Knightshade update and Sleets paw.

I have been working more on Knightshade when I've had chance between work and dogs etc...
I layered everything up on the body but still remaining quite loose at first. I started to refine a little in this one and also did a bit more work on the mane and a tad on the tail. The front legs had more detailed work on them along with the head.

Here you can see the serious detail starting to appear. Still a lot more work to do, especially on the backend, mane and tail. The furthest hind leg will be kicking some of that muck up so I need to paint that in also before I can finish the nearest hind leg.

It is finally starting to look more convincing anyway.

Back to dogs, Sleet was stitched up at the vets and is now home and as perky as ever. She's putting a bit more weight on the paw with the gash now and the other has a little fetching red bandage on it. She hasn't been on walks until today when I took her for a little stroll around the block because I worry about the stitched up gash getting covered in sludge etc...

I've taken the chance to be able to focus on Wren when I walk her and do some training and playing.

Sleets first flyball tournament.

Saturday was Sleets first flyball tournament at Markfield. Wren is in season so she had to stay at home. We got there before 8am after a drive down in heavy rain and blasting winds. Fortunately, it cleared up and turned into a bright and sunny day for the most part. Racing that morning didn't go too well. There was also another first timer on Sleets team. We didn't win any although the dogs were running ok but then Sleet suddenly decided to start spinning round at the box and try to get my sister who was box loading to play ball with her. She's never done that before...ever. The other first timer did the same thing also. With the noise and such in there, it was evident that the dogs got a little confused on occasion but they still got on with it and weren't phased by the noise so it's just a case of getting used to it. We changed boxloaders and neither Sleet or the other dog faltered again.
Inbetween racing, a few of us had a sneaky naughty go on the agility equipment that was set up there. Only a couple of minutes just to try it out. Sleet has never been anywhere near anything agility but she seemed to take to it pretty well...when she wasn't too busy watching the other dogs doing it. I used the clicker on the hayframe and seesaw as that always makes her feel like she's invincible and she didn't have an issue doing either. My sisters fingers started freezing up though so she didn't get any seesaw pics.

In the afternoon, we won all our races so that was three losses, three wins during the day. Our starters team also gained the fastest couple of times by starters for the day. We ended up coming 5th in our Div but it was a good experience for the dogs and us handlers and a fun day as well.

Below are a couple of videos of the afternoons racing. Quite close which makes it all the more exciting although I was concentrating that much on what I was doing, I didn't even know if we were winning or losing until I asked the others.:D Sleet is second dog in both videos.

That evening, I nipped sleet and Wren out to relieve themselves and, somehow, Sleet managed to acquire a deep hole in the top of one front paw and badly gash the pad on her outer toe on the other. She's back at the vets tomorrow to be stitched up and she's not even putting any weight at all on the gashed paw. Neither has she been for a walk since it happened. Boohoo!! I'm hoping she's healed sufficiently by the 31st because thats her next tournament which our team is hosting here in Rotherham. Wren is due to finish her season two days before then as well so I'm hoping at least one manages to make it...why can't things be more simple?

Knightshade - black stallion painting in progress.

This is my current painting in progress. I acquired the ref from another artist friend who took it herself. We did a swap with her having some photos from me that I took of Sleet and Wren which she wants to paint. I gave the horse a new background. In the photo, he was just playing in a field with green grass, and some sort of barn/shed behind him and trees. I've always wanted to do a painting like this where the shadowed side of the horse sort of blends into the shade although there will be some very faint blue highlights on that side just to give it a little extra life. The ground looks sort of blurry and manky in the photos. A lot of detail seems to be lost. It looks a lot better in the flesh.
In the first photo, I have painted in the background and I'm still working on the highlighted part of the ground. The horse has masking fluid around him to maintain the general outline.
I have done more work on the ground and now that I don't have to paint around the horse, I have removed the masking fluid.

Here, I have used a black watercolour pencil (WCP) I basically just coloured all the darker areas and then with a wet brush, wetted it all down and blended it out a little.

In this next one, I added some colours using WCP and some more black with coloured pencil (CP). I wetted the coloured WCP in and then I started on the acrylic. I added some black to some of the dark areas, faint white to the highlights although they will have more of a creamy tinge once done and some browns and ochres. I'll add more blues later. No focus on detail as of yet. Just messy underpainting.

More updates coming soon.

Snow? Never!!!

We actually got some here. Normally snow will deliberately take a special detour around where I live and dump itself on everywhere alse surrounding us. There wasn't much but I thought I'd get some photos anyway...mainly of Sleet and Wren. There wasn't enough snow for them to really take notice of it mind. Tyres being rolled down hills by a big kid and each other were much more interesting.

Happy new year!!!

Instead of going out and getting drunk like most people, I decided to go get some photos of the fireworks from our local playing field which is on a hill and so has a good view. It was a bit foggy and there weren't as many fireworks this year but I still managed a few good pics. It was absolutely freezing mind. I was glad to get back in the house afterwards.