Photo piles

For a while I have planned to do blogposts of some bigger bunches of photos I have taken over the years. Posting them to dA is fun, but I also don't want to post too many there and I kind of don't keep the bad shots at all anyway... So I only try to post the photos that I think are the personal favorites of mine. Usually it's about posting 2-5 pictures in one go, and then I take a pause, or move to another photo stack. 

Photo taken in February 2018.

But I feel like I don't only have a couple good shots in each stack, so I have wondered why I never post them into my blogs. That way I couldn't need to go so picky and perfectionistic with them, and could post several versions of one photo at once. One photo pile can contain about 20-40 pictures... I also don't like the idea of titling every single photo separately, and in dA I have to make sure even non-modelhorsiers understand what I say in the descriptions, so it's a lot of repeating to do. And, the last, I just can't cook up a ton of words about every single photo and keep them interesting. I try to, but I don't think people read anything these days... Which is lame, because they should. 

These photos I plan to post here are not what I usually take. My average modelverse photos have been taken on top of a shelf with some kind of backdrop, which, in fact, is currently a textile. I got back to using my old textile backdrops after ages of not having it possible. I also normally use the camera flash with these, routinely.

January 2018.

I recently took some art photos on that shelftop as well, but it went mostly lame due to me not being able to reflect the light anywhere with anything, as the only source of light was and is the roof lamp... And the camera flash. I use a tripod these days so I can also leave the flash off at times, but more often than not I simply feel like it is crucial, unfortunately. It is not as bad as everyone says, if you know how to make it work, but at times I could like different light. And the light spreading... I have made some light spreading tools by taping aluminium foil over cardboard and then crafting some metal wire (actually the heavy thing which holds a spool of metal wire in shape) into the cardboard to keep it in the right angle. These work very well when the source of light is very close to the model, like when I take photos on the worktable. I like to play with the angles a lot when so. 

But if I try to use the spreading tools on the shelftop and only have the roof lamp, it's useless... Even if I use flash. Years ago I had a big box which as itself made it possible to prop spreading tools into it. I own some large-ish mirrors I once bought exactly for photography use, and they were great. But I can't place them anywhere on top of a shelf. They are heavy! 

One of the exact mirrors. February 2018.

Anyway... I simply meant to say that I plan to post some "artistic" photo bunches here. That includes portraits. Now I just need to figure out how old these can be. I spotted some less interesting photos taken around 2019, and further digging made me decide that I draw the limit to 2018. Often my photos of that year are okay, but not up to my current standards, and I couldn't be motivated enough to post anything older. But at least we will have some material to compare with newer shots! Most of the pictures will be just horse heads with or without tack, because I often haven't had the space for anything else. Life is lame at times.

I could also have posted these photo stacks into my Finnish blogs, but asked an American friend and it may be more practical (and possibly shareable) to have everything in English instead. Finns read it like nothing so it is not an issue, BUT I could always like to write about the model horse hobby in a less common language and for a folk which does not know so much about the hobby. Here will always be those individuals who don't know enough English.

This is the photo quality I will be posting... a lot. Depressing black and white is so yummy. Photo from autumn 2019.

I also want to mention that I should more or less retake some of the pictures I may blog about. My tackmaking has improved a lot since 2019 or so, and we know how important tack quality is for good scene photos.

Alive

Some years ago, when I and my fellow Finnish bloggers came to the conclusion that writing model horse blogs in Finnish doesn't serve well, we started a new blog, Thousand Lakes Models, to write together in English. I ended up keeping it going with Kave, and... Well, she's been busy with real life for a long time now, and basically that means I have been updating TLM alone. I like the blog and could say it wins over this one. There's just one problem: TLM is not 100% mine, and because I have conscience and respect my friends, I can't just call it "my" blog. It is "our" blog, mine and Kave's. 

It's this Visualrat which is mine. My problem is that since TLM happened, I haven't felt the need or interest to use this blog much or at all. For a while I thought I could start posting some modelverse stories and scene photos (photo stories and photo stacks) here, but that didn't go well. By this time I just couldn't like to let people see what kind of old trash I store in my computer. They have value to me, but that doesn't mean they could interest anyone else or be worth seeing, let alone publishing. And I have done so much of those photo stacks that it could take forever to reach the episodes and quality my stories are at this day. So I just stopped and decided that I'm not continuing on publishing them. 

I have a lot of photos from the poor quality era, when I also used my smaller camera for model photos for a short time.

Current level of tack and rather recent experimenting with using no flash - I do own a tripod, so why the toe hadn't I used it for ages?! I do not have an "official" photo spot right now, but a shelftop is better than nothing and I just have the need to assemble and record these setups.

