Blog Archives

Horse Manure

3/22/2024

I'd already taken down the entire set in the dining room, ready to move onto something new, when the idea of cleaning up after the horse came to me. I couldn't stop laughing at the idea, so I set up the entire set again.
Then I turned my attention to making some 'horse manure'. Now, the real thing is full of bits of undigested hay, since that's what they eat. So I took some of the debris from a bag of mini straw bales I had in storage, and started cutting it up into very fine bits.

Then I mixed the straw with potting soil and some water.

Jan pointed out that horse sh** is not like cow patties, but comes out in large balls. I tried adding some white glue to the mixture, and tried to form some horse pellets, but the stuff refused to stick together into balls, so I gave up, hoping no one would really know the difference. Or maybe the horse just trampled it when he was getting restless?

Anyways, there was plenty for Maya to clean up.....and the nice thing was...my homemade 'manure' didn't smell.

Faking a Cathedral

3/22/2024

The day after the movie studio photo shoot I realized that I should have shot more photos for an actual story involving the painting of Lawrence's portrait. I had been so focused on trying to create a magnificent portrait of Lawrence and his horse, that extra scenes had not even occurred to me, until the next day, and then it was too late.

A few days later I came down with Covid, and it took months to start feeling half decent again. As part of Long Covid, my anxiety levels were through the roof, and I couldn't face the stress of asking for a second photo shoot at the movie studio. Instead I thought I'd try fake it at home. I knew I could handle the actual set pieces, but wasn't too sure about the background. That Gothic Cathedral set was mighty impressive. But I was determined to try.

The most striking features of the cathedral background, other than the actual architecture, are the blue stained glass windows.

I considered painting them on foam core, or even making them out of painted paper like a real stained glass window. But both options sounded like way too much work. So I thought of making blue banners from cloth instead. They'd take less work, and last better than painted paper. So I printed out pictures of the actual stained glass windows, and went through all my blue cotton prints choosing all the ones that were the right colours. I wasn't going to try recreate the actual window designs, but just suggest them with the use of colour and texture.

I decided to make the 'window' banners like all my other pieced banners, using trapezoid shapes, so cut them all out, and started piecing them together.

I made two narrow banners, and two wider ones that even had the golden brown vertical stripes like the real windows.

Setting the Scene

I thought my dining room china cabinet would be the perfect background for my 'cathedral', with all the vertical moulding suggesting 'pillars'. But I didn't want the dolls inside to show, so taped black bristol-board inside the cabinet to hide everything inside. Then I taped up the banners.

I laid out the 'cathedral' flooring cloth, and started stacking the bookshelves for the raised throne area, and set up the scene using all the same prop and furniture pieces that I'd used at the movie studio.

I did use my styrofoam pillars and arch for some extra architectural interest, and I had to use the interior 'stone' castle walls to hide everything but the china cabinet. Then with everything in place, it was time to pose the dolls and shoot the rest of the story - the parts that led up to and followed the photos shot at the movie studio...

Telling the Story

I thought the new photos taken at home turned out quite well, although it took some effort to process them all so they'd have the same lighting as in the cathedral set. I hoped people would be too engrossed in the story to really notice (or care) that the photos were taken in two totally separate locations.

My only problem with the story was that Lawrence was in the exact same pose for the entire movie studio photo shoot. I wanted something different interjected in the movie studio photos with him interacting with his horse, but had never taken any photos like that. So I had to fake one. I went looking through the photos I'd taken last summer before I made the blue banners, and found a nice one of him looking at his horse. It seemed perfect, but it had the wrong background, so I spent some time in Photoshop replacing the background in the photo with the cathedral background by superimposing Lawrence and his horse on a blurred studio photo....

Original photo

Photo used for background

Edited Photo

I thought I did a half decent job, until I realized Lawrence wasn't holding his sword when he was posing for his portrait in the movie studio photos. He was supposed to be holding the orb. I considered cropping in close so we wouldn't see his sword...

It actually made for a rather nice photo, but then I realized that the fur collar of his robe was supposed to be open like in the movie studio photos. So, I found another old photo of Lawrence looking at his horse - while he was holding the orb this time - and the fur collar was open, so I tried again. I started by using the same cathedral photo I'd used the first time, but the top of a pillar ended up flaring straight out of the top of Lawrence's head, creating a major tension point, so I had to start all over again with another background photo. That one turned out perfect!

Behind the Scene

3/21/2024

The Royal portrait story had been in the works for some time. It all started when I saw a painting online of King Theodan in LOTR like he was standing for a portrait with his horse.
It was called King of the Golden Hall, by Magdalena Katanska.

