2102/365 - Day 98

taking a look at the watercolor re-do

 The goat creature still needs to dry a bit more so tonight I turned my attention elsewhere.


Back on Day 58 Part Two I started a collage over a watercolor color painting that I purchased for this purpose.  Tonight I am reading it to find the characters.

Here is the piece as it is tonight.  I kept turning it over and over to look at different views and shapes and I chose this one.

The main idea is a guy walking and a guy behind him.  

I brightened these detail photos a bit so it is easier to see what I am seeing.  I didn't take the time to go in and outline with the photo program's paint tool because I just didn't feel like it.  


If you can't see what I'm seeing in this blog entry, you will probably be able to see the characters emerging later on as the collage progresses.




This will be the guy behind the main character.  I think this guy is a badger or maybe a bear or a dog.  This is mostly just his head and he is looking to the left.

This will be the main character.  He is a cat or rabbit or something and he is walking towards the left with his one arm swinging out/pointing out in front of him and his other arm down at his side.  


I haven't decided on his exact face yet because there are so many possibilities in the layers of paper and I just found him tonight.

This is his arm down by his side. The green is the sleeve of his garment and his little hand is at the end.

This is his other arm, the one out in front of him.  The sleeve is green with his little hand sticking out.

And here is an overall shot of the collage under the mat.  This is closer to the actual colors.











Tonight's thoughts for this collage are:

• the guy walking and the guy behind him
• define the characters with ink and/or paint
• reattach the mat and use the original frame and glass
• maybe do some sort of additional embellishment of the mat

I have a show in mind for this piece and I think I can make the deadline for it.

I don't understand WHY there is so much space in between the photos in this post and why there is so much space before the last section.  In the "compose" version of the editor, it looks fine.  In the html version all of the lines are touching.  I don't get the spaces.

2012/365 - Day 97

oh -- I have such lofty plans lately

 Yeah...the goat-creature is definitely my current main project, but there is no way it will be even close to partially done by the time that first deadline comes around.  There are so many basic structural problems and challenges with this guy, but I am determined to find ways to work with him.

I didn't quite know where to start tonight.  I finally thought maybe if I put a second tomato cage inside of the base it would strengthen things...so I cut off the top four "legs" of this cage.

I picked the goat-creature up and lifted him onto the second tomato cage -- and it was pretty entertaining -- I thought I was going to knock off one of his horns when I hit the ceiling with him.  Right now he is still very lightweight but he is fairly tall.

This is how it looked inside with both cages.  Bottom line is I don't think it is going to help.  It didn't make any real change and that would be one more set of parts that don't touch the chicken wire in places.  Harumph.

So I decided to work on the outside of the base.  It is so flimsy-feeling compared to the cat-creature.  I don't even know what I did differently...I will have to go back through the blog and look at how I made her skirt.

This is where I am going to try to work on the goat-creature.  His head is supported by another tomato cage section -- it is one that I cut from the twirly sprinkler thing (ex)bear-creature.

The goat-creature is SO dry.  I couldn't get the plaster cloth to stay wet enough to adhere to the surface of the base.  I tried spritzing it with hot water but that just made my hand tired...the water kept absorbing as fast as I could spray.  I ended up going back to my old standby -- the Scott Rags.

Now that I think of it, this is probably how the cat-creature's base was toughened up.

I took a section of paper rags, soaked it in the water and then laid it across the d-r-y plaster cloth surface.  I didn't knock much water from the plaster cloth as I pulled it from the water bin.  It seemed to work fairly well.

It is hard to see in the photo, but this is a shot of the wet wet paper rag on top of a layer of plaster cloth that didn't want to get smoothed out because it wouldn't stay wet enough.  This is what I was laying more wet plaster cloth on top of.

It was about at this point when I had to give in and accept that the goat-creature is going to be a l-o-n-g time in the making and will not be ready for the first upcoming deadline.

It's okay.  I really like him a lot.  I want him to turn out well and I am willing to put the time in on him.

This is how the goat-creature looked after about an hour of work.  This is a small section of the base.  I wanted to stop at this point because #1 I was tired and #2 I need to see if all of this work is going to actually do anything.  LOL.


(Oh...I almost forgot to whine about how much I hate this new editing/posting thing.)

2012/365 - Day 96

THIS is the new plaster cloth project

Back on December 17th -- Day 351 of last year's blog -- I started work on one of the first tomato cage bases for a plaster cloth guy.  I can't remember for sure, but I think it might have been the first time I tried to use chicken wire.  At some point I added a layer of plaster cloth to the outside of the chicken wire...and then moved on to other things.  I might have come back and tweaked the shape of the goat-creature's head a bit more (again, this seems like a really long time ago now).