It is true that I have never been good at blogging. I can't update these (I own a lot of blogs) often enough, I am unsure about what people could think, and I cannot move photos from the cameras and edit them straight after taking them. I have tried that with one cat blog years ago, and it just didn't work for me, I ran out of energy for it. 

One could think that updating a blog at least weekly could be easy, since there could be several days between posts to hone and finish them. Nope. I'm really bad at that, even with the fact that I sit here reading and editing my posts basically all the time if I'm not sleeping or eating (or working on tack or customs). My biggest problem has long been the fact that I overthink, especially about how people will react to what I say. I have no problem with writing properly (especially in Finnish; of course I am not as good with English as it is not my first language), and I mean what I say, so I still don't understand why people so often misinterpret me and assume that I am angry if I in fact am sarcastic or joking. Maybe it just is what happens when one (me) has autistic brain and the rest of the people most often don't. Mmmm. 

Anyway, enough about that. What has happened during these couple of years? TLM will explain most of it really. I haven't made new dolls in at least a couple years now, but I have made a ton of tack, and been also customizing. Recently I've also started to feel that I finally have enough Breyer bodies in traditional scale that there is basically nothing that could prevent me from finishing customs. I try not to go too drastic with my customs these days, because the drastic changes are why I about never finish any of my older projects. That is annoying, because I have so many ideas but not much skill, knowledge or experience to make the ideas true and well. 

Some of my ugly Schleich customs being ready for paint.

(That must be the most ADD-makingnosense paragraph in a while... Just a thought flood with no much editing.)

2020 was when my saddlemaking got a big, big step further. After that came a few more steps which also are good, but that's it. My saddles are still a bit stupid, messy, and especially come in really dumb and ugly colors which I didn't pick for them - I just use what I can find locally, so that explains it! I could probably hunt for leather dyes and such, but I also think I need to make these things fitting and functioning properly before starting to do anything fancy like that. Though, with one pony saddle I went as far as painted some parts with acrylics, because that seemed to be the only option and I just wanted to test how it could go. 

The skirts and billets were originally black. The paint eventually cracked as I stressed the straps, but that wasn't surprising.

I am a painter by nature (or I just want to think I am - I never finish anything I start on canvas), so of course I had to start a mini landscape with those colors I used for the saddle parts. That escalated further, and I did a few more cardboard landscapes... And eventually I took some passepartout pieces which had been waiting for use since 2012! I used my own landscape photos as refs for most of these, and it helped a lot - I can't imagine what I should paint when it is "environment", so. Some of these got painted with gouache instead of acrylic, and that I could continue with. 

No reference.

With reference.

The mini paintings will of course serve for 1:9 scale rooms and related. My Rat Room (1:9 scale bedroom in a bookshelf) is full of my paintings. What I really find odd in these things is that usually dollhouse artwork is done (or seems to be done) solely as a decoration, and often so that it isn't served as serious art as is. That feels strange to me. I feel much better doing mini art than large canvases, and can finish a few minis in a day while not finish one big canvas in months! (I started one landscape last summer... I eventually got enough of it and moved it off from the easel.) Studying art in school - I am "officially" a painter - didn't help. They always make students to do some huge works and I never, never feel comfortable doing that. Nope. It is not easier to see or work with.  

This (these?) is a combination of a couple separate reference photos, and the one with more pink will go to USA.

What I was trying to say, is that I do all my drawings and paintings "for real", no matter the size. Most of those mini paintings I've done are less than 5 cm long on the longer edge.

In other hobby life news... Well, I already mentioned the saddles. Should I now say something about bridles, or halters? I think with them I have had only small honing here and there, which of course is always positive, but it's not much to write about. Plus I just recently published four texts worth of halter evolution into my Finnish blog, The Tuherrus. That was a ton of work and repeating it here is not very tempting. In general, I don't think my tack could be anything special for American readers, since the standards there are so high. 

The blog's name contains the term "rat" for a reason. I should let myself to chat here not only about plastic horses, but also the rats of the same kind, even if that means they are sculpted by me... No brand makes good rat figures, so they must be made at home. 

The thumb rat population hit thousand already ummmm... a couple years ago? In 2021? No wonder I struggle with identifying them, cooking up names or nice designs, as I have already used everything with them... This is alarming. It is also a little sad. 

Some rats drying on the tack shelf. The batch in total consisted of 200 rats.

At some point I got to chat about real and fictional genetics with my Swedish friend and fellow modeller, Decors, and that is why I ended up making so many bunches of thumb rats with simple designs: there could be about ten rats of one color with very little difference, and they could be told apart mostly by studying their positions. It can be interesting to do something like that, especially since I like to cook up fictional ratteries and then decide what each rattery focuses on.

