mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-02-24 07:58 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-02-24 07:58 pm
NaMoPaiMo horse updates for the week!
Today was a 10.5 hour day at work so we could do a center meeting, so I am tired!
But the tiny plastic horse has color! Pics of each days' progress under the cuts, plus details about the colors and such. That's more for me than anyone else, so I remember what I did, ha.
(Sorry for the dog hair, lol.)
I used three blues. One is just a basic metallic blue, one was the metallic blue mixed with carbon black to get a darker tone, and the third is the basic blue mixed with "sapphire" to get a slightly lighter shade.
Initially I'd been wanting a really deep cobalt blue, but the store we went to was out of it in the metallic finish, and I want my peacock to be obnoxiously shiny. I'm not unhappy with these - I think the darker color would have been nice for one of the shades, but also could have wound up TOO dark.
Again, I picked three colors. I feel like three is the easiest minimum to get a somewhat random effect with. Originally, I'd planned on a yellowish-green (called "festive green"), copper, and a color-shift copper-gold-green.
Then I discovered the copper-gold-green color shift is a *topcoat* not a paint, so it's actually a clear glaze. My fault for not reading carefully enough! It'll look very cool on something, just not this!
And taking a look at the copper, it looked way too bright and intense, and next to the green looked way too... Christmassy.
SO, last minute change of plans! "Festive green", gold, and then a mix of the copper and the green, which made a much more subdued shade of copper.
I was worried about this section and my color selection. The stripey black and tan of real peafowls' wings doesn't tend to be what people think of as characteristic or notable about them, to the point that I came across quite a bit of art that recolored them entirely. Not to be too punny, but I decided to wing it, and go for stuff that was still pretty bright, but would provide a nice contrast against the cool tones of the rest of it without being glaring. I wound up pretty happy with how the colors worked together!
The fun, most-distinctively peacock part in many of my favorite colors!
For this I mixed up a bunch of colors, but wound up only using a few of them.
The ones I *did* use were: a metallic gold-green color-shift (though the gold shift is pretty subtle), that same color mixed with the "festive green" to make a slightly brighter shade, and then that same green mixed with a small bit of the metallic blue to get a more teal shade.
The eyes of the feathers are a darker gold, the metallic blue, and a metallic "aquamarine."
I'm pretty happy with the feathers, and how the colors look. I tried out several simplified eye designs based on the various stained glass I found images of, and liked this the best for capturing the right colors and shapes without losing the mosaic look.
After finishing the feather designs I'd already painted outlines for, I added a couple more to go farther down the leg. I kinda free-handed it, so one wound up a bit bigger, but as it wraps around, I don't think that's too obvious.
After that, I did a white coat over the tail. As that has been my main "handle" while painting, the primer layer had worn off of most of it. (And since it was also my handle while priming, it was where the priming layer was the weakest anyway.) I just used white paint for this - gesso may have been better, but we don't have any. (We both thought we did... either it's been misplaced, or it got weird and we threw it out.) This is so far the only "nicer" paint I've used - Liquitex, though the "basics" line. Everything else has been a mix of brands of cheap craft paint.
I let the white dry a bit, then penciled in some more feathers. The pencil mostly scratched the still uncured paint off rather than marking on it, but that's fine. It was also a lot more challenging because of the texture of the tail! I tried to work with it where I could. I'd wavered slightly on whether I wanted to do feathers for the tail. My original plan was yes - I picked this horse mold specifically for my peacock design idea *because* of his swoopy tail, which I hoped would suit the peacock train. Then I was consumed with regret because of the difficulty with the texture and the fiddly bits.
But looking at it, peacock tails are pretty well their defining feature, and so I think it definitely needs MORE of that.
I went over and lined the feather segments (just in black this time; I was too lazy to mix up the black-pewter combo, because I'm going to have to go over them again anyway.)
Unfortunately, by this point it was 1:15 in the morning, and I had extra-long work today. I'm trying my luck with keeping the paints I'd mixed up on the palette in a ziplock with a wet paper towel to see if I can still use them... otherwise I'll have to re-mix and hope I can get close to the same colors as the rest of the tail. I think it'll be okay either way. The combos weren't wildly complex, ha.
Still to-do:
- finish the peacock feathers in the tail
- paint the mane and the parts of the tail that aren't feathers. With my previous stained-glass inspired pony, I did the mane and tail in the pewter-black color that I used to outline the "glass" pieces. This time that remains my plan for the mane, and I'm deciding on the tail. Because the tail HAS been incorporated into the design this time, I'm not sure if I want to do the non-feather parts in the lead color, or the darker "negative space" black for more contrast.
- face details. The mask will be black and white, and the eyes gold. The beak will probably be a tan color. I think I'll do a bit of blue on the ear as the "crest" that peacocks have.
* maaaaybe do a sealant layer after this. I don't want to risk doing something to mess up the work I've done, and having a layer of sealant to protect it might be helpful. Then again... curing time.
- go back over aaaaaall the tiny little outlines in the lead color, because those have pretty obviously worn away/lost definition.
- paint the rest of the body that isn't part of the peacock design as dark and matte a black as I can, to try and make the design part stand out more. (Probably last, since I have to hold the legs to do the rest.)
- gloss the "glass" parts of the design.
Phew. Still quite a lot to do to try and be done by the end of the month! Though if I can do one listed thing per day, that will get me there... though I'm hoping to be done EARLY, if I can get multiple sections done per day over my weekend. (Though it is also very possible I won't get to anything tonight. Late at work, plus haven't slept more than a couple hours for the last few nights.)
Things like the gloss are semi-optional - it's a bit out of the spirit of the thing to work on it after the month is over, but the project will still be "done" without it, and it won't morally destroy me to do that kind of thing after the fact.