The main thing is that I have come back to this as my current project.  I am shelving the twirly sprinkler (ex)bear-like creature for now.  I only have until May 1st to get this guy's construction totally done and dry.  Hopefully,  I will have gesso-coated him by then, too.  If I finish him in time for the first deadline it will be a small miracle...but I that is my goal.

Here is how he looks tonight.

This is a shot tonight of the inside of the bottom edge of the base/chicken wire...I was very careful back then when I attached the wire(s) to the tomato cage. 

This is a shot tonight of the inside of the goat-creature's base.

It is all very evenly spaced and looks kind of good from a distance, but there are problems in there.  Since the time I first put this together I have learned more about using chicken wire and plaster cloth.

It is hard to photograph what I am trying to show here, but one of the problems is that the chicken wire does not touch all of the thick wire circles that make up the tomato cage grid.

Back then I thought that I could add the plaster cloth to the outside and it would all fill in to the chicken wire -- or that I could go back later and fill it in with plaster cloth.  Working on the cat-creature I found that wasn't really do-able...at least not easily.

This is another angle of the interior and the gaps between the chicken wire and tomato cage grid.

I have a LOT of problem solving to do with this one!

Part two of the basic construction problem(s) with this guy -- the wonky outer walls.

Back in December I laid aluminum foil over the chicken wire on the outside of the base.  That allowed me to add the plaster cloth, but it is very thin.  I tend to tap on the plaster cloth at various times to test it and I can almost put my finger through this right now.

I am not sure how I will go about strengthening the outer surface and smoothing and shaping it.

I also don't know what I want to do with this guy...it will all come to me.  That, and I know my Universal collaborators will not be able to stay away from this one.

So for now, the goat-creature is laid out on the big studio table...waiting.















P.S. -- when I look at this post I can see two "invisible" stacked boxes over one of the photos.  Can YOU see them?  I don't know wtf they are all about -- they are not there when I go back to edit the post.  Have I mentioned how much I dislike this new "improved" way of posting?

2012/365 - Day 95

success!

Yay -- I accomplished what I set out to do tonight -- I cleared the big studio table and put the things that were on and around it (making the clutter) away.  Now I can start thinking about plaster cloth again.

before

after

2012/365 - Day 94

a working-in-the-studio kind of day

(and day two of trying to get the hang of this new way of posting to the blog -- gah!)

 

I am really enjoying Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology Capricorn horoscope for this week:

 "I couldn't wait for success," said rich and famous comedian Jonathan Winters, "so I went ahead without it." I love that approach, and I suggest you try it out. Is there any area of your life that is held captive by an image of perfection? Consider the possibility that shiny concepts of victory and progress might be distracting you from doing the work that will bring you meaning and fulfillment. If you're too busy dreaming of someday attaining the ideal mate, weight, job, pleasure, and community, you may miss out on the imperfect but amazing opportunities that are available right now.

 Okay...with my horoscope in mind, I am working in the studio today.  I am just doing small bits here and there, with the hopes of clearing the big studio table where I do the plaster cloth.  I started on it last night but didn't get very far.  

 While I was working I came across this bottle of Raw Umber Glaze by Golden. 

 

I decided I would try to tone down the overall look of the horse guy in canvas #6. 

It is kind of subtle in some places and more pronounced in others, depending on what kind of paper(s) were under it.

 

Here is how the collage looks overall.

I also added the Glaze to the bottom of the giraffe/llama's dress to darken it.








So, I am finally at the end of this entry!  I really HATE this "improvement" -- if I had wanted to use a different blogging site, I would have.  I really loved the simplicity that used to be Blogger.  It only takes about twice as long to do it this way and it is very, very clumsy.  The old version was great.  Oh well.

2012/365 - Day 93

why do these free places keep making changes I don't want?

I knew this forced change was coming, but I have been putting off because I didn't want to have to learn how to do the blog in a different way.  As you probably know from earlier whining(s), I am not at all computery and computery changes are really difficult for me.  I get used to doing something one way and that's how I want it to stay.  Nevermind that Facebook and Blogger are both free and no one has a gun to my head to be at either place -- I really dislike computer changes.  There.  Now I will start the adapting process...dammit.

(And see -- you can't even see what I am talking about -- everything looks "normal", doesn't it?  It has to do with the blog entry posting thingy.)

 

Okay.  Here is what the bear-like creature looks tonight.  No face, no ears.  I am still debating whether to shelf this project and move on (for now) or give it one more day of thinking about it.

THIS is what I am working on tonight until I go to bed.  LOL -- I have to clean an area at the big studio table so I can even take on the plaster cloth repairs to the bear-like creature.

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?