This a a new take on an old subject: the Green Man of the forest. Here my mottled camouflaged Green Man appears in wind swirl of leaves.
Faces
These three faces were painted yesterday evening, and foiled today. For several days now I have had the image of two profiles, rather simplified & abstract, one red and one green. Separate and both facing to the left.
I have been thinking of these as prints, possibly to be printed from a foil covered mat board plate. But as it happens, my press is a bit hard to access right now, due to my efforts to tidy the rest of the studio. And I don’t seem to have any cut pieces of mat board handy either. So nothing was happening with this nap time vision, until last night in art “class”. Without a better plan, I got out my water soluble graphite pencils and watercolors.
These are not really much like the vague images in my head. OK they are not a all like the images I had in mind. But at least they are visible, out on paper! And now scanned and digitally transformed for a bit more dramatic impact.
Progress
Persistence Required
This has been, and still is, a difficult project for me. I think it may be getting a bit easier, but we will have to see how that pans out! There is some (well quite a bit of) technical challenge here, but the real issue is persistence.
It is so very very necessary to struggle on past the “it will never look like anything but a piece of crap” stage! And I have been procrastinating for the past 10 days or so. I may manage a half hour of work, then I give up and do something (anything!) else for the rest of the day. This puts me in a rather odd fatalistic & hopeless mood, not improved by the current political climate.
At last this project may be moving forward. I think am in transition to the “there is some small hope that I may like this a little bit someday” stage… TBD! This has been more serious than the “now it looks terrible, I hate it” phases that are inevitable but usually short-lived.
One goal is to get the three part sculpture starts above to something that embodies the concept drawing at right. The other goal is to end up with pieces I can use to make molds for casting on other materials. So wish me luck please!
Resin & Foiled Photos
Now Available: Angst
This image is now available for order on RedBubble products (clothing, home, etc.): absolutely all the angst you could ask for!
Or perhaps primal scream therapy?
Refinements
Studio Lighting
Years ago I paid $10 for a box of “miscellaneous studio lighting” at a garage sale, then never tried using it until today. In the Larson Lighting Inc. box is a floor stand, one of the two Reflectasol umbrellas, two lights (one with 2 bulbs!), and a cunning hand grip for mounting a camera and a light. The Reflectasol umbrella has a glittery side that can be used as a reflector, or you can diffuse your light through it. The second light may be a flash, but no bulbs so I will ignore that for now. There are no instructions, just a few pictures that barely…
Anyway here is my first experiment with using the umbrella and light for a diffused lighting, with the studio in grey & cloudy winter morning light. I used the studio light through the umbrella, and had my studio overhead lighting on. For the last photo I added a flourescent truecolor reading light approximately 4′ away aimed at my subject.
I do think the umbrella and bright light may be helpful in getting decent photos of my 3-D work.
More Birds
After the ghastly school shooting in Florida, I am so horrified that of course I prefer not to think about it at all; from my safety I have that luxury. But that seems so wrong, and I listened to NPR list the shooting victims with a brief statement about each of them as provided by their families. Now I have a title for the bird piece above left: “No Safety”.
