Monday, August 31, 2015

Tennessee Walker Sculpting Tutorial Video [Finally!] :

Well, I just finished my first video, that's not exactly true.  I've done the Pumpkin carving video slideshow but this is another one.  This video which took forever trying to figure out the way of the Windows Movie Maker program.  After many words of profanity, and a few bald spots on my scalp, I've got the basic tutorial video done.  It's still another slideshow but it's got narratives on the frames.  It's the best I can come up with until I learn more.  I'm going to be doing another video (next time with actual video clips) of the actual painting of this horse. So watch for that.

But anyway, here's the video.


Sunday, August 30, 2015

More Color on the Appaloosa Mare:

Layers and layers and more layers.  She's now got the varnishing and the almost what you'd call dappling in the coat.  It's coming along.  She's gonna be loud!




Now I've added the pink speckling on her face and pink shading in layers on her mare parts.  It's just taking so many layers of color.  What I do is I will put the white on, then I wet wash remove some of it to fade it out.  Then I will wet wash over top of it again. Wet washing is a method where you think down the paint, (in this case white) and you dab it on liberally with either a saturated Q-Tip or a brush. But it's very wet and there's a lot on the brush. You put it on liberally, then you take a dampened Q-Tip and dab at it til it comes off in some areas but it leaves holes in the color.  You have to get a  rhythm doing this. You dab it on then dab it off. You keep doing it over and over. You let the water thin it down and give it the look you want.
She's going to be much darker in the end, but right now she's just got a lot of white wash on her. She's got the base coating of a mane but it's no where near complete yet. 
She's got eyes.  I need to start doing fine detail work on tiny spotting in her neck and face now.  And I haven't even begun the legs. But this is so far. 







Saturday, August 29, 2015

Appaloosa Gets More Color and Hackney Gets Muscles:

The Appaloosa mare is coming along, but she's in an awkward stage right now.  It's at that stage where she looks more messy because the white takes so many layers to get full coverage.  The blanket edging needs to be refined and it will be but I have to do it slowly in thin layers of white for the best smoothest coverage. The i can come back and put the spots on the shoulder.  The blanket I think will be a snow blanket with no spots.   (see the reference picture I'm loosely using below)



Next, is the Hackney.  He's got stallion genitalia now, and I'm just blocking out the neck a little bit, and I did add a lot of shoulder muscles to him.  I've got a string tied around his head to keep his tucked down because it's wanting to raise up a little bit, so he's just waiting til he dries like that.   I ran clean out of Apoxie now and any more progress to him is just going to have to wait til I get some more. I'm currently suffering from that Italian disease "Mefunzalow". I am so thinking of doing him as a deep red bay perhaps.  That's what I keep seeing him as. 



Thursday, August 27, 2015

Standardbred Foal:

He's got a breed and a name. He's currently in MH$P & Ebay.
Standardbred Liver Chestnut Foal
"Badlands Delight"


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Foal Complete, Appaloosa Mare Coming Along:

Ok, now here are the progress to completion for the foal.








And Complete.  I will have a series of photos in my website of him. Oh and below is a little bit of a reference of what I was going for with this little guy. 



And here is the Appaloosa mare so far.
She's had several layers of pasteling and then an antiquing  wash.







Monday, August 24, 2015

Getting Things Underway:

OK,  I've got new update pictures of the Hackney, the Appaloosa mare, and the Foal. 

First up.,

I added some apoxie (I'm almost out),  to the shoulder front legs and a bit on the neck. He's going to have massive muscle tone. 



Oh, and I almost forgot.  I do have a little American Saddlebred Stablemate that I added some more apoxie to.  I had a few images of this little guy a while ago I think.  You'll have to check the labels for older posts with him.  but here he is with a mane and tail and more work on his neck.  I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the length of his neck yet.  I may need to shorten it a hair. I don't know.  Sometimes I look at it and it seems ok, and other angles it looks a hair too long. I don't know.

Here is the Appaloosa mare and the little foal. Finally getting some color. 



Sunday, August 23, 2015

My First Video:

Here's my first attempt at making a youtube slideshow video.  The first couple frames are a little slow before i got the flow of things down.  I just went with the only song I could grab from the free crap they offer you and the timing was off. It runs out before the video does, but it was such a pain trying to sort through all the picture frames and trying to keep that crazy blue bar in the right place.  I wanted to scream!  But anyway, I did get it done.  not bad for a first attempt.  Here's a video of my pumpkin collection so far.  Now I wonder if I'll be able to edit the original to add more frames or if I have to start all over when I have new pumpkins to add.  (((SCREAM)))


Thursday, August 20, 2015

Got A New Pumpkin To Do [Completed]:



Here is a link to my pumpkins that I've done so far in my scrapbook/website.





Scroll down to see the step by step progress of "Cheshire Cat"


I'm gonna just stick the progress pictures under this one instead of starting a new post.  I've almost completed him already. My dremel tool was getting too hot so I had to quit.





Ok, I didn't like how the painted areas turned out.  So I just removed it and continued to give him more depth and put the hazy smokey fog behind his head and I do like that effect much better.  He's now completed!




New Updates For Tonight:

Ok, now that the Pumpkin is completed,


I thought I would announce (as if you couldn't see already)  I've changed the look of the blog.  I'm using my favorite painting, "Prisoner of Asgard" for the background and for the profile picture, but I will be changing it from time to time as the seasons change.  Halloween and such. But I thought it was a new change from the default beige theme, even though it looked nice.  

Ok, I do have one more pumpkin I wanna do (a small one) but I will be back tonight with updates on some horses. 
And a reminder that Silver Cloud's deadline approaches. He already has an offer and his deadline is August 27th I do believe.
Check out the link below,

Oh, and the Sir Thomas Sharpe, Crimson Peak  Pumpkin will be in Ebay probably tonight. 

One last note of mention.  My websites are down. lol  Not really.  I'm having trouble and have been for months with my webspace provider. My domains are not forwarding to the site.  The only people who can see my site are people that already have it book marked and the long url is what is needed to view it.  So I will keep my site's link in the blog readily available for people to view.  And I'll have the problem ironed out ASAP.


For right now, just bookmark THIS url below
www.caseyaffleck.com/ls/lsmain.html 

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Crimson Peak "Sir. Thomas Sharpe" Pumpkin Step By Step:

OK,  Let us begin.  Oooooh this is gonna be more fun than a mermaid in a water park!  Keep Calm!  Keep Calm!  lol

Now, to get started you take a foam pumpkin. They sell them at Michael's and I guess Hobby Lobby though we don't have one of those here.  They are about 14 inches or so I  guess.  It's just a large sized tall foam pumpkin. You know the kind.  You can probably find them on Ebay and Amazon or something.  Anyway, what you do first (and I didn't bother to photograph this) is you take your Dremel tool, or saw, or whatever.  And you cut a hole in the bottom big enough to get your hand in. Just a tennis ball or baseball sized hole on the very bottom.  Then map out where you want your carving to be.  Most of these pumpkins are flawed and that's just the way they are. You have to pick ones with as little dings or paint runs or little imperfections as possible. But I don't think they make these things very gently so it's hard to get a perfect one.  There is usually a flatter side and a slightly more rounder side. The flatter side carves the best for a design.  Plus if you have any scratches or anything you might be able to map it out so that those flaws will be part of the cut away part of your design.  Anyway, figure out where the front is. Then directly on the back side about an inch and a half or two inches from the bottom, cut or drill a hole just big enough to slip in your light kit.  You can find light kits anywhere. It's just a nightlight type bulb, housing, and cord.  All one piece.  The best time to get them is at Christmas and you'll find them in the area where they have the little Christmas village sets at Walmart.  They are around $1.99 or so.  Just a little light kit with cord.  And there's no wiring required. It's all one piece. Simple.  You drill the hole in the back of the pumpkin to push the kit in.  Depending on your kit, you normally unscrew the bulb it comes with first so you can slip the housing into the hole you drilled. They may have metal tabs you have to fold down to hole it in place. Again, depending on the type light kit you got. Then replace the bulb with the light kit in place. (this is part of the reason why you cut a hole in the bottom big enough to fit your hand in) 
Plug in the light and turn it on. You'll need the light on while you carve so this is why you do it first.

Now, on to the pumpkin.  

Step 1. In Carving. 

