Hucul project, finished now! And it's called Wilga! :-)

Hello friends!

I thought I would share some pictures of my recent project and photos during the work. It's horse (in fact pony) in scale 1:12. It represents Hucul pony, breed which is very close to my heart for several reasons. So first I will try to say few more words about the breed itself (with some help of Wikipedia)

The Hucul or Carpathian is a pony or small horse breed originally from the Carpathian Mountains. It has a heavy build and possesses great endurance and hardiness. The breed is also referred to as the Carpathian pony, Huculska, Hutsul, Huţul, Huţan or Huzul. The breed gets its name from the Hutsul people, who live mostly in the Carpathian's in Ukraine and in Romania, but also in an area in the East Carpathian Mountains north of the river Bistritz, officially named "Huzelei".

The Hucul bears some resemblance to the now-extinct Tarpan.
Hucul ponies are usually calm with a good disposition, and are used for both Hacking and pulling timber in otherwise inaccessible forested areas. They are usually bay, black or the grullo variation of dun, with a dorsal stripe and zebra stripes on the legs characteristic of the breed (wikipedia mention also chestnut but chestnut horses are not registered into stud book, the only exception is red dun). Their conformation traits include a short head with a relatively short neck, compact body, short legs, and sound feet. It's usually between 132 to 145 high at withers.

What I can add to this description from Wikipedia, horses of this breed are very smart, they learn quickly and usually hate to be bored. They love forest walking, have good memory and what I heard from several people-if rider lost it's way Hucul will always easily find the way home  I knew many horses of this breed, one of my best friends takes care of two mares, she teaches them tricks and they are incredibly fast learning. This breed is very popular in the area I grew up, mainly because it's perfect pony for ride in mountains.

What's interesting, there is a special discipline for these horses, called in Polish "Sciezka Huculska" what means Hucul's Path. It contains for example balance beam of few kinds, some cross style obstacles, and also kind of labyrinth, some very narrow paths etc.

Now I would like to show you some photos of them (what wikipedia offers in matter aren't the best examples IMO.)
Group of them living in Carpathian mountains :)
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Some photos from competition  (from website about the breed)
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Few Hucul stallions, these I think are really nice looking ponies :)
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I think this is one of lovely color
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And this one too
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And this is kind of obstacle I mentioned earlier in this post
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And this is my drawing, it shows scale and pose of the future model. Photos of the model itself in the next post

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The model was changed several times, I once thought it will never be finished but somehow it found its way to Finland, and...
the horse is now a Hucul mare, it is called Wilga and it is a collaborative project with Koni Miniatures and Dark Pegasus Studios and Horse and Bird.

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More photos and a story on a page number 5

That is going to be a fantastic figure, I love the sketch of the pose! Thanks for the description and history of the breed as well, very informative.

Ok, and the sculpture I'm working on. Many things aren't made yet as you can see, legs, hooves, tail and mane. Some things are yet asymmetrical (nostrils), I hope to change it. Anyway I thought I would share it at this stage if some of you want to see the progress (I hope progress) AND comments, and critics are very much welcome. I'm not in hurry, I can still change many things in it, I don't have any time schedule to finish it (in fact I sculpt it mainly for fun). Please horsey people, if you see some anatomy or proportion issues, tell me about it

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More photos to come in a minute

Philter4 wrote:

That is going to be a fantastic figure, I love the sketch of the pose!  Thanks for the description and history of the breed as well, very informative.

Thank you Phil!!! That's very nice words!  

And here are some more photos yet:


As you see the pose is quite static but I wanted to show some movement in mane and tail   
It's going to be stallion and scale is 1:12 (scale called Classic in Breyer) It's my first horse figure in this size.

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Something silly at the end, sorry, sometimes I play too much with my works  Say hello to pinky Elvis

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He's not going to stay like this of course  

Oh, and yet two mares: Wania and Wadera. My friend takes care of these two sweet ladies

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It looks amazing so far Anna! I got a kick out of that last photo with "Pinky Elvis" This is an interesting breed, I haven't heard of it before. The pose is great, it's standing but the mane and tail in that position give it a sort of majestic look. I enjoy watching the WIP photos, thank you for sharing!

Thank you for comments 4U I'm glad you find it interesting

Thank you Ana!   
Beautiful project, I always like to see your pictures on your achievement and progression, it encourages me to get into new distribution problems!

My antelope still not painted!   

I think a very interesting project Ana !

These are some beautiful pictures of the process for this incredible figure. I'm speechless.  

Congratulations !! 

