365/2013 - Day 38

plaster cloth stuff

I had several sessions in the temporary plaster cloth studio today.  I needed to work on stuff and get this blog entry posted because Ruth is coming over tonight to work on our pages for the house book in our ATC group.

First, two guys got the eyes I made yesterday.

the first eye

the second eye -- I liked this one better

pulling the first eye back off, scraping down to the bottom and popping the eye loose

there...that's better...they are pretty close to the same shape

he looks a little cross eyed in these photos but in person he is really cute

this guy is hard for me to photograph today -- too much stuff on the table

Next I decided I wanted to do something with the original "studio snake" head that has never become the Studio Snake yet.

 
This guy is just about 5 feet long -- the other snake is longer.  

Last, I went back in and plaster cloth'd a few items onto the snake.  I have a story in my head about it and I wanted to give this a try.  I am not sure if I like how it is looking yet.  It either needs more things or just a couple.  Not everything I tried worked because it either stuck too far off of the snake or the details were lost in the plaster cloth.  I am disappointed with the zipper right now -- it was the first thing I tried.  I will figure it out.

He looks happy to finally be in the process of becoming a whole snake.

365 Day 191

just when you think you have things figured out -- painting-wise

Meh...what a day.

I started out needing to re-base-coat the knobby guy because his colors were waaaaay too muddy after he dried yesterday. Well, I guess using the alcohol inks makes a difference because regular acrylic paint acted like canned frosting. If you can believe it, this is yellow craft paint on top of the alcohol inks...kinda fluffy.















So I decided to try and gesso him to get him back to a white base coat. Heh...he wasn't having it. This is coat number one of gesso. (yeah, there is a green glow to my bathroom lighting, but trust me...he is still caramel-colored.)

















Gesso coat number two...still light brown.
















By this time I was just plain determined to get him as close to white as possible...so, stubbornly on my part...this is gesso coat number three.













While that coat of gesso was drying, I turned my attention to working on the eyes of the wolf-creature. Bad choice. I messed them up big time. Then I figured I would put those small clear glass pieces over the painted eye and plaster cloth them on...needing to touch up the blue & purple paint.

Well, that didn't work this time...it got wet underneath the glass piece and I had to pull the plaster cloth off. So I decided to try and paint a pair of eyes on the glass beads...










...ewwwwww. I am going to sit this guy on the "save it for later" shelf and order him a pair of nicely painted taxidermy eyes...I feel like I owe it to him.











Okay...so that was frustrating...what to do now? Oh, I know -
how about MORE frustration? I took the knobby guy out to the garage to spray him yellow with Montana Gold spray paint...what a mess.

Then I decided that since he was already in the garage I could go ahead and really spray the alcohol inks without the consequences of a stained bathroom counter. First color, not bad.









Next color...not too bad.





















Third color, not horrible...but it looks really cool when it is WET. Unfortunately, when it dried...


















...it went muddy again...in just one area.












So I left it outside to totally dry and stomped back inside to find more trouble to get into.


That left the green cat-creature. I should have stopped for the day...but nooooooooo.

This is photo is from yesterday...before I started to "fix" the eyes of the wolf-creature and cat-creature.








I may have messed up the wolf-creature...but I totally wrecked the cat-creature. So badly in fact, that I just left it and stomped out to watch tv and sulk for a while. While I was in that area, I was rummaging through the top drawer in the little dresser thing that the phone sits on, next to my chair. I found a pair of nicely painted taxidermy eyes! I had totally forgotten about them.


They were clearly too large for the cat-creature the way he was...but hey, he was totally wrecked at this point...and there goes the paint job I half-liked...I decided to add the too-large eyes with plaster cloth. But I had to change his face a little...
















And he has a completely different look now...kind of a cat-minnow-creature...

















...but I don't hate him.



















The half-nice paint job is kinda ruined...may be fixable...















...but at least I can live with him this way. I like the taxidermy eyes...they are a little crooked, but that was the only way they'd fit onto the surface. It will look better when I work on it some more.












And of course this leaves the knobby guy who is still sitting outside where I left him.





I misted the colors with some alcohol (I can't find the stuff that I was looking for yesterday). It looks really good when it is still WET...preeeetty colors.













But then it starts to dry and starts to blend and starts to go muddy. Also, at this point, the knobby guy's glass eyes are totally painted over. It will take quite a bit of scraping to get all of that off...but I know it will come off.















I don't know...I don't totally hate him...he still needs more work and the knobs will get colored differently...but I guess the underneath parts are okay/so-so. For now.














He could get a whole 'nother look on another day...who knows.

365 Day 170

guys get eyes and a bearish creature gets more roughed in

Today I cleaned up the overspray on the "eyes" I made yesterday. I really like them. Some of these plaster cloth guys will get glass eyes and some will just have painted on eyes because their faces are smaller.


one of the green eyes with the overspray














it cleaned up better than I was hoping for!















this wolfish guy will get the orange/green eyes













placing the eyes...which is left and which is right?



















he's getting some personality now

















this is an I-don't-know-what-yet...cat/owl creature














hmmm...I still don't know...but I like him!

















and the bear with the twirly sprinkler thing crown gets roughed in ears and plaster cloth'd all over his head

















this is my first really really sculpted plaster cloth guy...most of my other guys have had pretty flat faces and really round heads












it is a good thing that these are made up creatures (not specific animals) because I can maybe have a little more leeway on the shapes















Well...now I am off to work on my relief carving for tomorrow's class. I am not sure how much actual carving I will do tonight but I will be trying to imagine the background for the fox woman creature. I may do some more drawing in my sketch book, too. I am eager for class tomorrow evening!

365 Day 146 (a day late)

painting glass for eyes

This is the first few stages of trying to paint glass eyes for projects. I did a practice piece a few weeks ago that turned out reasonably well and I thought I'd give it a go for real.

These are those clear glass bead/drops that you get at Michaels for putting in vases to hold flower stems or that sort of thing. We also use them as counters in Magic: the Gathering.

First I painted a black pupil, then second coated the pupils.






just the black for pupils








Next I chose colors for the eyes. These are just the first coats of color. It takes a long time for this regular paint to dry on the glass. No doubt there is real paint for glass that I could be using, but I want to use what I have on hand and make it work. This paint wants to rub off when you touch it...it also sort of re-wets itself when you add a second coat of wet paint.








first coat of color on: a pair of green eyes, a pair of orange eyes and a pair of pink/gold eyes












a large green eye after one coat of paint














one of the orange eyes, first coat of paint






I will add another color over the colors I have chosen so far, hopefully that will add a little dimension to the look. Then I will seal the backs with a coat of spray varnish. That should make them durable enough. We'll see.