Attach your pattern. You need a transparency print out of your design. You can get this at Office Max or Staples for a $1.34 or so.  Or you can print it out yourself if you have the transparency film paper. 
Fit your pattern in place. You will have to fold and wrap it around but just so long as you've got the design as flat as possible.  Sometimes you can just wing in on the outer areas to match. The face is the important thing.  Tape it in place but be careful what kind of tape you use.  You use a tape that is too tacky and it will peel the pumpkin's paint up with it when you pull it off.  I'm using just cheap $1 a roll wide clear packing tape from Walmart.
On to the show. New pics will be added to the top as I go so people don't have to scroll down to see the newly added images..  


ALL NEW UPDATES BELOW

Done!  Ok, in the last three below images I've got him all completed. I put a wash over the entire pumpkin on the areas that weren't carved.  I made it look rotted and decayed and very darkened. I also put a wash of greenish browns and black over the background carved parts to enhance those areas some.  I also put a wash on the coat collars also. I'll be adding him to the website today.




He's getting a little better still. Got a background going now. I wish I could get better pictures.  His left jawline doesn't look that saggy. It's the blur I'm picking up that's distorting it a little bit.  You also can't see the faint line that separates the jawline from his shirt collar which are close to each other. Oh well.






Ok I've gotten a couple people ask me (you guys don't need to email...you can post your questions in the blog. I'll see them, I promise.)..."What happens if I mess up?"  or "I'm scared to do this because if I carve too much I've ruined the whole thing."   Short answer,  Nope. Not always. As with most art, there is a way to correct mistakes. You can correct little mistakes.  Now if you just cut out a section that's in the wrong place or something, you may have to tweak your design or something.  But say for example, you cut too deep and actually punch through.  No problem. It happens. I've gone through before.  A couple tiny spot on this one as a matter of fact I went through with the tip of the dremmel. It's not the end of the world, nor is it the end of your pumpkin.  Like with the eyes for example on Thomas Sharpe here.  My dremmel tool was too big even for the tiniest detail work and with the machine vibrating like it does, it  shaved a little too much on that narrow tiny little line that is his lower eye lid.  (That's why he looked like a half dead zombie with the whites of his eyes gleaming so bright in most of the pictures, it looked like his eyes were rolled back in the back of his head.. lol)  Don't worry.  It's correctable.  Nothing's permanent but death and taxes.
What you do to correct those little over shaves or over cuts or those punch through holes is you take your dremmel and you hold your pumpkin over a surface. A table or something. And you can take your sanding tip and grind away a little bit of the edge of the bottom hole, or if you kept the bottom hole piece when you cut it out initially. You can use that.  In fact that's what I used.  When you first cut the bottom out, you should  have the round bottom piece. (unless you just sanded the hole open) But if you don't have it or sanded the hole open. Just grind away the bottom a little rounder and a little wider, just so you have some dust.  You need foam dust.  Let the dust drop down in a pile on the table and then carefully brush it into a little dish or on a paper plate or something.  Just keep the dust is what I'm saying.  Now, simply mix a little bit of the dust with some  [Matte] Mod Podge, or some white glue that dries clear.  Mix it up into a thick doughy paste and simply fill in the areas of your carving that you went too far on.  The Mod Podge will dry clear, and so will school glues. Use MATTE Mod Podge though. You don't want anything glossy.  You can use a needle to resculpt the areas while it's still tacky to reshape some things.  Or wait til it's dry and re-carve.  After you're done, you can mix up some orange paint to match the surface of the pumpkin to cover those tiny flaws. It really doesn't matter how the pumpkin looks on the outside because the Pumpkin is meant to be seen lit up.  In the sunlight or room lights, these pumpkins look really rough, and not very pleasing to the eye lol  It's only when they're lit up in a dark room that the full effect is achieved.  So relax.   In the last three images below, you can see how I've started to fix his eyes to look more appropriate.






Adding a little bit more detail now in the latest pictures.  I need to correct the eyes and soften his right cheekbone shadows. It's nothing but a thing.






Here's a new one above.  I'm beginning to add in some detail. He's looking more "human".  lol




Ok,  I'm at a stopping point right now mostly because this dremel tool is making my arms feel like I've taken Wile E. Coyote's ACME Earthquake Pills, and my eyes are starting to cross.

So here he is so far.  He looks like a sad troll at this point. lol But I've yet to define the eyes and details. I'm just blocking out layers and creating basic depth.  He'll pick up more detailed as I go.
Here are the last few images above. It's so hard taking pictures of a pumpkin lit in the dark.  I tried the night time camera setting but that didn't work either. I'm using the close up setting and not using a flash, and it's hard to get them to show up good.