Miguel

That is a fabulous, small horse, and your model surely does it justice  

Thankyou very much for all the info, and for sharing the progress of your work ! I jsut can't wait to see how it proceeds    

This is wonderful Anna, I love seeing the progress photos and thanks for information on the breed too, it's nice to have a bit of background knowledge of the pony.
Wow, it's going to be big then! This is super! Will you make a mould?
I love the sculpt so far, especially the back hind quarters, that is beautifully posed.
What are you sculpting him in? It looks interesting.

Thank you so much for your comments Jean Luc, Miguel, Susanne and Harriet        

Harriet I use Sculpey III, in light beige colour. I haven't tried Sculpey Firm yet, I think next time I will buy it to compare. I also use Super Sculpey in some works but this one is made of Sculpey III

And yes, I think I will ask my husband if he can do mould of this work for me when it's finished.  
Oh and size it's almost 12cm at shoulders. I will post some photos later compared with something, maybe Schleich figure or so.

This post is just amazing... First of all big YEEY! for hucul! I really like this breed!
What can I say about your new model? Not much because it´s perfect    I love the pose... movement of his tail and mane, head is stunning and whole body is concert for my eyes :) Really great horse!! It should be part of new Mojo collection because I really want one in my collection :)

Once again... wonderful work, Anna. Your talent is more and more breathtaking!       

Wow, how wonderful Anna! Thank you so much for sharing pictures of the figure as you're working on it. It's really interesting to see how things come together.

wow it's looking awesome already!!!
I can't wait to see it finished,  
but following the progress is great too, like some sort of illustrated novel

Ana wrote:

I use Sculpey III, in light beige colour. I haven't tried Sculpey Firm yet, I think next time I will buy it to compare. I also use Super Sculpey in some works but this one is made of Sculpey III

Do you ever have problems with fingerprints using Sculpey III? I often get fingerprints on my newer Sculpey III clays...

WOW, interesting to se proo at work in progress :)

Great new model Anna, I especially like the delicate sculpting on the face.
I find these progress photos very interesting and inspiring.

Many thanks Ana for your rich and well illustrated presentation of this breed. I had no idea about it.
This little horse has a more appealing conformation than wild horses and it seems you are already getting a very good shape to it.
I like the way you can give some subtile movement to your figures using ahirs, tails and very simple but balanced poses.
It will be exciting to follow your project! :)

Looks great as always Anna! Great detail in your work.

Beautiful pics of a wonderful model Anna  

I'm a horse Noob so I can't speak about details but I will enjoy this in progress topic  

He is absolutely stunning so far, I especially love the detail put into the face.
Though I do have one small critique, I am no horse expert but his wrist that I circled in the photo below looks like it is protruding a little too much.

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THANK YOU FOR ALL NICE COMMENTS!
I will update this topic soon again :) Your words inspire me to work more I'm happy to hear you find this breed of horse interesting too  

MartinH wrote:

This post is just amazing... First of all big YEEY! for hucul! I really like this breed!

How wonderful to hear you like them too! Are Huculs popular also in Czech Republic?

Schleich_Figures_4U wrote:

Ana wrote:

I use Sculpey III, in light beige colour. I haven't tried Sculpey Firm yet, I think next time I will buy it to compare. I also use Super Sculpey in some works but this one is made of Sculpey III

Do you ever have problems with fingerprints using Sculpey III? I often get fingerprints on my newer Sculpey III clays...

Well, I try to not touch the areas where I achieved the texture I wanted. Usually after, let's say, sculpting front half of the animal I bake it and then I can start working on back half of it. That way I always have some areas that are already hard and I can avoid touching soft places unnecessarily. Another way to do it is to sculpt on base which can be removed after finishing work.   

kudu11 wrote:

He is absolutely stunning so far, I especially love the detail put into the face.
Though I do have one small critique, I am no horse expert but his wrist that I circled in the photo below looks like it is protruding a little too much.

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Yes, you are absolutely right! Legs require lots of work yet, I will definitely change this part you mentioned.   Thank you for this advise!

Nice work Anna, as usual :)

Ana wrote:

Harriet I use Sculpey III, in light beige colour. I haven't tried Sculpey Firm yet, I think next time I will buy it to compare. I also use Super Sculpey in some works but this one is made of Sculpey III

And yes, I think I will ask my husband if he can do mould of this work for me when it's finished.  
Oh and size it's almost 12cm at shoulders. I will post some photos later compared with something, maybe Schleich figure or so.

Thanks Anna.  So what's Sculpey III like then, the texture and consistency?  Is it hard and good to carve and can you paint it with acrylics after curing?