The Pegasus Project Part I

After years of battling through studio backlog orders, I'm finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yayhhh!!!! This comes as a tremendous relief, as I hate for my customers to have to wait forever for something to get done. So I'm really glad that I'm finally getting almost caught up with older projects. My books were permanently closed after I buried myself with painting and customizing orders two years ago. At that time I didn't realize how time consuming some of the projects would actually be. But I've grown in leaps and bounds on sculpting equine biomechanics and trying out new painting techniques with those older pieces - so it has been a great learning experience. This brings me to my next exciting new project....

Very rarely, (and I do mean seriously rarely) do I get to work on something for myself. Since the backlog is starting to get cleaned up and out of the way, I thought it would be really great to work on something to go into my own collection for a change. Greek mythology has always been a great inspiration, and the immortal flying horse pegasus is a subject that I've wanted to tackle for a very long time. Of course, this great steed will have my own personal spin and style amended to him.

I love both the new and old versions of the Clash Of The Titans, and I think it's really interesting to see the different breeds of horses that they have cast as a pegasus. I do very much love the black friesian in the new movie! That is very cool. Changing the color and type of the horse is great. Friesians are a very romantic breed. But of course there is only one type of horse that could ever be a true heavenly pegasus in my eyes - and that is an Akhal Teke. Being a self-proclaimed hoarder of Akhal Teke models, I can't help but add a winged one to my stash. This is going to be an especially challenging project, but oh so much fun to try out!
Above is an ancient greek vase depicting Belleraphon astride pegasus slaying the chimera. There is some great literature and different depictions of the story of pegasus on this site: http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HipposPegasos.html


And above is the guinea pig that I've picked for this project - a Breyer Naranda national show horse mold. She will be mostly unrecognizable when completed. The disassembling of this poor girl will be broken down into different step by step parts for viewing. The end product will be a mighty flying Akhal Teke stallion with a golden bridle. I'm totally stoked for this project! Can't wait to begin...

On another note: In the past, a few people have asked me what it is exactly that I do with model horses. This project will be a tutorial look at the customizing process a model goes through in my studio. Maybe then, they will understand a bit more about the luney weird projects that I work on. =:)

Let the funky pegasus games begin!

-Shannon.