrape of the fluff....

Model Horses.. Upcoming - Watch this Space

It seems I have finally come across something which I am actually really excited to be doing, something I am very good at, and something I certainly will be continuing.
Welcome the world of model repaints.
I have always, even as a young child, tried to repaint and customise model animals (especially horses) to the picture I had in mind. Unfortunately, taking to your plastic model horse with a black texta produces some interesting results. Thankfully, my skills have improved over the years and are now marketable. I love the real-life feel of these repaints once I have completed them, and the fun isn't just that - it's in the painting process, and creating the character of my life-like animal!

These models are upcoming repaints from my 'box' of repaint 'to-dos'. Sadly it is very empty, and needs to be filled!

< The above, also unfinished horse awaiting repaint. This original model was a cheap brand 'felted' type horse with fur mane + tail. Felted fur has been stripped, mane removed, and more detailed fixed. Horse is at primed/prepper stage, with 5 coats White acrylic paint to date.
It will be interesting to see what this one becomes - both in colour and breed....

A quality plastic model, this one rescued from the garbage without much mane or tail... looks to be a QH type body. This should be interesting...

- So far, this model has been based/prepped and is awaiting its first coat. I do like the original palomino colour, and may keep in that range.

A cheap plastic horse (of which I bought 2) for $1 each... they originally looked pretty basic, but I am very happy with the outcome of #1. (It will be posted soon.)
Large ears, though, a bit donkey-ish.
QH type build, perhaps ASH too.

Large model, another rubbish-bin rescue. Still new, felt isn't coming off as easily as I would like. This one may take some work...

Bin rescue #3.... well, number 3 this week. Rather sad looking, scractched and... tail-less model. Not sure what he will be when completed, or whether to keep the hair or to ditch....

What the Lord has done in ME - and What He is still doing... though I know it not.

Wow. I don't know where to start, or really that there is a beginning.
There is merely a forward motion of progress; no apparent start and no apparent end. And so, this is the way, it would seem, life goes.
So be it. And what, exaclty, you ask... is that supposed to mean exactly? Not a huge deal. In some kind of optimistic way, though, it means that life goes on. Which it does. Funny thing is, that's the nature of life, isn't it? And yet God has organised it that way. Day in.. day out. Sun rises, sun sets. Seasons come and go.
Yes. Right now, I am meandering. So, shall I get the the point?

My title. If the above didn't exactly make much sense, I'll skip the waffle and give an interpretation, in, well, English.
So much has happened in my life over the past 3+ weeks. I've been busy, away, absolutely flat-out and sometimes bored out of my brain. (That was 3 weeks ago, home alone... )
As I stated abive, I never really know where or when, or how to start. Especially now, now that God has done something incredible in my life.
I suppose I'll go back to where I left off from my last post here, and a quick fill-in of what's been happening in this crazy mad life of mine. Most importantly, God has been changing me, and teaching me, and healing me. That last one is just something completely indescribable, the finality of finally being able to discard of these old wounds and burdens and be finally able to live alive - at last. I do not merely speak of my physical illness/ess and the healing which I have slowly been receiving from the Father for these (and praise His holy name) but rather of the deep, inner and crippling wounds I have carried about on the inside of me for as long as I can remember. As it stands, I am also convinced that physical illness as was in my case was only a very small glimpse of the turmoil that was going on inside me.
My body at last, did weaken from the inside calamity and began to show as a physical illness. I truly believe that many physical conditions are only expressions of what is really going on inside - as it eventually has to get out somewhere. In many ways, it is a mercy it has happened to me now, that I am able to see and recognise these things which have been suffocating and hindering me for so long - and by God's incredible grace they have been revealed to me.

With that said, I can only say I am finally, at long last really beginning to truly understand (as if a mere human could) the incredible healing of God, the trueness of it, the freedom which can now be grasped, and the hope alighted. I know I will never be the same again, my Lord has touched me more than I ever thought possible, and has set my very world ablaze. Not in some crazy, wild, uncontrollable or childish manner, but in a way so deep, so hidden within me, so tangible, so true, it simply is. He is in me, He has healed me.

Does it not say in the Bible, 'come, and tell of the wonders He has done'? I used to think that was all very well - for others, and for truly miraculous circumstances. But not only is our God a God of miracles, He is a God of everyday miracles, of the little things, so concerned with changing our hearts and ensuring we know how much (or get a glimpse of) just how incredible and never-ending is His love.

With that thought in mind, I will end here, but do return, for you shall find me ever changed by the Grace of our Lord, and it even surprises me (who has had a close walk with God) to discover just how much I keep talking of what He has done - and in a genuine, real, way - as one who has experienced the depths of darkness and has been brought back into life and light! And O what glorious, real, saving light that is!