purse

[Mike]

I just added more color to the horse in an attempt to finish this purse. Since I began this, I have more documentation on horses and would carve it differently the next go-around. As it is, I have to try to color it as carved and have had difficulty with it.

Today I tried to add shadows and roundness (body) to the horse. I also touched up some shading amongst the leaves. I do not know if I will color the border ring or just use Hi-lighter, Tan-Kote or some other finish to it.

I welcome all suggestions. I need to finish this thing, it's haunting me.

(No, I couln't resist a Halloween pun.)

Mike

[Mike Craw]

Even though I seldom take my own advice, I'd say don't fix it if it ain't broke! Looks good to me...ship it! In your own words, you've already learned something about what you would do differently next time, you are the only one who can see anything really wrong with this one, and if you do much more you'll screw this one up. Guess how I know that...?

Mike

[Mike]

Yeah, I know. I just added medium brown around the perimeter. Man, I have got to learn how to airbrush. Trying to get a smooth color over large uncovered areas is beyond me. I seem to work best in tight corners.

Mike

[The Major]

Mike,

That is really beautiful. I'd leave it alone. Nice job.

[Leather Bum]

Yeah, I think you did an excellent job on those oak leaves -- both the tooling and coloring. What pear-shader/thumbprint did you use anyway?

Wow, did you hand-dye all the beveling on the outside of the leaves around the standing horse?

Very nice. . .

L'Bum

[shirleyz]

I don't what you're looking at, but from what I can see, it's lovely. Great Job!!!!!!

ShirleyZ

[Matara]

stupendous!

[Pip]

it looks great to me, those leaves are awesome bud, congrats...

[Mike]

The purse is completed. I took a picture but the film is still in the camera. Maybe I'll get a digital for Christmas :biggrin:

I went over the outer edge in medium brown. I had some very strong 1/8" dark brown lacing the matches the interior. The interior is a dark brown pigskin liner. No hardware is seen on the inside. (Made that boo-boo once and that was enough to teach me the lesson!)

I used a textured pear shader. I also used directional lined bevelers along the veins of the leaves.

All color is hand brushed. I am not real experienced in painting and so I tried real hard on this one. Peter Main give me some tips after I showed it to him in the early stages of it.

The color around the horse is not natural leather. I made a mistake and the background was too dark. (Or the horse was). I needed to get better contrast between the horse and the background. So...... I used acrylics and mixed a batch that was real close to the color of the leather and applied it around the horses. Not the best way but I never claimed to be an expert. I left the border line natural.

For some reason I can color leaves a lot better that figures. Although I think I did well on the bass (another carving), the horse is just plain hard for me to color properly. I have purchased a couple of anatomy books that may help me the next time I do something like this.

Thanks for all the kind words.

Edited November 24, 2007 by Mike

[Sjm1027]

That is absolutely beautiful... Very nice job....

Steve