I wanted to try and recreate something similar with Lawrence and his horse to mark the tenth anniversary of his reign. I wanted to shoot it at our son's movie studio, and also planned on including the artist, working on painting the portrait.

So, last summer I started by making the armour for his horse...

Then I added fur around the bottom edge of Lawrence's royal robes, and took photos of him with his horse like they were posing for the painting...

It took me a few days to do the painting ...

...and with the movie studio photo shoot coming up in the end of November, I practiced the set up at home on the dining room table...

When we arrived at the movie studio, I proceeded to set up the scene. My sister had asked to come come along, and took some photos as well...

Lawrence looked magnificent...

Then I set up Narin and his easel....

Then it was time to light the candles...

...and Lawrence and his horse were ready to have their portrait painted.
I was basically shooting forced perspective against the movie background

My sister took some photos as well...

Each time I was finished photographing a pose, all the candles would get blown out, only to be lit again for the next scene.

The set was on a moveable riser, which would need to be rotated to photograph Narin and Monica from the side or front...

When I was done, I took everything down, and set up the scene with the Christening of Baron and Naomi's twins...

the Clean Up

3/20/2024

The royal steed was back in the stable, the King and Queen had left, and Narin had removed the painting and all his supplies. Then it was time for the stable hand to come and clean up after the horse.

"That is one BIG pile of SH**."

"What have they been feeding him?"

So he started shovelling...

He filled up the pails, and then started loading the cart....

He was thankful that they'd laid down a large blanket for the horse to stand on, as it had helped keep most of the mess contained....

He was finally done...

...and wheeled the mess away....

Then he had to sweep up the remaining bits of straw...

...and scrub the floor....

"Who ever thought," he muttered to himself, "that having a horse standing for hours in the throne room was a good idea?"

the King's Reaction

3/19/2024

One of the grooms came to take the horse back to the stable, and Lawrence went to look at the painting. He was curious to see what Narin had done...

Narin was a bit nervous about what his boss' reaction would be.

Lawrence looked at the painting...."Hmmm...."

"Keep in mind, your Majesty, that I was primarily focussed on capturing the royal robes, so you wouldn't need to pose in them again."

"Well, that's a relief," quipped Lawrence as he took them off...

Lawrence stared at the painting, but didn't quite know what to say.

"I know it doesn't look exactly like you yet, dear."

"No, it doesn't."

"It wasn't meant to just yet." added Narin. "I wanted the robes to be perfect so your Majesty wouldn't need to pose in them again, so that's what I was working on today. That, and the royal steed."

"I will finish your likeness later, on another day, privately at your convenience in your office."

"That sounds like a great idea."

"The robes do look really good."

"Yes, they do."

"So, if Narin does as good job on your likeness dear, it will be one magnificent painting."

"I hope so."

Checking In

3/18/2024

Lawrence had been standing, posing for his portrait for what felt like hours....

Monica came in to check on Narin's progress....

She kept looking at her husband, who she thought looked absolutely magnificent.
"How is it going?"

"Fine, my Lady. I'm quite happy with how the painting is coming along."

"I know His Majesty is too busy to pose like this a second time..."

"So I've been focusing on capturing all the details of his regalia first. I'll address his actual likeness later."

"Well, it looks like you've been doing an excellent job so far."

Lawrence interrupted the two of them....

"My horse is getting very restless. He's had enough with standing here."

"it's time to stop."

"Very well Sire. Time to call it quits for today."

Painting the King's Portrait

3/17/2024

Narin did a quick sketch and started painting.

He'd never done a royal portrait before...

Narin was highly educated, but also had a love of art, so had studied under the best artists of the day. However he found there wasn't much money in being a painter, so he found a position as the King's secretary instead.

But he was still a very skilled artist, and was feeling reasonably confident that he could do the King's portrait justice.

He started with a quick likeness of the royal robes....

Narin knew better than anyone how busy the King was...

So the goal was to start by capturing the details of the royal robes ....

...and that of the horse's armour...

....and then he could finish the King's likeness and the background later, at another time.

the King's Horse

3/16/2024

Narin went to fetch Lawrence's horse...

"His groom has fed and watered him..."

"..so he should be good for a while."

"Hopefully he won't get too restless before I can capture his likeness."

And then Lawrence and his horse were finally ready for their portrait..

the Crown

3/15/2024

Lawrence was almost ready for his portrait. "You still need your crown, my love."

"Not that one. I'd rather be immortalized in something less ostentatious."

Monica wasn't going to argue. It was enough that her husband was even going to pose for a portrait, so she passed the crown of state to Narin to place on the throne. There it would be in the background, but at least still in the painting.