Monday, February 27, 2012

"Royal Poet" is now sold....

Just a short note...little "Royal Poet" has found a home....he is sold.

Thank you everyone for the kind emails and compliments on this project!

Back to the work bench and wet paint now....

Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Don't mess with what isn't broken...

This is one of my all time favorite photos I took at Breyerfest in 2009...I love the colors here...black velvet and Friesian colors! This costume if fantastic yes?
 I have a couple of mini Friesian resins to paint here in the studio....gorgeous Friesian dark red/brown/black colors...wonderful!

Well, sadly my sales item "Royal Poet" didn't meet his reserve bid....sooooo I'm back to offering sales items via my web page at a set price.....offering sales via my web page gives customers the opportunity to make time payments...time payments are not an option via Ebay sales since PayPal via Ebay won't allow partial payments.

My next sales item should be a wonderful "Mr. Shadow" TB race horse resin sculpted by the talented Nicole Hatch. I'm painting Mr. Shadow to a warm dappled grey using a race horse reference photo I've had on hand for a while.

Also on the sales horizon is a "Vega" resin...sculpted by the gifted Mindy Berg. "Vega" will be a dappled grey as well.

In the shipping department...Saturday was outgoing shipment day for 5 completed commissions....time for some serious prepping days now!

Have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Mad to the bone...

I've been working on an Annihilator for a long while now...the guy pictured below has lots of details to be added...layer by layer and hair by hair. I've completed the first layer of details...well actually there is a dark detail layer under the light detail layer which is on the neck and face area...  now I'm moving on to the second layer...or I should say the third layer. The brightness of the first layer will be somewhat muted after the second layer of details has been applied. My last and final layer of hair detail will be the lightest in color.

I'm still not comfortable with the pattern around the withers...I may alter that soon....that area is really bugging me!

Later I'll add more white patches on the neck....I'm working from a reference photo which shows lots of ticking and small white patches and lighter areas on the neck....







He would be along the lines of the Sugarbush drafters in color....this guy is a commissioned item.

I used oils for the base colors and now I'm applying acrylic hair detail over the oils.

Off to paint now! Have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"Royal Poet" (Callahan) auction live....




"Royal Poet"
Ebay auction link:




Here he is....notice the new background fabric...now here is a photo taken with the plain grey background (top) and the brown/peach/grey background (bottom)...to my eyes the photo taken with the brown/peach/grey background is much easier on the eyes...seems to warm the color of the sculpture up just a tad. What do you all think?


Have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

"Royal Poet" auction goes live 2.21.2012

Little "Callahan" resin...."Royal Poet" Ebay auction going live tonight 2.21.2012 at around 10:30 PM PST. He will run for a 5 day auction.

I figured out how to add the photos right into the auction without so that auction lookers would not have to click on the photo section of the auction...the photos are extra large too....I wondered how other artists were adding the photos right to their auctions. I was about to email another artists when I saw the little HTML tab there in the edit section. To my eyes having those photos...and lots of them...right there on the page really adds to the auction.

I had mentioned in a previous blog post that I had ordered some new backgrounds. For "Royal Poets" ad I chose to use a warm peach/brown/grey muslin background to go with his warm dappled grey color.

It has been a while since I've had an auction.....testing the waters :)

My husband and I traveled to a model horse show last weekend..the Sea 2 Bay model horse show....it had been since 2009 since I had been. It was a wonderful show...it was great to see friends again and to meet new ones! The model horses were gorgeous and the tables were full in 99% of the classes. The show hall was fantastic and very very nice! Everyone was so nice and it was a great time!

I completed the big Boreas resin. He sure is stunning in person!



Boreas did very well at the show..he won champion in the draft breed classes and champion in the draft breed workmanship classes.

The other little one that did well was miss "Daisy Chane" ..."Daisy Chane" is the collaboration project that Karla Zdoik of Kamansa Corner Studiosand I did last year. I had been tinkering around with a Breyer Balking Mule and I knew that I just did not have the sculpting ability to create all of the hair on miss "Daisy". So there the mule sat for a few years..I had managed to get the muzzle done and get her redone so that she sat on her haunches and a quirky tilt to her hed.... but that is about it. Finally I had looked at that mule long enough....I contacted Karla to see if she would work on the sculpting. Karla did a fantastic job on the hair...the flow and pattern of that hair is amazing and so real looking. Stunning!


Miss Daisy Chane won 1st in long ears breed ...champion in the CM long ears/exotics , mix half grade, and other pure breed classes...1st in workmanship and reserve champion in workmanship for the long ears mix half grade, and other pure breed classes.

I'll be posting "Royal Poets" auction link here and other places tomorrow morning....have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Winter with no winter...

