riders in a storm

[Hennessy]

this scene was inspired by a story of two colo mtn guides. one was an editor,writer of now defunct magazine hoofs n horns the other his brother.they had camped a gaggle of dudes 20 miles in from the trail head in early june.at the end of their stay havin exited the dudes they went back to break down th camp n haul it out.warm days, in n out, no problem no need of jackets[wrong].on the return trip a freak summer snow storm[he called it a blizzard]15 miles to the truck.visibility 100 yards,freezing,his brother remember'd an article he wrote on blizzard survival,where cuttin up your long johns to cover your bareskin [hands face etc]they did so and he let his horse have his head and he got em thru.i made this as a gift to walt seay but i could never get snowflakes to show on snow,i'm ashamed to say this is 38 years ago now.the paints held eh,tandy cova i believe any how ,i believe i need to wash the surface with a coat of blue hues then snow via a toothbrush thumb flick,any suggestions gratefully received mucho gratias pete

[Kani]

Nice work. I like it.

[kiwidownunder]

Really great story. So glad you shared it with us all. I would suggest that rather then toothpaste brush splat on to your image I would use a very fine brush and add the snow flakes one at a time. Glance at a snow photo at the same time. Angle them on an angle to look like a blizzard. Oh yeah use diluted white rather then full strength. That way It looks like it is moving in the wind. Apart from that it looks great. Hope that helps you.

Kiwi.

Edited February 14, 2009 by kiwidownunder

[ClayB]

Hi Pete,

I mentioned the old doodle page that Al Stohlman did showing how he gave the illusion of snow. In this project, he made sure that where a snowflake was to go across the border of an animal or object, he ended his cut lines before the flake, and started again after it. He then beveled every individual snow flake so that it was raised above the surface of the leather. After all the dying was finished, he took a sharp knife and scuffed each spot where he wanted to put a snow flake. He said to make sure that you also put snow flakes on the edges of the bodies of animals, on edges of buildings, etc. If you skipped these area, it would make the scene appear unnatural. Then he took white cova dye and dabbed it on each of the scuffed areas. He said the process was very tedious but effective.

Jim Linnell pointed me to the Pictorial Carving Finnesse book that Al put out in 1980. In this book, Al changed the way he added snow flakes to a picture. He made the flakes appear to stand out by using drops of white glue. When the glue dried, it left a raised spot on the leather which he then colored with white Cova paint. He said this way was a lot less time consuming and gave a better look. There are several pages of instruction on how do rain and snow scenes in the book. If you dont have this book, and it's companion Figure Carving Finesse, you really should consider them. Al gives detailed instructions for doing all kinds of different scenery and animals and shares all the tips he developed over the years.

It's a neat story, and your attempt to capture it on leather turned out pretty good. I hope that you can add the snow flakes after all these years.