It's time for the Snowdrift Studio Holiday Auctions! I'm very pleased to be offering two beautiful stallions at auction on Model Horse Place. Valor ends December 4 at 7:30 p.m. EST, and Khiss ends December 4 at 8:00 p.m. EST. Many thanks to everyone who has supported my work this year! I value every "Like" and comment!
First is a Curio/Venti Valor, a scaled down version of Carol Williams gorgeous Thoroughbred resin.
Like many horse lovers, the Black Stallion was my childhood obsession. I LOVE black horses in any breed. I'm so fortunate to have had opportunities to ride them, photograph thousands of them over the years, and to paint traditional portraits of them too.
However, black is a frustratingly difficult colour for model horses. It seems to be so dense, absorbing every colour of the rainbow, so it can lack vitality in a 3D form. If you add any colour, the model either doesn't look true black anymore, or it looks like a decorator. Healthy black horses are also shiny, making it even harder to depict on a model.
So I've played around with various techniques for black over the years. Little Valor is my latest happy attempt, using glaze oils applied in many, many thin layers. Lots of colours interacting with each other through those layers creates what I am calling "dimensional black". Colours are present, but are very subtle.
You can view his auction page here: Valor.
My second offering is a the hunk of handsome Khiss Medallion, sculpted by Rayvin Maddock of Khrysalis Studio. He persuaded me to paint him as a red bay, even though I had already started him in a different colour! Arabians do have a mind of their own, lol! Again, I used a glaze oil method to build his glowing colour through thin layering. He was inspired by all of the beautiful photos of Arabians in Arabian Horse World magazine, which I hoarded for years. You can view his auction page here: Khiss.
Click on any photo below to see a larger image.