But it was fun while it lasted. I eventually ran to a problem, which is that I can't see the rats apart, and sometimes changes in colors were so little that I couldn't say if a rat in a photo was yellow or technically green with a lot of yellow. They became too similar to each other... And sometimes my camera doesn't know what things look like and wrecks colors, which my computer misinterprets even further. 

Anja. Most likely an yellow with some green, but not enough to count as lime.

For the second big batch of thumb rats I strictly decided to do smaller groups of one color, and gave them some white markings and differences in eye colors. (I paint markings when they are small enough or somehow complex, but anything bigger and simplier I prefer to do from clay.) 

Kiivi. Green with a star and a belly spot. Eyes black.

Sivi. Green, eyes white with black pupils, no white markings.

The ratteries I can cook up for fun. I just get to decide a doll, and what colors, coat types or whatever else they could like to breed in rats. It's the genetics which I struggle with, since I can't just use color theory and real rat colors are really confusing as well. Most rat colors are just dilutes of dilutes, and names and standards vary between countries. Horse colors make a lot more sense... Because nobody can say "a bay should be only this shade of brown and the black points should not extend over this and this!". 

Kriikuna. Light blue.

Närö and Köpö. "Basic" blue.

Jemma. "Black blue", technically blue with black mixed to it.

Do I have any hobby goals for this year? First thought is to say "not really". I can't make promises to myself, I have ADD and I am still depressed. But then I get to remember that I have a bunch of hobby trades going on! I get to make tack and send it around, also internationally, and some customs. Right now I hate the fact that I can't keep my art room and workspaces organized enough, and I can do only one thing at once. For example, I've mostly had tack stuff going on, but making space for customs at the same time is not an option. I have had a massive need for customizing, or just repainting, recently... If thr stupid bridles could stop haunting me soon enough, and if I knew where to start with the cleaning, I could possibly get my newest batch of victims painted further! But then again, I planned to make straps for those hackamore shank pairs I cooked up, and I also need to make a personal halter for my brother's large littlebit scaled bronze model. Blrgh. If only could I have a permanent place where to spread the painting supplies, that could be nice. That way I could also work on tack when I want to.

Oh, what a semi-rant. I could stop now. So many things I mentioned and didn't mention... I could write separate update posts about some things. I always think I could do that, but then I don't, and end up posting these messy news texts once a year.

New Breyers

It's only January now, and before my birthday (just two days away now...) I already got new models from Lahjakas.fi. I think I'm going to recycle their box to make another, BIGGER studio!

I choosed three models, this is the number I can get once, no more. Money is not free. Still, my mum has rights to my money and she sticked her fingers to this, and... I got four Breyer Traditionals.

This is so damn very weird for me, but well, I like. He he! Let's see the horsies.


Brunello... A Finnish hobby friend of mine had this model already, and we both know this is a good mold. I could have bought this anyway in some moment - she just kicked me to choose this now, no later (eh eh). Now I have another good tack rack, AND no need to curse that ugly toy horse (Remu)... Brunello tells us the difference between toy and model. Also, chestnuts are good. Named this Lost Wits Of The Halter Creators and it's a joke since I'm a mad halter-maker, and also that friend makes tack... For nickname he got Lanttu, have no idea where, it just popped in my head. It means rutabaga.

He looks good with my far away from high quality tack. That bit actually works, I mean, the shanks move...

Slick by Design... I was quite surprised with this model. He is very, very large! And immediately I recognized the sculptor, it's same as with Cortes "C". Even clearer as both of my ones are black. Slick has a bit more blue in tint, and I like that, it's easy to see in photos although not so much with eye. The sculpt is simplier than with some others from same sculptor (who's models I like a lot, I see). This guy got called as Okay Mister Blue, and I think it can be quite matching for a quarter since, well, quarters and the way people name them... And because this horse really IS blue!

Dreamy is small next to Okay!

Valegro... With this, I can't start well, it's so good as a model. Just a thing I'm happy to have now. I named my model as Reizvoll due to the fact that for me this represents enough a horse I once met in a dream. Not as weird as it sounds; I simply was meant to test ride him, and he was awesome, friendly. Valegro is also difficult to photograph since he's a bit glossier than the others I have, and his dark surface yet feeds it. Damn flash, I should soften that off.

Valegro has great face. It's just nice to tack him up.

