Stick with me here, you'll like this. (Both blog and video now re-edited for brevity) I want to sieze the moment and bring readers up to speed on current methods. All paints & gels by Golden Artist Colors.
The materials used on this project, begun October 2021 (!!). Now painting on smaller plain wood boxes with an ambition to craft 3d artworks that suggest found object dioramas. I want the painting itself to suggest a hybrid between painting and ceramics, and be more about crafting the materials than painting pictures.
Above are the range of acrylics used for this particular box, which itself was a plain craft shop type box found on Amazon for about $6. Below is a short video which outlines how the use of Clear Tar Gel in particular had a significant hand in how I was able to "finish" the painting off.
Click here to open video in a new window.
Runs three minutes.
Long short is that the artwork got way overworked especially the sky. Poor thing even began to de-laminate in places where the luan layers moistened up.
The space terrain is boss and that patch of dawn peeking through at left was OK. But everything else above those hills was weak and I darn near almost tried sanding it off.
Fasteners go on the back, and my presumption has always been that the work will be shown on a wall at some point so I always let the painting spill over onto the bottom. Which itself is piled over with layers of either the Clear Tar Gel or the Matte Heavy Gel I like to use to help adhere the Crackle Paste to the surface.
I tried putting various toy pieces in to see if they could bring the painting to life, this here my custom painted Marx Toys "Moon Base" series space tank from 1962 missing its bulldozer blade. I always use toy pieces that are damaged, playworn, or inexpensive copies. It re-purposes what would be someone's garbage. But this didn't help: The tank was more successful than the box, which breaks the only rule -- The painting has to be as sweet as whatever goes inside or it's flea market fare.
Cactus piece from a cowboy playset out of Spain, early 1970s? Bonus goodie from a vendor that caught my attention and became thematically attached to this box painting. What else to go with it to tell a little story?
Space Hippies with Kool Kombi Camper, and an early look for the sky. Volkswagen from 2018 by Hot Wheels, figures by Multiple Toymakers c.1969. Accurately describing the interior contents is part of the materials list for me. Collectors of Hot Wheels etc may happen upon an online listing while searching their favorite collectibles. And boom.
This setup did not make the cut but we got pix and those can be printed, and I save archives of all my photo sessions for just that purpose. Good art leads to more art. See anything you like feel welcome to email or leave a comment below.
"Space Tourists Posing for Pix by the Giant Space Cactus out near Ganymede Station" didn't make the cut. Figures by Airfix and Multiple Toymakers, "4xForce" 2019 by Matchbox.
Ganymede Station is a creation of mine as a setting for many of the little narrative space scenarios. Inspired by "Ganymede Beacon" from the 1974 "Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen" adventure. My imagination suggesting that someday humankind will routinely travel our solar system on both research and commercial ventures and Jupiter will likely prove to be a good earner for both. Has like eighty moons some of which have atmospheres, the largest of which is Ganymede. Such a great name.
This almost made the cut - "The Last Pistolero from a Space Spaghetti Western". Larger scale figure made in Hong Kong copied from a classic MPC spaceman pose. Decided he needed a cowboy hat over that helmet or some eight year old was going to call me out on how that doesn't look like a cowboy. He'd be right, so natch that. Will be looking out for a vintage hat that might fit & thinking how to make my own.
I do like this angle, Space Pistolero headed for his showdown with his lunch box. Pix like these can be printed or projected or traced onto paper or canvas etc to be painted over/into and serve as flat artworks, even just as framed prints as is. Can be scaled up as large as the projector, and instantly overcomes my awkward rendering skills in depicting the human form or machines etc, when more precision would produce convincing results.
Trying to go minimal avant gardy here with medicine cups slathered with Micaceos Iron Oxide. Didn't make the cut, but did make me think how much I love glossing over these mica painted medicine cups with Clear Tar Gel, and the optical effect which resulted.
Applying a more or less even layer of Clear Tar Gel to the upside down "sky" inside the box here. Try to even it out and set it aside for 48 hours. The result is a glass clear film over whatever is underneath what appears to be a visible layer of glass. And while it does more or less level itself out while settling to dry, the end result is almost always slightly curved or warped from the naturally curved meniscus layer which forms, acting like a curved lens.
One minute video on the transformation results.
Proud of that now. The colors literally change as the angle of the eye moves relative to the surface. The speckles from the bits of mica also dazzle the eye and seem to shimmer like lights in the night sky.
I like to think of the boxes as nine small paintings all intersecting at right angles to each other. Each discreet panel should both read as it's all tiny painting and contribute to a larger composition involving all nine sides assembled as a box.
So I'm always peering at it from different angles to try and visualize how others will experience its qualities as a 3 dimensional object occupying space. Does that make it a sculpture too? I'll have to check into that.
YES.
I could see that sofa size.
I to use a helicopter crew for the narrative came up the week before when choosing this nice yellow helicopter for a different piece in 4x4x3 inch size. Helicopter a 1970s copy made in China, and the figure on the right is from the Golden Astronaut toy line, 1968.
"Pilot Down Behind The Lines", 4x4x3 inches overall. Finishing touch was the MPC B-52 bomber flying support just like in The Six Million Dollar Man. Pilot rescue scenes are a recurring motif and excuse for always keeping an eye out for more little helicopter toys. The more obsolete looking the better.
"Lunar Module Pilot Down Behind The Lines" is our title this time. Which is absurd, no Lunar Modules ever flew in combat. They were space pickups that landed on the moon so that guys could go off and play golf.
For now the figures & bling get adhered to the surface using a student grade craft hot glue gun for a flexible bond which would be easy enough to work loose without damaging the plastic figures.
See how projecting or tracing etc this image would result in a pretty smooth design for any project requiring guys doing exciting stuff with a helicopter. When painting them in they can be any color or wear any outfit or carry any gear one could think to paint into or over them. About to get busy with some of that part the concept this spring & summer with a refurbed studio basement. Room for a projector and five foot canvas, bring these into the human scale.
There he's making a break for it! I try to avoid choosing figures holding guns, but in this case it works on a thematic level. But yeah, we don't need to see more guns. They bring cameras up to the moon.
While having all this fun I try to keep in mind how viewers would be encountering the results in person i.e. gallery setting, which is nailed to some wall at or around average eye level. Viewers likely won't be crouching down to squint-eye the dutch angles I use for the macro pix. So the objectness of the overall box is just as important as what's inside.
That could also be a good action angle to try painting, with the lunar module pilot like in a blur as he runs for his life. We try to keep the scenes humorous and sly but this is one for those who love action.
Proud of that. Will share up how it finalizes, and my aim for the blog is to have a at least new smallish post every 2nd day. Stop back again soon!
Feel welcome to leave a comment
or email space.trucks1138 @ gmail.com
New address for the project.
No comments:
Post a Comment