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.

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".

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.

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.

Atomic

So, kinda lovin' that there are actually subsets of Steampunk called Atompunk (1945-1965) and Decopunk (1920-1950). Love it.
This picture was for the Design-A-Character challenge "Outerspace"The original is bluer but I didn't want to go back over to the art building to scan. I really like white ink. Ok, too sleepy, need breakfast and shower. <:P

Scaaaaanner

What a difference an amazing scanner makes. I was having some color balance issues with my scanner so I used one of the Art Department's. The colors are so crisp by comparison!! Definitely worth the hike over (and it helps that it's a gorgeous day out.) That said, I rescanned the Goldfish mermaid painting, a new steampunk painting which I'll post below, a cute witch painting which I'll try to remember to post tomorrow, and some ACEOs. All of which are for sale, either as originals or as prints, in my etsy store. I realized I forgot to post the link before so I'll add it to the site of the blog. Feel free to check that and/or my deviantart page.I call her "Goldie! Goddess of the Skies"; A WWI-era Steampunk character. I had a lot of fun painting a canvas with a similar concept recently so I wanted to keep the idea going. I think this'll become a trend.