365/2013 - Day 83

physically tiring day

It sure doesn't look like I accomplished very much looking at the photos for today, but it feels (physically) like I did...man!  I think that is due mostly to the sawing, going up and down the basement stairs a few times, working in the basement in between studio sessions, using the box cutter knife on the cardboard...stuff like that.  

I started out today adding more paper to the cat-king-creature.  There is still quite a bit to do on him.

first layer of white paper on the face and pink on the nose

lots of layers later...I hope it looks good when it dries

remind me not to get those wonderful alcohol inks ANYwhere NEAR plaster cloth projects ever again...they are just not meant for this...they re-wet and re-activate and bleed through and get in the brush...gah!

looks nice now while it is wet...we'll see how it turns out when it dries

Then I moved on to the bear-like guy.  Ditto...still lots to do.

lots of white paper on the face/muzzle

then one layer of pale blue...hopefully it will dry lighter

I am struggling with the camel-like creature's legs.  They are just not looking right to me.  I know they won't be anatomically correct, but I need them to look like they could support him at least.  I am even having a problem with drawing them in my sketch book while I look at a copy of a real camel or two.  Time for some sawing...then back to the sketch book and thinking.  I have a feeling this guy is going to linger in non-assembled state(s) for a long, long time.

even if I angled his legs severely and used a pool ball joint, he would look like he was on his tip toes and I don't think he could stand on his own

well...I can't get them any shorter -- LOL

I need to make changes to the hips/haunches or something...all of his parts are together...this is just going to be a very long-term project...but I will figure it out

And speaking of very long-term projects...

The crocodile-like guy was the very first thing I tried to make with various papier mache techniques.  I followed a few different books and added things in different styles and then stumbled upon a package of plaster cloth that was in my studio stash from years before this project even.  Out of all of the techniques and methods and formulas plaster cloth won.  I am still learning new things pretty much every time I use it -- I just love it.

ANYway...looking back in the blog I see that I started the crocodile-like guy way back on June 24, 2010 -- geez!  Then he languished again until May 19, 2011.  And then on Sept 7, 2011 I got up the nerve to put him on a tomato cage.

I have been wanting to do something with him (off and on) many times since then, but the main problem is that he is horribly unbalanced and really testing my construction skills.  I think a lot of the projects that get shelved for a while are supposed to wait until I've learned other things/tricks/steps while working on totally different things.  I don't know everything there is to know about plaster cloth (and I probably never will) but I sure am enjoying the process.  I am really glad to have blogged this long and photographed as many steps as I have because it really helps me when I try to see what I did on previous pieces and remember what worked and honestly, I really do forget from project to project how things went together.

Okay -- so today my Universal collaborator(s) started to show me a few things for the croco-creature.

sticking out of the closet in the wet plaster cloth studio

sort of what I might be going for -- the idea comes from one of my all-time favorite Tyrannosaurus Rex songs "Warlord of the Royal Crocodiles" -- I think the staff in his hand might help a little with the balance and weight distribution

while working in the basement I decided to go "shopping" when I was done with my chores down there -- voila! -- I still had two sets of flexible aluminum clothes dryer vent ducts and dryer vent elbows (yes, I looked up the correct names for them)

at first I thought I might put the "arm" assembly right there in the roundy part -- but the other side isn't as roundy

I traced around one end of a dryer vent elbow on a piece of medium-weight cardboard from a box I'd broken down earlier, then I cut it with the box cutter in pie shape wedges but I found it wouldn't make a round enough hole -- so I had to make more cuts -- and that worked incredibly well

trying it out

the two vent pieces are cool because you can position them any way you want -- they turn completely around in every direction -- and I can stretch the arms out longer if it turns out I need to later on

in all the time this guy has been waiting around, he has fallen over a few times...but this is the only damage that has happened -- just one broken glow-in-the-dark tooth -- and thankfully it was a clean break -- easily fixed when the time comes

geez...what a goofy shot

from this view you can see the container of about 10 pounds of cat litter to counterbalance him

since he is a Royal Crocodile he will need a crown...this is my first attempt at a plaster cloth crown...made several years ago

but I made it for ME...plus, it is too big for the croco-creature

a better look at the counterweight sitting on the back of the tomato cage

thinking...

