365/2013 - Day 33

whoa -- I sure didn't see that coming!

I swear -- these two guys made themselves.  This was a totally unannounced and surprise visit from my Universal collaborators.  

I started today with simply wanting to add papers to the manikin to tone down the shiny paint and try to blend some colors.  I chose three pieces of unryu paper and grabbed the matte medium and a paint brush.  I tore the paper into little pieces and got to work.

Then I wanted to see if I could get this guy's belly to be some shades of yellow, so I kept layering on little pieces of light yellow paper.

And I set the manikin back on the shelf to dry.  I was going to check back later to see how the color was coming along as the paper dried.

Then I was looking at the manikin and -- even though I liked it before -- I was no longer happy with his face.  I was having a hard time picturing his muzzle area.  I wanted to make his nose longer (I think).

I folded and shaped a piece of one of the gloves I was wearing during the matte medium and papers session and taped it in place.  

Yep -- the manikin definitely wanted to be something else.  But I needed to keep his new yellow belly dry.

Okay...I may have overwrapped him a bit but I really wanted to stop the plaster cloth from dripping all over him.

I ended up having to work on him in an upside down position.  It also helped to let the shape take its own form.  I think this step also invited the Universal collaborators in because from that point on this guy was making himself.

Wow -- this is just not something I would have thought to do on my own.  I like it a lot.  I took him into the studio to let him dry in there so that I wouldn't be tempted to try to add even more to him later.

AND his belly is looking nice and yellow (so far).

Next I turned my attention to this guy.  All I was going to do was plaster cloth the arms in place and add the two wooden balls as a base for hands.

Yes, one of the little pink arms was noticeably shorter than the other.  At one point I was considering making arms that went up in a "hands up" sort of position but I gave up on it.  But before I knew what was happening, it was seeming like a really good idea to grab a different tube (one closer to the right length) and then turn it up a little.

Cool...looks good.  I did the other hand and arm and then YOW -- suddenly I was adding a very long horn to his head!  Where the heck did that come from?  I have made horns before, but nothing like this.

Things were happening much too quickly to take photographs.  The second horn made itself pretty quickly.

Frankly, I am really surprised by these horns.  I am astonished at how symmetrical they are (I generally have a super hard time with symmetry and making mirror images, etc.)

Okay, I am not calling this a fabulous piece of fine art.  But I am saying that it is so not something I would normally do.  If I had planned those horns they would be very curly or going at odd angles...or they'd have some sort of twisted surface design.  They'd be hard to deal with later.  These horns should be "easy" to paint...no turning myself upside down or painting from really difficult positions.

After I cleaned up the area and tossed out the plaster cloth water I came back in and set this guy into a plastic storage container to dry -- to keep him away from the wall and let the air circulate.  It is kind of cracking me up how it looks like he is hovering over the table.

I came back into the studio to upload the photos to my computer and while I was choosing the pictures for this blog entry I started to get really, really sleepy.  I mean I was totally exhausted -- as if I had taken some major sedatives.  I knew I had better make some notes for myself about how the horns were built or I would never remember.  Good thing I did that because now (several hours later) I am not so sure I could repeat the process without checking the notes.  (I am not going to type them out...the photo will be enough to come back and read.  It is saved in a couple of different places.  Maybe at some point I will transcribe the notes into my sketchbook...but not now.)

Okay!  Enough for one day!  Wow.