A shot after the first baking. These are from early April. I’ll post more tomorrow.
Decided to cut off the head so I can reposition it.
Here’s the armature screwed to the base and bulked out with tape and such.
It occurred to me that there is no post about the orangutan book. He is a link to a few pages. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10107003/Orangutanbook.pdf
You can see how far I’ve come when you compare it to the California book. Things are not as cakey and overworked as in this book.
I have two commissions in April:
One is of Frank Sinatra. I get to see if I can pull off a likeness…
we will see…
And a clown which may or may not be mass produced, so it has to be built like it will be.
Of course I’ll post it all so you can see progress as I go! It’ll feel good to get back into some clay. :)
In May it’s back to painting for another book like the orangutan one, where I paint cartoon kids interacting with photographs.
It’s been a wild ride and I’d do it again in a heartbeat, for more money. :) I bid this far too close for my own good. Ah well live and learn. If there’s a next time, I will be prepared.
Hard to believe, one month ago these were sketches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Front and back covers. The last two paintings I did for the kid’s book. The second one is the final one I did and you can see that 30-some paintings in a month hasn’t been lost on me. I am getting better. I am still nowhere near where I want to be, but it’s getting easier and I have learned so much! I just wish I’d learned about liquid mask in the beginning! That has made all the difference in the world in the backgrounds and keeping things fluid. I need to experiment with oxgall which might help even more. Oh and more expensive paints. The red in these is a more expensive tube (grumbacher I think) and it’s a much more opaque and fluid color.
View Larger All interior images color study. A few things to change, but overall, about where I want it.
Setback.
The author needed some time to show the sketches around. So I start painting Wednesday. I have the sketches sized and printed on watercolor paper. Stacked almost an INCH deep! It’s kind of frightening to see how much I have to do.
The new deadline is April first, but that is to be DONE with the book. So the paint has to be finished before then. Thankfully I have the layouts done.
The way I work is: I break down the book into page thoughts, sketch out ideas for each page and plug them into the book layout with text. Once the author approves, I draw them much better, rescan and resubmit the book to the author for a final sketch/layout approval with the changes they made.
After that approval, I trace the art in pen on a light table and scan the cleaned up images in. Then I plug them into the layout one more time making sure it’s perfect.
I use a pdf of that file to print the pages directly on watercolor paper, and paint.
There’s a better way I am sure (like a cintiq!), but this works for me. If I screw up a painting, I just print another sketch template and go!
Still can’t believe I burned thru a 100 page pad and a half of drawing paper.
View Larger My “We love California” book in sketch form… good lord. 30 paintings and it’s due in 4 weeks. GULP.
Stay tuned, this is going to be epic.
View Larger Hulk arrived in China in PIECES. I don’t know if any of you have worked with epoxy clay, but it is TOUGH. Look at this shield It is almost a 1/4” thick and broke in 2 places! I can’t break it with my hands. It was wrapped in 30 feet of bubble wrap too. You would have had to drop from 3 stories up to get this kind of damage. The sandals, I can almost understand, they were sculpy, but the rest was magic sculp. Even the head was broken off and it was wrapped in bubble wrap and packed with it between his legs. wow amazing. We are in the process of filing claims. Of course it was late too, which means I may get the 114 dollar shipping fee back. But CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and the rectangular shield? shards. shards. completely atomized.
Here they are repainted and ready for shellac.
View Larger Horrifying setback today! So bad I had to strip the pieces. UGH! The sanding idea was a screaming failure. In the process of repainting.
I got the pants and perch back in order, even looking good, but the light colors are fighting me! I can’t seem to get the look willow tree has. I wonder if I should have tinted the clay as I made it. It’s got to be a process tho. The pants worked to paint a light color, then cover with a dark color and wipe off the high edges. You can’t do that with a light color. it thins too far. Still experimenting… CHRISTMAS IS COMING AUGH!
I was trying to match colors, but now I am just trying to get the look down. grrrrrr.
First pic is base coated parts. when I paint it, then sand it, the basecoat will show thru on the edges of the carved spots. Second pic is all painted. After it dries, I will sand it. Next to it is an actual “willow tree” for comparison.
The sculpting is done. I need to do some sanding. To get the “Willow tree” look, I need to have all surfaces faceted around the figure. Then I will paint it a brown, wait for it to dry, and paint a beige. Then sand the beige so that all the edges of the facets pop out as the darker brown. Hopefully it works!!!!!!!!!!!
I just looked at my pics, Top left pic, you can see what I do with my left over epoxy putty. I make rocks. Piles of rocks. For dioramas and whatnot. Or eyeballs.
And in the bottom middle pic, you can see a project my daughter inspired. When questioned why we didn’t put baby Jesus in the nativity scene, she responded to our answer, “if she hasn’t had the baby yet, why is she so skinny?” So I bought a second set to “fix” so we can have “before and after” Mary… kids.