But the tiny plastic horse has color! Pics of each days' progress under the cuts, plus details about the colors and such. That's more for me than anyone else, so I remember what I did, ha.
(Sorry for the dog hair, lol.)
I used three blues. One is just a basic metallic blue, one was the metallic blue mixed with carbon black to get a darker tone, and the third is the basic blue mixed with "sapphire" to get a slightly lighter shade.
Initially I'd been wanting a really deep cobalt blue, but the store we went to was out of it in the metallic finish, and I want my peacock to be obnoxiously shiny. I'm not unhappy with these - I think the darker color would have been nice for one of the shades, but also could have wound up TOO dark.
Again, I picked three colors. I feel like three is the easiest minimum to get a somewhat random effect with. Originally, I'd planned on a yellowish-green (called "festive green"), copper, and a color-shift copper-gold-green.
Then I discovered the copper-gold-green color shift is a *topcoat* not a paint, so it's actually a clear glaze. My fault for not reading carefully enough! It'll look very cool on something, just not this!
And taking a look at the copper, it looked way too bright and intense, and next to the green looked way too... Christmassy.
SO, last minute change of plans! "Festive green", gold, and then a mix of the copper and the green, which made a much more subdued shade of copper.
I was worried about this section and my color selection. The stripey black and tan of real peafowls' wings doesn't tend to be what people think of as characteristic or notable about them, to the point that I came across quite a bit of art that recolored them entirely. Not to be too punny, but I decided to wing it, and go for stuff that was still pretty bright, but would provide a nice contrast against the cool tones of the rest of it without being glaring. I wound up pretty happy with how the colors worked together!
The fun, most-distinctively peacock part in many of my favorite colors!
For this I mixed up a bunch of colors, but wound up only using a few of them.
The ones I *did* use were: a metallic gold-green color-shift (though the gold shift is pretty subtle), that same color mixed with the "festive green" to make a slightly brighter shade, and then that same green mixed with a small bit of the metallic blue to get a more teal shade.
The eyes of the feathers are a darker gold, the metallic blue, and a metallic "aquamarine."
I'm pretty happy with the feathers, and how the colors look. I tried out several simplified eye designs based on the various stained glass I found images of, and liked this the best for capturing the right colors and shapes without losing the mosaic look.
After finishing the feather designs I'd already painted outlines for, I added a couple more to go farther down the leg. I kinda free-handed it, so one wound up a bit bigger, but as it wraps around, I don't think that's too obvious.
After that, I did a white coat over the tail. As that has been my main "handle" while painting, the primer layer had worn off of most of it. (And since it was also my handle while priming, it was where the priming layer was the weakest anyway.) I just used white paint for this - gesso may have been better, but we don't have any. (We both thought we did... either it's been misplaced, or it got weird and we threw it out.) This is so far the only "nicer" paint I've used - Liquitex, though the "basics" line. Everything else has been a mix of brands of cheap craft paint.
I let the white dry a bit, then penciled in some more feathers. The pencil mostly scratched the still uncured paint off rather than marking on it, but that's fine. It was also a lot more challenging because of the texture of the tail! I tried to work with it where I could. I'd wavered slightly on whether I wanted to do feathers for the tail. My original plan was yes - I picked this horse mold specifically for my peacock design idea *because* of his swoopy tail, which I hoped would suit the peacock train. Then I was consumed with regret because of the difficulty with the texture and the fiddly bits.
But looking at it, peacock tails are pretty well their defining feature, and so I think it definitely needs MORE of that.
I went over and lined the feather segments (just in black this time; I was too lazy to mix up the black-pewter combo, because I'm going to have to go over them again anyway.)
Unfortunately, by this point it was 1:15 in the morning, and I had extra-long work today. I'm trying my luck with keeping the paints I'd mixed up on the palette in a ziplock with a wet paper towel to see if I can still use them... otherwise I'll have to re-mix and hope I can get close to the same colors as the rest of the tail. I think it'll be okay either way. The combos weren't wildly complex, ha.
Still to-do:
- finish the peacock feathers in the tail
- paint the mane and the parts of the tail that aren't feathers. With my previous stained-glass inspired pony, I did the mane and tail in the pewter-black color that I used to outline the "glass" pieces. This time that remains my plan for the mane, and I'm deciding on the tail. Because the tail HAS been incorporated into the design this time, I'm not sure if I want to do the non-feather parts in the lead color, or the darker "negative space" black for more contrast.
- face details. The mask will be black and white, and the eyes gold. The beak will probably be a tan color. I think I'll do a bit of blue on the ear as the "crest" that peacocks have.
* maaaaybe do a sealant layer after this. I don't want to risk doing something to mess up the work I've done, and having a layer of sealant to protect it might be helpful. Then again... curing time.
- go back over aaaaaall the tiny little outlines in the lead color, because those have pretty obviously worn away/lost definition.
- paint the rest of the body that isn't part of the peacock design as dark and matte a black as I can, to try and make the design part stand out more. (Probably last, since I have to hold the legs to do the rest.)
- gloss the "glass" parts of the design.
Phew. Still quite a lot to do to try and be done by the end of the month! Though if I can do one listed thing per day, that will get me there... though I'm hoping to be done EARLY, if I can get multiple sections done per day over my weekend. (Though it is also very possible I won't get to anything tonight. Late at work, plus haven't slept more than a couple hours for the last few nights.)
Things like the gloss are semi-optional - it's a bit out of the spirit of the thing to work on it after the month is over, but the project will still be "done" without it, and it won't morally destroy me to do that kind of thing after the fact.
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I feel you there, I love working with cool colors. Agreed, they're turning out fantastic here. So excited to see more process pics and how it turns out.
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