Yep, I've joined the club. Secretly, (well not so much anymore!) I'm happy I get to wear glasses now, if only for working/reading. They are a fun accessory to me; I enjoyed picking them out (so many cute styles!), and I think they make me look smarter, or if anything, maybe a more organized, professional individual (ha!). I suppose being farsighted, I can take a more cavalier approach- my sight is thankfully still great, but these give me a slight edge when I work up close, now that I'm getting (*ahem*) older. My nearsighted husband, who has to wear his all of the time, isn't quite as thrilled about the fashion aspect of his spectacles, somehow (though I think he looks pretty darn good in them). I joked with him that he wears glasses so he can see like me, and I wear them so I can see like him! But all joking aside, I know how important detail is to my line of work, and if there is a simple step I can take to help me see better & work longer, I'm all for it!
Speaking of detail... I'm trying my best to pack a lot of it into the big beastie I'm working on now! He is Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig's Stormwatch, in resin. I don't often dabble in the world of resins (I really dislike the prep-work, and I feel I'm generally slow at the painting process) but I'm having such a good time with this guy, I may find myself doing that more often! We'll see. I thought I'd share some in-progress pictures of my Stormy- I'm painting him a dappled rose grey. I'm taking a different approach in terms of painting him, based on what I'm experienced with using- namely, acrylic & ceramic paint. The acrylic I'm hand-painting for the most part, and the ceramic paint I am airbrushing. I imagine it would be something like airbrushing liquid pastels- it gives a layer of fine powdered pigment that I will finally seal when I'm done. I started off hand painting the mane & tail in acrylic, as I knew it would be sturdy & would show through any ceramic paint I sprayed on top. Here's his first layer of mane:
After I worked on the tail, I went and airbrushed a little into his mane & tail, and gave an overall shading of grey to his body. This I dappled away using erasers, as I do with my ceramic pieces. I will continue to shade and dapple until I get to the point where he has the amount of color and contrast I'm looking for, and then I'll seal him up. I learned the hard way that once you seal ceramic paint, that's pretty much it! It no longer takes well to dappling, as further ceramic paint just wants to stick to the sealant. So I'll get him where I want him first, and then I'll seal. Here he is with his first dappled layer all done. I'm going to darken areas a bit more, and add some rosy-ness today:
Okay! That's all of the exciting news around here, really. I've got a small sculpture I'm working on, but he has a looong way to go before he's worth talking about much! (He is kind of on pause until I get Stormy done- I feel like I'm on a roll! I hope to get Stormy done & up for sale sometime next month). Anyhow, I hope you are all enjoying the last days of summer- it has been a busy one for me & I can't believe fall is right around the corner! Hopefully the coming days will bring more fun projects for me to blog about & share with y'all. Until then, all my best to each of you!