...and Secretariat! This is a model I have drooled some time, but have hesitated as he has a bit difficult mane (for tackmaking, just a hole in the scrag instead of a area for straps to lay on) and he is a racehorse - gallop races don't exist in Finland! And my model stable is Finnish. Well, at least they can buy former racehorses from Sweden and then fail with re-training them... Sounds safe. But the mane hole works surprisingly nicely, and if I get lazy with it, I can also just lie the bridle over the ears, although it doesn't look that perfect. I've seen a lot worse examples too. Named this boy as Cage Breaker xx, and it has deeper meanings.

One thing I've always liked in Smarty Jones mold is the expression. It doesn't look so generically happy.

Jewellery pieces make nice hackamore parts. (There's extremely bad leather used... Because I've already used off most of the better pieces.)

Wait what, I just realised I got the basic colors only. Haha, nice! This is what I collect (and also paint, really); those boring, general colors. At all, I've realised I am not into very "weird" or "interesting" colors or patterns, I like when horses look more evenly colored. At same time I know how common weirdnesses are in model horse hobby.

I already tacked up all these, just because I make tack and like to capture moments. Could post more of them later. But, check Valegro, he tells me what my level in tackmaking is (= not very high...):

Really Offhand isn't so experienced that he could have any persmission to ride a professional dressage horsie. Luck my dolls ride just for fun at home... And don't even mention that gothic style doesn't belong to dressage arenas?

Apologies from extremely bad photos. I have no idea what had happened to my phtography skills; if I ever even had them, hmmm...

Should just blog...

I should just blog. Continue to blog.

But I haven't felt right for it lately, although I - honestly - think this practically daily. I simply can't write and have no brains for anything. Nothing serious really... I just am not in the blogging mood; writing doesn't work and I have no idea what to photograph next and how.

OK. It's not so simple. It's not that harmless. I really don't like the situation that I have not had blog brains for some time!

I should do something for the backgrounds if I ever want to improve my photo stories, but I don't want to start anything yet if I am not sure how to do and what. I have no space for anything that's left to lie around if I decide not to finish it. And a box with random cloth is not realistic background for a landscape, let alone stable yard.

Juoru on Wishmeluck. Cloth background.

I've thought some... If I do things from paper; draw and cut pieces and place them interestingly, to make some illusion that doesn't force to really build mini buildings or anything - as said, I have no space. I want to do stories now. As a visual artist who draws, I've learned that at least something little and simple in the background is always better than 'emptiness'. It should look like a world, not a studio box.

Easierly said than done.

Anyway. When waiting that, I must publish stuff I've already done, and that includes some photo stories or riding set-ups that do not behave as a story at all. Grrrr. But I really want to publish stuff!

I also should already have published my newest Breyers, that I got for Xmas: GG Valentine and Heartbreaker, who I renamed as Sweet Zone (mare) and Danger Zone (colt...). The names are a small joke since mare's older foals (just fictional, hah, not modelled) are also named with puns, and create a story when coming from oldest to youngest. I choosed standardbred as their breed, since it is... the most generic horse breed in Finland, and the one I have met so often compared to the truth I have no horse life really.

Sweet Zone "Namu" and her brat, Danger Zone "Dani".

I have no idea if anyone else had ever suffered from a problem I do have, and it's this, I can write and read but have no map in my head about what I actually had read. Stupid. (Writing and reading English doesn't make this any easier, haha. And here I am, using this language I'm not naturally familiar with...) Or is this just my too-often-dying skill to focus on things I am reading?

A banner and news

Once I decided that this blog is OK enough without a banner, but now... I just know it's too interesting to design them, so I made one. This blog has long name that's not too easy to fit there. I got a bit lazy and just drew the title and shaded a bit (with a tool I don't usually use for anything).

I just think... Cigar is a good mold. I like that I have one to see this physically. So of course Overkill (Sam model) is right dude for the banner.

Wonder if I don't have problems today when publishing this, because it's a tradition when I publish a new blog banner.


I also have a problem... It's about those photo stories I want to publish and have a nice stack waiting that happening. I want to improve with them, to make them better, more realistic, less stupid. I am too perfectionistic with my own works, and I count dolls and tack pieces as artworks too. Sometimes I just can't see a photo having any quality, if there's one or few pieces that make it all look failed - for me, having no skill with saddles. Also I wish my dolls could have real clothes, but I simply have no idea how to make any (I'm not a sewer). My dolls have rough anatomy because they're meant to work well and to be hidden under clothes. I could of course test to sculpt also lower pars of their limbs (except hands and feet that need to be all bendable), instead of gluing some soft materials there, but right now I haven't the right type of wire to make armatures, so I can't try.

Is it OK to say that don't read it wrong if you see some crazy looking dolls sitting on my models? They can be funny, but they also ruin the realism.

Lack of realism makes me easily not to want to publish things that generally could be worth posting. (Now don't ask why I then replace humans with rats and cats, haha.)