NaMoPaiMo Sign Up

For the third year in a row I signed up for NaMoPaiMo. Last year, I managed to finish my horse in time, the year before that, not so much. I chose a big challenge last year and in a way, I think I've chosen an even bigger challenge this year.

I still consider my experience level to be intermediate as I have painted models before but I still have to learn a lot and since last NaMoPaiMo, I have only painted very few models.

This year my model of choice is an American Saddlebred mare, Santa Maria resin, sculpted by Kitty Cantrell. I won her at a liveshow last year when my dear Sahale J (RC El Embosco rep. E. Gonzales) won Best In Show. I plan to paint her a bay blanket and show her as an American Saddlebred based Walkaloosa.

The mediums I'll use are acrylics, pastels and maybe some coloured pencils for details and this year will be my first try using PanPastels which I ordered yesterday.

My challenges for this year is mostly the colour, I have painted bay horses before but I have never painted an appaloosa pattern before. Making smooth white markings is another thing I usually struggle with so that will definitely be another challenge. And all the skin mottling! Wow I think I'll be really pushing my limits with this one!

My NaMoPaiMo goals for this year is to finish my model, try to get a feel for PanPastels but most of all learn some new tips and tricks. I would love to be able to paint a side project or two during NaMoPaiMo but we'll see how that will work out.

It's done

And soon I'll share my victim and plans! Stay tuned!

Unexpected Christmas Ponies

Shortly before Christmas, I entered Spruce Mountain Studios "A Pony for Christmas" giveaway. Christmas is always a bit busy for me with all the Christmas stuff and with me working Christmas Eve I didn't give the giveaway another thought. Until my messenger pinged and I read the message that my name had been drawn for the pair I'd love to have.

I was beyond excited! A few days ago this lovely couple arrived. They came in a pair of really adorable draw-string bags and in the box I also found some beautiful photographs of Mindy's paintjobs and a candy cane. 

I am very thankful for receiving this couple and I really, really like them. I enjoy Mindy's sculptures and I would love to get my hands on a Dewdrop to companion my Magrathea or a Dolittle to make my Tivoli company.

Both mare and foal are gorgeous and with a little prepping they might be candidates for NaMoPaiMo, as my decision wasn't hard enough 😉

Come to think of it, I have never painted a foal colour before...

NaMoPaiMo Options

January has pretty much just started and I have been working on quite a bit of prepping as every day that passes takes us one step closer to NaMoPaiMo! I plan on entering this year as well but I haven't yet been able to decide on what model to paint. I have quite a few to choose from and having many options makes it harder to decide!

Should I choose another big model this year, in a similar colour to see how much I have improved since last time?

RC Maximum Velocity. I am thinking chestnut for her colour, with a flaxen mane and tail.

Do I challenge myself by painting a blanket appy, which I have never done before?

RC Santa Maria. I am thinking of painting her a bay blanket.

Do I paint a smaller horse to actually have a chance at finishing?

Safari Toob ponies (to be grey and ?), Safari Mini Horse (to be bay, bay roan or bay splash), RC First Draft (to be bay sabino), Safari Toob ponies (to be ?).

Do I challenge myself to paint an entire family?

Soutland Replicas Horses to be bay splash, bay and bay splash.

Do I paint a newer mold or a fantasy model, which I have never done?

Unicorn Alby (to be ?), Alby (to be bay splash? or grullo?), Magnolia Unicorn (to be ?) and Magnolia (to be
bay/chestnut/black rabicano)

Do I choose to paint a Fjord horse dun, that I've been to scared to try my hands at for a long time? Or do I paint the smallest model in my entire collection?

RC Mara (to be red dun) and Mini (to be bay)

Do I paint some decorator unicorns, as I have never, ever made a decorator before?

Drafter Unicorn (to be decorator?) and Arabian Unicorn (to be decorator?)

Too many options leads to hard decisions. Maybe it comes down to who will be prepped and primed in time. Oh well, fortunately I have a few more weeks to decide!

New family members

A few days after Christmas my boyfriend and I got to bring our new family members home. These two cuties (and their brother) were born to a half wild mother who moved in to my mother's stable. Mommy cat hid the kittens and we weren't able to capture them until they were around 6-7 weeks old. Then we moved them inside an office where they got to stay while my mother tried to tame them.

They did become quite tame and me and my boyfriend decided to bring two of them home (when they were old enough) as my mother couldn't keep all three of the kittens and Mommy cat as she already has another cat, 2 horses and 2 dogs. 

When I write this, the kittens have only lived with us for 3 days so they are a bit shy still and we don't know each other that well yet.

The first of the two siblings that we brought home was Sigrid, the only female of the litter and the smallest of the three. So far she is quite sociable and like to cuddle and play. She is getting braver and braver, exploring the apartment.

Sigrid

The other kitten, Sigrid's brother, Sven is quite a bit more shy than his sister. He likes to play and cuddle but as soon as we start to move around in the apartment he usually hides out in one of his safeplaces. We hope (and think) that this will get better with time as they haven't been her for long.

Sven

We are very happy for this addition to our family and look forward to get to know these cuties better! I'm sure they will show up in pictures every now and then 😊.

Christmas Pony

I didn't quite expect a model for Christmas this year but with some help from my boyfriend, my father got me a model for Christmas!

When Brigitte Eberl, earlier this year, announced a couple of new resins, one of them were a Fjord Horse. I love Fjord horses as we do have one in the family and he is very, very dear to me. So when I saw the resin I immediately fell in love with it and added it to my want list.

Yesterday, I got to open my Christmas gift and lo and behold I unwrapped the beautiful Ieronimo!

Brigitte Eberl is one of my favourites sculptors and I really, really like this Fjord!

I had another model in mind as a portrait for my family's dear Fjord gelding but when I saw this model I had to make a change of plans.

I think he is beautiful and he will fit to be a portrait of our Fjordhorse quite well!

There is a bit of prepping to do before he can be painted but that is okay, as I do not have the skills to paint his colour and I haven't really been out looking for a painter of his colour so that gives me some time to find one.

I'm so happy to have this guy in my collection! I almost cried when I opened him!

Plans 2019

For 2019 my goals are a little bit different than last year. Mostly in the sense that I've given myself less goals to focus on so that I might have a better chance of actually finishing all of them.

Picture from our trip to New Zealand last year.

- Paint at least 10 of my bodybox models.
I did not manage to finish more than 2 models last year but as my body shelf keeps getting fuller and fuller I want to keep this goal as I really would want to finish some of the projects models I have had for several years.

- Send at least 1 of my unpainted resins to be painted.
I like to paint models for myself but I don't consider myself very skilled and some models in my collection are deserving of better paintjobs than I can give them. So my goal is to send one of my resins to a painter.

- Paint at least 1 of my unpainted resins.
I do have a few resins that I would like to paint for myself so I'll keep this goal for this year.

- Finish my mini Hazel resin.
I have owned this model since October 2016 and started painting her June/July 2017. Since then she's been standing on a shelf and taken out every once in a while for another coat of paint. But a while ago I really started up and planned to finish her. Until I managed to drop her while painting and she lost a piece of an ear. I managed to fix the ear but put her back on the shelf as I didn't feel like finish her then. So for 2019 I plan for her to actually be finished.

- Keep blogging.
I did manage to keep my goal of blogging last year but as I hope to paint more models, I hopefully have more things to blog about, so my goal for 2019 is to write 6 blog posts a month.

Picture from our trip to New Zealand last year.