Wonderful Callahan...

I love this little guy...he is the wonderful little Callahan resin sculpted by the talented Adalee Hude of Brightly Hude Studio.

Today I began prepwork on him..he will be my first sales piece for 2012.

I searched a few months back for a reference photo to use and found one. A nice palomino sabino....but like I do 99% of the time I change my mind on colors. Last week I found a dark golden buckskin sabino photo that I think will work better.

Prepping on Callahan should not take very long as he is a nice clean cast.

I have GOT to work more on  my photography skills...with the wonderful help of two deal fellow artists I am working on background colors and matching the best background colors for horse colors. I am amazed at the difference changing a background color can make on the color of the painted model. For me photographing a grey horse is the most difficult...I'm going to look for a nice greyish-dark brown background and try that.

My camera is acting up too....sigh. It has been a good camera for an el-cheepo camera and has lived a long time :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Happy New Year!!!!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

New Years Resolutions....

I've been sadly lacking in my BLOG posts....I'd like to begin posting to my blog at least once a week and no less than once every two weeks....making this my New Years resolution :)

I'd like to included studio progress reports....I'm a bit apprehensive posting in progress photos as the projects I'm painting always look awful in the early stages...and they look like a complete mess for quite a while. I'm thinking tho that it might be good to show how a project I am working on gets from point "A" to point "B".

Wishing you all the very best New Year!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Plastic customs.....

I took some time Friday to photograph a few of the plastic items I had stored along with my stash of resins. Above is the Breyer Longhorn Bull I have that has been prepped. I don't have a reference photo picked out yet but I see him in a dark brown and spotted white pattern.

This wonderful Peter Stone "Spago" plastic is one of my favorites. Seeing him as an appaloosa sport horse...

This is another of my favorites...the Breyer Wintersong plastic. I have two of these which I'll be painting. I also have reference photos picked out in highly detailed roaned/spotted colors....

Above is the Breyer Cow and Calf....I've always wanted to paint a cow and calf.....searching for reference photos for this project...

The above is the Breyer Succession plastic...I want to customize this model somehow...change her around a bit. No doubt she will be a rose dappled grey.....

I also have a Peter Stone Arab, two Breyer Nokota plastics, and a customized Breyer Bouncer, a Breyer Lonesome Glory I'd like to customize and paint into an Akhal Teke.... and several more items waiting in the wings.

My New Years Resolution : Post to my blog more often .....I've been sadly lacking in posts here and feel the need to post at least once a week or at least once every two weeks.

Wishing you all the very best in the New Year!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

I'm a resin hoarder....

This last weekend I discovered that I am a resin hoarder...lol looked that way to me when I unpacked all of the resins I had accumulated over the past...oh 8 years.....
There was only one I did not remember purchasing..Jethro...see below:

My goodness he is impressive in person! Very large traditional size...I'm seeing him in bay with nice white markings.

I had a realization this past weekend....I knew it and had thought it myself. My Charlie looked at me and said "you know I think it is time for you to start painting those resins you have stashed away while you can still see to do so".

So Monday AM I unpacked the five boxes I have of unpainted resins. I took photos and tagged them...my goodness I had thought I had tagged these guys! I have my prepped plastics all out on the shelves....have to get photos of those as well.

My goodness it will be difficult to choose colors for some of these...so many options...some of them I had already picked out reference photos years ago to paint by.

I imagine there will be a few I will end up not sending to the auction block. These will go into my "private collection" folder on my web page where if I get an offer I can not live without then out the door it will go.

Years ago when I was not painting full time and had a job I purchased resins whenever I could. and put them away. I still have a very difficult time calling what I do (painting for a living) a "hobby"....especially when I visit my tax man and have to write that check for my income tax. IMO what I do is a job and a business. I have income and deductions, overhead, shipping, customers...all that good stuff. Does the fact that I'm painting 3-D rather than flat work make my job a "hobby"? I just don't understand....that is another subject for another day.

Here is the link to the rest of the blank resin/plastic photos if you would like to see:

http://csrichmondstudios.webs.com/apps/photos/

Click on the "items to be painted and sold" album there in the gallery.

My commission books are closed. I'll be finishing up my in studio commissions during 2012 and completing a few sales items as well.

There may be one or two resins I just won't be able to say no to painting if asked....however I must draw the line somewhere in order to get my stash painted within the next 10 years ...ha ha! Seriously it will be a challenge to get them all completed.....

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios