NaMoPaiMo showcase: Lisa Smalley

When she was younger, Lisa Smalley owned a wonderful Paint gelding named LA Wheeler Dealer.

Several years ago, she sculpted his likeness and cast him in resin.

Although she's shown a bay version of this model with great success, the official portrait piece didn't happen until this month. Look how great he turned out!

Lisa writes: I'm glad that I finally painted LA, and that I chose him for my NaMoPaiMo project. This model is particularly special to me, because it is my own sculpture of him and my first artist resin released. 

Because it's Tuesday, this particular showcase comes with a pair of mini tutorials. First, Lisa shows us how she masked LA's markings prior to airbrushing. She says: I drew the pattern onto masking tape and cut it out. 

Then, I masked the remaining areas with blue painter's tape before airbrushing acrylic paint.

Once the spots were painted, the tape was removed, edges cleaned up and details added. Lisa writes: I tried something different with the mapping this time. I lined the edges of the markings  with a diluted grey. Then I dabbed over the grey line with diluted white, following the direction of the hair growth. In this photo, you can see the original grey line on the right and the covered and defined line on the left.

Here is the finished marking.

Thank you and congratulations, Lisa. How satisfying it must be to have your own little LA Wheeler Dealer, completely made by you, in your collection. You are a winner!