My painting muse hath returned!

As anyone who knows me well will know, my creative muse is a very fickle individual.

One minute I'll be furiously drawing like there's no tomorrow, then the following day I can't draw for toffee but I'll be sculpting tiny things from polymer clay or painting up a whole host of models in an enthusiastic frenzy, then, inevitably, after a few days or even weeks if I'm lucky, the creative spell I'd fallen under would fade and I'd lose all motivation to continue. It's irritating, as I'd really like to be able to earn a living through my hobbies but the way my mind works it's not looking likely. This is why I rarely take on commissions - anyone wanting a custom from me has to accept that it could be months (or years, in several cases!) for me to get into the right mindset to get things started. I refuse to paint something unless I'm in the right frame of mind for it as past experience has taught me that if I force myself to paint when I'm not 'in the zone', as it were, things never turn out well.

This week, after a very long break from painting, my muse has finally come back and I've been churning out on average a custom a day. I know it won't last so I'm making the most of it!
My ideal painting environment is sitting at my desk with the TV on in the background - this week I've gone through several series of an animal rescue programme, a three part documentary on the origins of forensic science, several more series of 'police interceptors' and another documentary on serial killers! XD

First up is this rather insanely patterned appaloosa - I'll be showing him as an old type Knabstrupper. I'd read on a forum about someone's technique for pastelling which involved using a silicone sculpting tool instead of a brush for spots and mottling. I tried it out and absolutely loved it so I'll be using this on future customs as it's very effective. I'd love to try it out for roans...

I vividly remember painting his neck spots whilst people on tv
were being chased up for no car insurance and dangerous driving!

The yellowish patches weren't entirely intentional - I meant to use a whiter pastel but got my colours mixed up, though I do quite like the effect.



With this new technique in hand, I decided to really push the boat out and go for a heavily dappled grey. I'd resculpted the Schleich Fell stallion a few months before with a full mane instead of plaits, and I'll probably show him as a Highland, inspired by these two ponies I saw a few weeks ago at the RHS.

I wish I'd thought to turn his head when I was resculpting him though, as his offside has much nicer dapples...





Next up are these two commissions for my friend Viki.
She wasn't fussed on the colour scheme for the WB but knowing her propensity towards bay minimal tobianos I think I chose well. :P I added the dapples on a whim but I'm so glad I did as they really add a lot of depth to his colour. Obviously the flash photos aren't the best, but I'll take some proper showing off pics once they're all completely finished.





The next was the Collecta Dartmoor stallion, who she wanted painted up in the typical Exmoor colour of bay with lots of pangare and a mealy muzzle. He fought me at first and didn't want his bay layers to build up but I'm really pleased with how he's turned out - not bad for only a day's work!
He has some nice subtle dapples that look really nice in person but don't want to show up in photographs apparently.





The above photos are closest to his true colour but the flash brings out the shading nicely.





There's also a Stablemate G2 Saddlebred who was a bit of an experiment. I'd been sanding down a body I bought recently (caked in thick paint from a previous owner's customising attempts) and I just painted her on a bit of a whim really. She has much more shading than this photo suggests.



The flash shows her shading a bit better, but obviously natural light will be much better.

Of course now that I've posted this I'll probably wake up tomorrow with absolutely zero enthusiasm for painting again but hey-ho, that's the creative brain for you!