Paper dolls

Recently i've been jigging between one thing and another. Preparing supports for a new larger painting, fiddling around trying to make a gramophone horn out of wood veneer (futile thus far). And also trying to work out how to get puppets which don't take an age to cut out and sand and prime. Also, wood is not a delicate enough sruface to use for some things, so I thought i'd try paper. Once I hit on that I became (as usual) completely obsessed by it and have an idea for a kind of Theatre scene.

Here's a wee drawing from my sketch book:


I would like to be able to hang the puppet from a discreet rail at the top and also hang other items like a bird cage, balloons, a bird and so on. It would also be great to acquire a Timber slice as a frame. I've done some searching and can't find anything big enough yet.

Either way it will probably be around 3 layers of forest trees cut out and framed by circular cuts of wood, and puppets hung in front. I have already painted the paper doll. (It looks better if you click on it and get the full size!) she has movable limbs.
She is without cloak, but she does have a cloak accessory since forests at night can get cold. Maybe she needs a electric zapper for self defence as well?
I'm thinking that I will probably offer her as a print which folk can cut up themselves as well.

Chinoiserie

The previous reference to chinoise wasn't fully er explained. The hair painting turns into the branches and I was aiming for a kind of chinoise style but a lot simpler. I don't think I fully hit the target but I found some great source images which I thought i'd share!


I love th freshness of the colors and the delicacy of the paintings. So anyway I drooled for several hours over these wallpapers and fabrics. I would love to be able to take some of the colourings/styles into some paintings. No idea exactly how or in what way or when. But, looks nice huh?

Chinoise, commissions, general update

So at the moment my day job has been pretty hectic and i've been filling an order for a commission. It's a lot bigger than i'm accustomed to but it was very enjoyable so I may do bigger pieces in future. Below are some progress shots which are pretty rubbish, the weather has been overcast the last few days. If I can, I will post some better pictures soon.

I tried to keep the whole thing simple and uncluttered, the photos really don't do it justice (even if I do say so myself!).

I've also swapped Jimi Jumping jack for a bag and dress from the wonderful wonderful artist known as Unordinary on etsy. Her etsy shop is really just the tip of a very large iceberg however, check out her great paintings and dioramas here, as well as her blog here. Here's the dress - I LOVE it!

I took some better photos of the Jumpin Jimi before sending him off to her, here's one of them:

Meanwhile I want to get on and start this musical sculpturey type thing i've been gnawing over the last few months and i'll hopefully have the chance to do that tomorrow. Beautiful sunday! pure bliss. I'm also thinking of doing a bit of weird jeweller

Nice things on Etsy

I don't often post stuff I like on Etsy, but I spend a hell of a lot of time on there and have a lot of favourites and freinds.

Louise Black's beautiful clothing:


Portrait of a hare by one of the best artists on Etsy (I think)

It seems like i'm not the only person with a moustache addiction. 'Somethings hiding in here' are now making these brilliant Moustache kits:


And this, possibly the best jewellery for my tastes ever, Margaux Lang's beautiful wares:


Aside from perusing beautiful things on Etsy, i've developed a very severe Facebook addiction. It's been great finding old freinds, catching up and also the fact that you know what your mates are doing 24/7. A revolution!

The devil rides again

I've been trying to incorporate music into an automata of some variety. I originally found a hand cranked music box (Cylinder type) which played John Lennons 'Imagine'. I pulled that apart to see if I could cause it to turn in some other way, and promptly lost a bunch of parts and ended up with nowt but a spiky cylinder. Then I found Deans Group who produce mechanical music in every possible variety, see post below. So I purchased a 20 note battery powered music box, and!!!!, you also get musical strips you can perforate yourself!

So far i've done a scale and a bizarre piece of music which tries to use every musical note. In the obviously deluded idea that if you've got 20 notes to play with, you want to make the most of your music box and play every single one.

Anyway, the Lennon machine is temporarily postponed because I cannot get my head around how it's going to work. I had some flaws in my original gears and now it's all propped up in the corner. So i've been drawing up an alternative and it involves the devil again. The thing is I am not religious in that way but I think the devil is a good character to draw. Not only is it widely believed he's behind good music but he is also portrayed in modern times as nothing more than a bit of a naughty bugger. Also, you can really do things with horns and a moustache in a drawing.

Anyway, to that end I put on the Barons Bow Tie and started inventing. The original drawings and studies are for the machine you would build if you could... so it's complete nonsense. The next set of drawings will actually be plans for the real-world verision.


I've also done some pages of studies for musical instruments and will probably do studies of musicians who are clearly producing 'that kind of music'.

The frontispiece (The devil drawing) has an overlay, a transparentish piece of parchment which i've drawn over and then labelled and secribed the different parts of the machine. It looks pretty good I think but i'd need to photograph it in-situ and my camera is out of battery. Will do so soon and post.

General update and ramble

So, this morning I get up with horrendous hangover - I should really not let myself get talked into going out for 'a drink' on a wednesday night. I think I may be too old for white wine heh :) Anyway, a quick update. The last few weeks i've been going back to try and understand oil painting a bit better, using underpainting and then glazes to try and model an image. It's going ok, but it does take an age and a lot of patience to wait for a layer to dry. Will post pictures in progress soon.

Other than that I am still attempting to get music into an automaton and to that end have found this great site:http://www.deangroup.co.uk/
Where I am amazed by the sheer quantity of musical movements, one of which will find it's way into something I build i'm sure. But, seperately, they have this great site for organs http://www.deanorgans.com...did you ever see anything like it in your life?

Jumping Jimi and turning 30

Well, this week I turned 30 ( tuesday ) and also had the week off work in order to indulge myself in some making and painting. Unfortunately I also came down with the worst cold i've had in a long time, so i've been making and painting through a sneezing mist. I haven't been out at all due to looking like quasi-modo, however I have soldiered on with the Jumping Jack of Jimi Hendrix I wanted to make. The idea of being ill AND not doing anything creative was too unbearable. So anyway, I took photos as I went. It doesn't really give a great likeness of jimi, the face is a bit long. But I think it has the basic vibe!

The original picture

A drawing

Transfer to wood

Cut out, sand and gesso

Paint!

Check joints

Et Voila!

Close up of chest

Close up of the face