Custom Breyer Horses- Chic and Mystic

As a Manassas artist, I dabble in all kinds of things to help keep me creative. Customizing Breyer model horses started out as a hobby, but I've found there's somewhat of a demand for it, and lucky me I am always happy to re-create that special equine friend on a Breyer model.

Meet Chic and Mystic. Chic is related to Smart Chic Olena, and I had a lot of fun recreating this gorgeous stallion. I will be doing another custom of him on the Olena mold, and I'll post when that's done!

To see what goes into my customs, please read one of my previous blog posts here: http://ofnaturedesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/2008/10/latest-breyer-creation.html

Latest Custom Breyer Creation

Meet "Easy".

Unfortunately, alot of my customs are in memory of a dear equine friend. I feel honored whenever I am asked to recreate someone's precious pal so they can have a lasting image of them.

Curious to know what goes into my custom breyers? I wrote a whole blog about it-- check it out: http://ofnaturedesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/2008/10/latest-breyer-creation.html

If you are interested in purchasing a custom painted Breyer horse to look just like YOUR horse, please visit my etsy site at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5290743&section_id=5273173

Latest Breyer Creation

Even though I am an artist in the northern VA area, I have had the priviledge of creating breyers for people all over the US.

This pretty grey gelding's name is Hundred. :-) I hope you like him! I think he's my favorite so far.

Portrait in Progress

When I do a portrait there are quite a few stages it goes through. I thought I'd go ahead and write about it, to help those who are not artists visualize the process.

Stages:

1. Preliminary drawing- I draw out the portrait on tracing paper first. It is much easier to erase on tracing paper than on canvas. Plus, any pencil will mix with your paint and grey it out.

2. Transfer to canvas. Notice how clean it looks.

3. Laying in basic colors, aka the "ugly stage". That painting will stay in this phase for a while before evolving into a recognizable piece of art.

4. Adding detail and form, background first.

5. Adding detail and form to the subject.

6. Adding the final touches to the subject.

7. After it's fully dry-- varnish it!

Custom Breyer 2 Arabians

I had the priveledge of creating 2 custom breyers for a client, and I really like they way they came out. The bay mare unfortunately, died due to the stress of the CA fires in 2007. I was just happy that I could create a lasting 3-d memory of her for the owner that cherished her.

Man, That Horse is Ugly!

Here is my newest breyer custom in progress-- the family arabian stallion mold. I will be updating pictures as he now turned she comes along! This is a picture of what the mold kinda looked like before I started re-sculpting it and sanding it down. The model I had was in less-than mint condition with lots of scuffs, and an ear chip.
I took off his tail, took off his stallion parts, gave him--now her-- anatomically correct mare parts, re-sculpted the tail to make it look more arabian like, added more to the mane to make it more flowing, sanded all the seams and removed the logo, carved out the ears, gave her a new ear, carved out the nostrils, and carved out the hooves. I also bent the front leg more.
You can see she looks really ugly right now, but I see potential in her silhouette.

My Newest Hobby-- Custom Breyer Horses

So I have always loved and collected breyer model horses, but my latest hobby has been repainting them and trying my hand at customization. I have my latest model for sale on ebay, and so far it's gotten almost 300 views and alot of attention from people interested in having models repainted to look like their horse. I would love to be able to do this more often and do well at it...