Karen Beeson: PF Phantastisch

Who is that fellow in the photo above?

Meet PF Phantastisch!

The finishwork on this horse, Brigitte Eberl’s “Lancelot” sculpture, was commissioned by Erin Schaefer of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Most of my pieces are “experimental.” What does that mean? I seldom paint the same shade twice, and I’m always trying new, different, or additional media, making every piece a new adventure. I tend to think of myself as an oils artist, as that is where I started, but this particular piece includes no oil paints at all. To achieve this coat color I built up thin layers of pastels, colored pencils, acrylics, charcoal and inks.

Here is a photo of PF Phantastisch while he was still in progress.

Progress Photo

At the point shown, I had not yet built up to the darkest tones in many areas. The detail in the lightest areas was still so very light that the camera recorded it as plain white.

PF Phantastisch attended one show with me in November, when he was close to being done. This show was part of the No Frills Live series, which, like the youth show in my last post, is hosted by the Great Lakes Congress. Don’t be fooled by the “No Frills” title; aside from offering reused (donated) ribbons and rosettes, these shows are very well-attended and well-organized, and usually attract participants from at least five states! I was extremely pleased that (even without his darkest of dark tones!), PF Phantastisch claimed the Overall Grand Championship in the artist resin division, with the Overall Reserve going to “Lily” a Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig “Elsie” sculpture that I painted too!

Lily and PF Phantastisch, both painted by Karen Beeson,
Reserve and Overall Grand Champion Artists Resins
at No Frills Live, November 12, 2012

I finally built up those tones to where I wanted them and added one final detail, shoes! Rio Rondo Enterprises offers some wonderful metal shoes in a few different sizes. Once you have the shoes in hand, you will need to use a dremel to deburr and polish the metal. The shoes can be easily bent to the exact shape of the hooves. Even on a single model, the hooves can be surprisingly variable in size and shape, so take care to fit each shoe to one specific hoof. You may need to dremel a bit of excess length from the shoes before applying them to the hooves. Affix the shoes with a super glue that dries clear (rather than one that dries frosty), paint the nail heads, and you are done!

Shod Hooves

The final step was photographing this fellow before he left for his new home. My camera is great for capturing a great deal of the color and detail in the close-up photos, but much more of the detail and subtle work is lost in the full body shots. Still, I'm pleased with his overall look, and will just have to hope that many viewers will get to see this horse in person while he is out at the shows with Erin. Here are two of those final studio photos: