I visited an old steam-engine ferry this weekend and got to look at the inner workings, which was awesome, so I doodled a crank shaft on there. I also want to do something with a corset ("'A Girdle to set you free!' What does that mean!?" - Mona Lisa Smile) and internal organs. The ear one is to juxtapose the cochlear implant and the arms are an example of prostheses as added convenience. I also have some pieces in the works that combine actual body modifications that are purely aesthetic (read: corset piercings :D) which will eventually lead to steampunk mods that are purely aesthetic.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Lazy day
So, today has kinda been more about getting my series going again. For Adv. Painting we have to do something in a large format (no dimensions to speak of, just "large") so I'm looking into working directly on a dress form. We'll see. Here's are some sketches for new paintings. I picked up some new canvases today so I'll have plenty to work with.
I visited an old steam-engine ferry this weekend and got to look at the inner workings, which was awesome, so I doodled a crank shaft on there. I also want to do something with a corset ("'A Girdle to set you free!' What does that mean!?" - Mona Lisa Smile) and internal organs. The ear one is to juxtapose the cochlear implant and the arms are an example of prostheses as added convenience. I also have some pieces in the works that combine actual body modifications that are purely aesthetic (read: corset piercings :D) which will eventually lead to steampunk mods that are purely aesthetic.
I visited an old steam-engine ferry this weekend and got to look at the inner workings, which was awesome, so I doodled a crank shaft on there. I also want to do something with a corset ("'A Girdle to set you free!' What does that mean!?" - Mona Lisa Smile) and internal organs. The ear one is to juxtapose the cochlear implant and the arms are an example of prostheses as added convenience. I also have some pieces in the works that combine actual body modifications that are purely aesthetic (read: corset piercings :D) which will eventually lead to steampunk mods that are purely aesthetic.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Two-fer Tuesday
As promised, I'm posting the pieces that were on display but hadn't been posted yet. I think I'm going to go back in on both of these and do some lettering but maybe not. I apologize in advance on how awful the photography is. These look a lot better in real life.
The first one is one I posted the WIP of a few weeks back. The actual size is 18"x36", the largest of the series so far (but not the largest planned one. You'll see...)
Yup. Steampunk mermaid. I really wanted to do something way out there. I mean, if you were a legless marine biologist, wouldn't you want fins and gills? I tried to make it as practical as possible, though, since she would need to maintain neutral bouyancy (which means the tail would need to be weighted but also allow space for air to be reintroduced) and would need gauges (on her wrists) so she could keep an eye on her depth. This piece is 18"x~25".
The first one is one I posted the WIP of a few weeks back. The actual size is 18"x36", the largest of the series so far (but not the largest planned one. You'll see...)
Yup. Steampunk mermaid. I really wanted to do something way out there. I mean, if you were a legless marine biologist, wouldn't you want fins and gills? I tried to make it as practical as possible, though, since she would need to maintain neutral bouyancy (which means the tail would need to be weighted but also allow space for air to be reintroduced) and would need gauges (on her wrists) so she could keep an eye on her depth. This piece is 18"x~25".
Monday, October 25, 2010
How to Stretch Your Canvas
Before we get this ball rollin', be forewarned that this is going to be a HUGE picture post. With that in mind, all the thumbnails will be small and if you need to see them in better detail: click them.
So, you want to make your own canvas. This is a very good idea since it can be a lot cheaper making your own canvases and you have a lot more control over the quality of the end product. Eventually you may want to learn how to make your own stretcher bars and you might want to experiment with different fabrics but for the time being, let's just start with the basics.
Step 1: You're going to need 4 Stretcher Bars (make sure you have the same length for opposing sides), Canvas, a Staple Gun, Staples, a Chip Brush (inexpensive painting brush), a Hammer, Scissors, and some Gesso. Optional: T-Square, Sandpaper, or Drop cloth (as you can see, I use my rug.)
Step 2: Fit your stretcher bars together with the matching sides opposite one another. Loosely fit them together so you can continue to adjust them. To tighten them together, use the hammer to tap them into place. Make sure to maintain right angles as much as possible. This part is worth being a perfectionist over.
Step 3: Staple all the corners on the inside of the frame (this is the yucky side you won't see at all) and use the hammer to make sure the staples are as in the wood as possible. Any protrusions on this side of the frame may push against your canvas and give you an uneven surface.
Step 4: Cut a section of canvas from your stash so that you can place the frame in the middle and still have 1-2" border around all the sides. Sometimes it's easier to stretch the canvas taught when you have more excess to yank on.
Step 5: Pick one side and fold your excess in. Staple down this piece. I choose to staple the back down to give the sides a nice clean finish but some people prefer to staple the sides instead. Make sure all of your staples are a little loose in case you need to take them out to adjust them.
Step 6: Pull the canvas taught across the frame so you can staple the opposite side. You always want to staple in pairs so the canvas is as evenly stretched as possible. Start loose and tighten as you go. It's easy to go back and tighten one or two little areas than having to completely redo a side, especially when you get to larger and larger canvases. Just work from the middle out, from one side to another.
Step 7: Once you've stapled down all four sides, you can tighten the corners. This is where you want to pull in a lot of the slack since woven fabrics such as canvas are exceptionally elastic along the bias (diagonal).
Step 8: Once you've pulled up that extra, you're going to need to use a hospital fold to tuck it in before stapling. Since that is a tricky fold, you may want to check this other tutorial.
Step 9: Staple the heck outta those suckers and do the other corners. Once all the corners are down you can do a once-over and make sure the staples are in tight. Use the hammer to tap them down if needed, just be careful not to hurt your frame.
Step 10: Trim up the inside of the canvas to give it a nice clean look. This isn't necessary but it does look a lot more professional.
This is was the back of your canvas will look like when you've gotten to Step 10.
And this is what the front will look like. You'll know it's tightened enough if, when you flick it, it sounds like a soft drum.
To finish: You now want to scumble (brush on a light layer in every which way) a coating of gesso on. Watch out for holidays (areas that were missed and unpainted) since that will harm the quality of your canvas. One layer is enough for some people but I prefer to use a few layers. I also sand each layer once it has dried. This will give you a nice smooth surface. I also gesso the sides to give the finished canvas a nice clean look.
Please, let me know if this tutorial has helped you. If you have any questions for suggestions, don't be afraid to ask! ^.^
So, you want to make your own canvas. This is a very good idea since it can be a lot cheaper making your own canvases and you have a lot more control over the quality of the end product. Eventually you may want to learn how to make your own stretcher bars and you might want to experiment with different fabrics but for the time being, let's just start with the basics.
Step 1: You're going to need 4 Stretcher Bars (make sure you have the same length for opposing sides), Canvas, a Staple Gun, Staples, a Chip Brush (inexpensive painting brush), a Hammer, Scissors, and some Gesso. Optional: T-Square, Sandpaper, or Drop cloth (as you can see, I use my rug.)
Step 2: Fit your stretcher bars together with the matching sides opposite one another. Loosely fit them together so you can continue to adjust them. To tighten them together, use the hammer to tap them into place. Make sure to maintain right angles as much as possible. This part is worth being a perfectionist over.
Step 3: Staple all the corners on the inside of the frame (this is the yucky side you won't see at all) and use the hammer to make sure the staples are as in the wood as possible. Any protrusions on this side of the frame may push against your canvas and give you an uneven surface.
Step 4: Cut a section of canvas from your stash so that you can place the frame in the middle and still have 1-2" border around all the sides. Sometimes it's easier to stretch the canvas taught when you have more excess to yank on.
Step 5: Pick one side and fold your excess in. Staple down this piece. I choose to staple the back down to give the sides a nice clean finish but some people prefer to staple the sides instead. Make sure all of your staples are a little loose in case you need to take them out to adjust them.
Step 6: Pull the canvas taught across the frame so you can staple the opposite side. You always want to staple in pairs so the canvas is as evenly stretched as possible. Start loose and tighten as you go. It's easy to go back and tighten one or two little areas than having to completely redo a side, especially when you get to larger and larger canvases. Just work from the middle out, from one side to another.
Step 7: Once you've stapled down all four sides, you can tighten the corners. This is where you want to pull in a lot of the slack since woven fabrics such as canvas are exceptionally elastic along the bias (diagonal).
Step 8: Once you've pulled up that extra, you're going to need to use a hospital fold to tuck it in before stapling. Since that is a tricky fold, you may want to check this other tutorial.
Step 9: Staple the heck outta those suckers and do the other corners. Once all the corners are down you can do a once-over and make sure the staples are in tight. Use the hammer to tap them down if needed, just be careful not to hurt your frame.
Step 10: Trim up the inside of the canvas to give it a nice clean look. This isn't necessary but it does look a lot more professional.
This is was the back of your canvas will look like when you've gotten to Step 10.
And this is what the front will look like. You'll know it's tightened enough if, when you flick it, it sounds like a soft drum.
To finish: You now want to scumble (brush on a light layer in every which way) a coating of gesso on. Watch out for holidays (areas that were missed and unpainted) since that will harm the quality of your canvas. One layer is enough for some people but I prefer to use a few layers. I also sand each layer once it has dried. This will give you a nice smooth surface. I also gesso the sides to give the finished canvas a nice clean look.Please, let me know if this tutorial has helped you. If you have any questions for suggestions, don't be afraid to ask! ^.^
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Midterms
Phew, now I just have to wait for my midterms to get graded ^.^:;
Out of the 5 I finished (one of which I want to go back and fix) I have 4 of the Body Modification paintings on display in the lobby of Williams, the art building at UVM. Once I get them back down again, I'll take some pictures of the bionic heart and mechanical mermaid since I haven't posted those yet. My dad took some pictures as well so I might update with a better picture but here's a picture of them on display!
I've lately been wicked obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon, which came out on DVD a little over a week ago. I highly recommend it to anyone. Imagine realistic cinematic lighting design and textures with much better storytelling than Dreamworks usually comes up with. Speaking of which, I just caught a TV spot for Tangled and it looks like their trying for Dreamworks quality. I guess they realized their stuff couldn't compete with Pixar's (not that they really needed to). Anyway, expect more fanart at some point but here's a sketch of Toothless and Hiccup flying around. I'm trying to work more with animal forms so don't hold it against me if you aren't a fan of this. It's just a doodle.
Out of the 5 I finished (one of which I want to go back and fix) I have 4 of the Body Modification paintings on display in the lobby of Williams, the art building at UVM. Once I get them back down again, I'll take some pictures of the bionic heart and mechanical mermaid since I haven't posted those yet. My dad took some pictures as well so I might update with a better picture but here's a picture of them on display!
I've lately been wicked obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon, which came out on DVD a little over a week ago. I highly recommend it to anyone. Imagine realistic cinematic lighting design and textures with much better storytelling than Dreamworks usually comes up with. Speaking of which, I just caught a TV spot for Tangled and it looks like their trying for Dreamworks quality. I guess they realized their stuff couldn't compete with Pixar's (not that they really needed to). Anyway, expect more fanart at some point but here's a sketch of Toothless and Hiccup flying around. I'm trying to work more with animal forms so don't hold it against me if you aren't a fan of this. It's just a doodle.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
heart of hearts
This is going to be a slightly more personal post so if you don't want to deal with that, then keep on scrollin'.
I'm the happiest I've been in years. I'm not exactly sure how it happened or when exactly it clicked but I finally got it. I was making my life (and the lives of those around me) so much harder than it needed to be. Life, and by extension: art, is not supposed to be a back-breaking, epically sober ordeal. If the point isn't to have fun and make the best of all of it, then what good is it? I get to spend every day drawing or painting or hanging out with a group of close friends who care about me. (Legit! They even find it entertaining when I'm being a complete pain!) Even physically, I feel good (healthier food and exercise is pretty nifty)! Heck, I'm not even all that scared of 2012 anymore. I'm really happy. This is not to say that I don't still have down days or "no hug" days but when I take a second to stop and analyze why I'm upset, I honestly know that it is just a passing thing and I'll be fine. Life is good.
And on that note, back to pretty pictures:
(it's safe to read again, scrollers)
This is piece number 4 of the Body Modification series. I kinda messed up 3 and stretched out the back but I was kinda bored of it anyway so this might just end up being 3:
I left the easel in there to give a sense of the size without having to get out my ruler (it's late, I'm lazy. Shush.) This is based off of a very real bionic heart which is far from miraculous but still pretty amazing. I still have a lot more lineart to do but since this piece is more about the Art Nouveau aspect of the series, I want to put a lot of energy into the frames. I'll have some more work to post later this week since I'm headed downtown tomorrow to get some scans done on the big flatbed and I have a commission from someone on deviantart that I should probably get done.
I'm the happiest I've been in years. I'm not exactly sure how it happened or when exactly it clicked but I finally got it. I was making my life (and the lives of those around me) so much harder than it needed to be. Life, and by extension: art, is not supposed to be a back-breaking, epically sober ordeal. If the point isn't to have fun and make the best of all of it, then what good is it? I get to spend every day drawing or painting or hanging out with a group of close friends who care about me. (Legit! They even find it entertaining when I'm being a complete pain!) Even physically, I feel good (healthier food and exercise is pretty nifty)! Heck, I'm not even all that scared of 2012 anymore. I'm really happy. This is not to say that I don't still have down days or "no hug" days but when I take a second to stop and analyze why I'm upset, I honestly know that it is just a passing thing and I'll be fine. Life is good.
And on that note, back to pretty pictures:
(it's safe to read again, scrollers)
This is piece number 4 of the Body Modification series. I kinda messed up 3 and stretched out the back but I was kinda bored of it anyway so this might just end up being 3:
I left the easel in there to give a sense of the size without having to get out my ruler (it's late, I'm lazy. Shush.) This is based off of a very real bionic heart which is far from miraculous but still pretty amazing. I still have a lot more lineart to do but since this piece is more about the Art Nouveau aspect of the series, I want to put a lot of energy into the frames. I'll have some more work to post later this week since I'm headed downtown tomorrow to get some scans done on the big flatbed and I have a commission from someone on deviantart that I should probably get done.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Cochlear Implant finished
As promised, I'll explain my Body Modification series today. I started with the Prothese painting as a parody advertisement for Art Nouveau mechanical limbs. To push the idea further, I'm working with body modifications that are both real and imagined. I may extend the idea into art deco style posters but I've been having a lot of fun working with Art Nouveau so I think I'm going to continue this series in this way for a while longer. 
