For most of us, the International Model Horse Painting Party started and ended in February. Not so for New Zealand hobbyist, Emily Heckler. Her models - her very tiny models - didn't arrive until the end of March. Thankfully, she didn't let that stop her. Here's the story of her Painting Party experience. Spoiler alert: It involves a lot of waiting!
Painting Super Tiny Ponies
by Emily Heckler
There are a lot of very talented painters in the model horse world, and I’ll be the first to say I’m not one of them. I don’t have the patience to build up layers upon layers of paint or pastels, and I give up far too quickly when things aren’t going my way.
My goal for this year’s international model horse painting party was not to paint the best horse I could but to paint the smallest.
I ordered an array of little models and then I waited.
And waited.
I helped Alex and Kitty get their painting space ready.
I complained about the speed of international shipping.
And I waited.
I watched my models tiki tour the world on a ship.
And I waited.
February came and went without a sign of my ponies, I was a little disheartened to say the least.
Finally on the 31st of March I arrived home to a yellow bubble mailer, filled with the tiniest of tiny ponies. I will admit they are a touch smaller than I was expecting. That’s a regular mini whinnie your looking at folks.
Their size quickly presented some issues when it came to prepping. A number of them had legs of wildly different lengths, only a few had ears and some were missing other body parts. I slowly picked through them finding ones that could stand and seemed to be complete
It’s a little bit of a challenge when your prepping tools are bigger than your ponies.
Holding the ponies also proved a challenge, I decided the best way to go about it was using a small clamp.
This worked well in theory, but every once in a while they would pop out of the grips of the clamp and fly into the abyss of buckles and perfectly skived leather pieces. This one landed in the lid of my paint, which while wasn’t as annoying as disappearing entirely it was still very frustrating.
What is it they say about looking at your work from a distance?
I think the hardest part of the process is photographing the darn things, my camera doesn't want to focus on them.
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Credit where credit is due, those are some teeny tiny ponies to prep and paint so my hat is off to the artist. I still haven't worked up the nerve to attempt to paint any model, especially the micro Copperfox and Stones I have! Also, to make photographing them easier make friends with someone who owns a good dslr and macro lens. It's an expensive thing to go out and buy just for this but most people know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who owns the kit. Maybe look for a local entomology group as macro lenses are particularly good for bug photography. They'd also be able to help you learn how macro lenses work, as they can be quite tricky to master. Bug people tend to be the best at it as they have to learn to be fast! Kudos! AJG
ReplyDeleteThose are so tiny!!! I couldn’t even imagine painting them!
ReplyDeleteDo you have any idea where I could get some???
ReplyDelete