Well I'm not sure where winter is but it sure has not been in my neck of the woods. This winter season has been fitting right into place with the crazy events of last year. It is only fitting that we have no snow and temps in the 60s for weeks on end.

We did feel a bit of old man winter a few days ago when the temps dipped into the mid twenties at night...and one squall of "thunder snow" last weekend. Snow in a thunderstorm...who would have thought there could be such a thing.


I took the above photo last summer..view is from my studio window which is at my back. The purple shrub in known as a "Butterfly Bush"...that is what we call them anyway. Appropriately named as the blooms are covered with butterflies all summer.
I don't think I've posted this photo here before....I post so many photos here and there it is difficult to remember where I've posted what :)

I've completed the photos of "Royal Poet"...the mini Callahan sculpted by the talented Adalee Hude. His paintwork is all nice and dry and his sealer has been applied...he is set! I have some new background photography material colors coming in and I'd like to experiment with the new colors to see how they do with warm dappled grey colors.

I'll be listing "Royal Poet" to Ebay sometime next week. It has been a while since I had a sales item...and I've been battling back and forth on where to list him. My Auction Barn or Ebay....Ebay or My Auction Barn. Ebay won out....

Stay tuned! More info on the "Royal Poet" sale soon!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Full steam....

I am a morning person.

I love waking at 4 or 5 AM and beginning my day early. I love to eat my breakfast while I read the online news, check emails, scout Facebook for more news and events, and the various model horse sales sites and forums.

I gave up coffee back before Christmas..cold turkey. Yep..sure did. Of course I switched to green and herbal teas ....there are so many glorious flavors of teas. Fruit flavors and spice flavors...and mixtures of fruit and spice.

The only time I miss coffee is when I smell it brewing....sigh.

Completed this afternoon is a nice Rose Reiner sculpted by the talented Sarah Rose.

Reiner is very impressive in person...and his face is full of personality.






I still need to take a few more photos of Reiners face...he still has wet paint so that will have to wait a few days.

Another wonderful sculpture just completed is a Sarah Minkiewicz Fandango resin. I love this little sculpture! I also had the honor to paint Fandangos match Kotillian....both wonderful sculptures..full of fire and personality.





And last but not least is the fantastic Boreas resin. Boreas is sculpted by the talented Karen Gerhardt and is almost completed...I only need to paint his eyes.



My sales item "Royal Poet" is completed...he is the little Callahan resin sculpted by the talented Adalee Hude. I only need to get his final photos so I can post those here and on my web page....and he is going to a show with me this month. He will go up for sale after the show so stay tuned!

Have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Working through the aftershocks...

I began prepping my next sales item Monday afternoon and I worked through about 7:30 PM....I heard a muffled shot gun like sound at about 6:30 PM and thought nothing of it since squirrel hunting season is still in ....altho it was a tad dark at that time.

 The next morning the news reported another aftershock of 3.2 centered near Mineral Virginia. There have been over 60 aftershocks now....and besides the big quake back in August 2011 this aftershock is the only one I've heard...no shaking just sound. The sound that the quake and the aftershock makes amazes me....the August quake made a sound like twenty heavy freight locomotives going down our road at once...amazing.

I'm sure that if I had not chosen the career path I took I would have went to school to study being a meteorologist...

Another crazy sound was after the hurricane went through here the trees were weakened by the 62 MPH constant winds and the heavy rain. About a week after the hurricane, on a warm calm night, we were awakened shortly after midnight by a loud popping echoing sound in the nearby woods down behind our house. Since our house windows were open we could hear the sound well.

If you have ever watched the nature shows on the sounds the icebergs or ice flows make ...the deep echoing cracking sound they make...you know the sound we heard. The sound went on for about 30 minutes...

There are houses behind us and apparently our neighbors in those woods were awakened my the sound as well....we saw flashlights moving around those houses. I'm sure that our neighbors were worried that a tree was going to fall into their homes.

Finally there was one last pop-echo and the tree crashed to the ground. No harm done except to the tree itself.



The photo above is of my next sales item, a Mr. Shadow resin by the talented Nicole Hatch, and a Lirico resin sculpted by the talented Sarah Minkiewicz.

Mr. Shadow will be painted to the same colors I used to paint the commissioned B. Eberl Kladruber. I have a TB race horse photo I used to paint the dappled grey colors onto the Kladruber and I'll be using the same race horse photo as my guide to paint Mr. Shadow. I will have to begin thinking of a title for Mr. Shadow...

On the commission front I've almost completed six commissions and my Callahan sales item is still waiting completion. Those six commissions will all be completed at about the same time...so I'm betting I will have a full day of taking/editing photos once those are done.


Time to paint! Have a wonderful day everyone!
Sandra Hottinger
C.S.Richmond Studios