This is the second in the Body Modification series. For this one, I wanted to juxtapose a cochlear implant with other forms of body modification, such as gauges, tattoos, unnatural haircolor, and assorted piercings. Mucha worked a lot with circular motives so I worked on a circular canvas (made from an 18" repurposed embroidery hoop) and threw some steampunky gears in for the background. Her hair is also very indicative of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.
I didn't want to scream it at the viewer but I want to see what people think of having a controversial "bionic ear" (seriously, google "cochlear implant", they're wicked cool and very real) with socially questionable alterations to one's body. Please let me know what you think.
This is the second in the Body Modification series. For this one, I wanted to juxtapose a cochlear implant with other forms of body modification, such as gauges, tattoos, unnatural haircolor, and assorted piercings. Mucha worked a lot with circular motives so I worked on a circular canvas (made from an 18" repurposed embroidery hoop) and threw some steampunky gears in for the background. Her hair is also very indicative of the Art Nouveau aesthetic.I didn't want to scream it at the viewer but I want to see what people think of having a controversial "bionic ear" (seriously, google "cochlear implant", they're wicked cool and very real) with socially questionable alterations to one's body. Please let me know what you think.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Double post, ftw!
So, I had an assignment in painting not too long ago that had to fit into at least one criteria ("beautiful", "insults the viewer", "barely visible", "monster machine", "fearful/fearsome", and a couple of other things that I forget now) and during the critique we had to guess what the painter had in mind when they were working on it. At this point I was already getting pretty frustrated with this course since my style is much more illustrative and literal (*snarl*) than what "real painters" would like (*doublesnarl* elitists). Being the ever-patient person I am, I bitterly decided to do what I wanted to paint for the assignment so if the prof. and class didn't like it, forget them. would at least have a painting I wanted. As it turns out, the prof. LOVED it and raved for 20 minutes about both pieces!! He then continued to reference the larger picture for the rest of the crit session!! :D FTW!! Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased with myself.
For this one, which is about 10" x 17.5", I wanted to do a Mucha-esque advertisement poster for mechanical limbs and organs. I'm really pleased with how it came out and I thought I handled the nudity tastefully. Our next assignment has to be a series and I decided to base my series off of this. I'll explain more about that in tomorrow's post.
For the next one I need to explain something: I only recently started swearing (Sorry, Mom, but I do) because it was really difficult to be taken seriously as an adult when I called people "dumbface" and "butthead" when I was mad. That being said, I chose to use a swear in this piece because of the assignment and because of the verbal punch it could pack. I needed this piece to be as "in your face" as possible.
This piece is HUGE! It is 30" x 42" and her head is about life-size. When you're standing in front of it, I'm proud to say, it does in fact look like the fist is coming at you. I painted this quickly and furiously, which was a nice change from the Prothese painting. The biggest thing about this that the prof said I should change was having the speech bubble recede into the space, like her body is. I almost had my series as this but I didn't think a series of these would pack the same punch as a single one (maybe different paintings like this in different locations, but not all together in the same room).
I think my personality comes across strongly in different ways in these two paintings (which I guess is why "Dumbass" unintentionally looks like a self-portrait). I hope these go over well out there.
For this one, which is about 10" x 17.5", I wanted to do a Mucha-esque advertisement poster for mechanical limbs and organs. I'm really pleased with how it came out and I thought I handled the nudity tastefully. Our next assignment has to be a series and I decided to base my series off of this. I'll explain more about that in tomorrow's post.For the next one I need to explain something: I only recently started swearing (Sorry, Mom, but I do) because it was really difficult to be taken seriously as an adult when I called people "dumbface" and "butthead" when I was mad. That being said, I chose to use a swear in this piece because of the assignment and because of the verbal punch it could pack. I needed this piece to be as "in your face" as possible.
This piece is HUGE! It is 30" x 42" and her head is about life-size. When you're standing in front of it, I'm proud to say, it does in fact look like the fist is coming at you. I painted this quickly and furiously, which was a nice change from the Prothese painting. The biggest thing about this that the prof said I should change was having the speech bubble recede into the space, like her body is. I almost had my series as this but I didn't think a series of these would pack the same punch as a single one (maybe different paintings like this in different locations, but not all together in the same room).I think my personality comes across strongly in different ways in these two paintings (which I guess is why "Dumbass" unintentionally looks like a self-portrait). I hope these go over well out there.
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