he will need hands...

and a staff of some sort

Okay -- I took a break for a while...then I went to check on the drying status of the cat-king-creature and the bear-like guy.  

not bad...still needs a lot of work, but he is coming along fine

whoa -- now THIS is disappointing -- that alcohol ink is bleeding through from somewhere -- there must be a trace of it in the brush or something -- there was NO alcohol ink on this part of the face when I started this morning -- gah!

again -- more alcohol ink bleed through -- I might be able to live with some of this on the paws...maybe not

That's enough for one day...I have a lot to think about!

365/2013 - Day 80

more coloring with paper

Last night before I went to bed I worked a little more on the bear-like guy.

I decided to put a layer of pale blue on over the colors instead of white

still working on him, but you can see some of the aqua poking through the layers

how I left him last night -- still wet -- but I covered all of him except his muzzle and ears

Today when I looked at him after he had dried quite a bit -- I think he is really starting to look pretty good -- the colors are hard to photograph, but they blend into each other pretty well.  I am still thinking about whether he should be very blue (like he is now) or very very pale/mostly white with just some color underneath.

the colors look pretty cool

the colors in the marbled paper on his base are really deep

Tonight I thought I would give the cat-king-creature a layer of marbled paper.  I am not sure how well it will dry because his surface is extremely rough.

cat-king-creature

mostly yellow/green marbled paper

blue/purple/black/gold marbled paper

I was having a hard time deciding which color of marbled paper I wanted to use.  I liked them both.  Since I have a lot more of the blue than I do of the yellow, I went with the blue.

this is as far as I got tonight

I think I like him in blues...plus I think I like that he was purple underneath

drying -- thinking about his legs and crown

2012/365 - Day 92

oh it is MUCH too early in the morning for plaster cloth surgery

Going through my usual morning routine...doing online crossword puzzle, checking email and Facebook, reading blog posts, minding my own business -- and my Universal collaborators/guides decide to drop in. This was at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. Gah! No choice but to cooperate.



Time for some plaster cloth surgery.













Hmmm...













Oh -- I see. I could turn the cut out piece around and insert into the hole and slant it downwards.














If it works on the front, I guess it works on the back.








"We" sat and looked at it longer. I fed the cats. I came back into the studio. There was no getting around it -- the biggest problem (out of many) was the out of alignment nose. It just wasn't sitting right on his face and it made me make one side larger and the front of the nose wider to accommodate it...and it was just too big overall.



Okay. NOW it could maybe be a better bear-like guy. Maybe. HUGE on the maybe.

And then again...maybe I will free the twirly sprinkler thing and give somebody else an ever better crown. Back when I made this thing originally, I didn't know I could easily cut metal. I also was just beginning with construction of faces.
This was a really good learning process...and I am not sure I am ready to throw the head out yet.










LOL -- is this the equivalent of blood for plaster cloth?

2012/365 - Day 91

note to self...never try to make a round-ish head from a box with sharp angles

I don't know...I will give this a few more days of looking at it and working on it, but I may need to choose something else for my big goal. This may require a lot more construction than I can devote to it right now.



Here is the head -- sitting on my wire mesh trash can for stability -- when I started tonight.





















Here is how the first layer of plaster cloth changes the look of the guy.












This is the side that bothers me the most. The other side may be a little flat when you look at it but this side is just too rounded. It looks to me more like a pig. Not that there's anything wrong with pigs...I just don't want to make one...I want this to be a bear-like creature...or something similar.








From this angle things look a little better and you can see the new shape of the ear.









Looking straight on to the head it also doesn't look that bad.

The problem is the shape of the base box that is the foundation of his head. It might be too much to try to overcome right now.

The one side is already getting a bit too rounded...not sure about this right now. Okay, I need to keep reminding myself that I had never attempted to build a face before this.

There was that crocodile from waaaaaay back, but that was a whole different way of doing things...nothing like this.

This guy needs a day or two.