HEAVY RESCUE 411: GANYMEDE STATION EDITION
When inspiration hits you must respond. The mayhem discussed in this post covered much more extensively over at my Space Trucks blog here spacetrucks.blogspot.com/2023/05/gilmark-toys-hard-plastic-space-ship.html
Long/short is that we have a new parody make believe TV show idea to have fun with. Debated on which blog to go over this on as there's as much art content as space bling worship. But it's about those plastic ships right now, the painting to follow. Usually it's worked the other way, starting with a more or less finished painted box that needed something inside to tell a story. This time it started as finding an idea large enough to snugly fill the void-like expanse of a much larger area than my standard 4x4 inch size.
Not sure about the text but want a "splash screen" with the make believe show's name, will refine it. Depicts an accident scene involving a somewhat rare Gilmark Toys hard plastic space car in a severely damaged state I'd obtained for a few dollars more. Held onto it knowing I wanted to utilize its still respected hull in a creative manner ... We just happened to have one of those Heavy Machine Rescue type shows on during supper, where guys up in Canada wearing brightly colored foil suits pull wrecked tractor trailers out of the snow? and bingo.
The box work as originally plotted out, painting just there at this stage to suggest an off-world location. Box is a 10x20 inch cheese collection gift crate from the late Uncle Michael. Best idea I'd come up with was to make a crater (at right) with plasticine that a likewise broken but handsomely painted Marx Toys space tank could traverse down to meet up with a painted Marx astronaut.
Groovy idea, but what of it? I like it when the arrangement suggests a little story, the more absurd the better. And the only rule is that the painting has to be as cool as whatever goes into the box or you're just flappin air. Craft table bling priced $50 or less, maybe clickbait eye-candy for people to "Like" on social media. Pass. Set it aside for a month & worked on other things.
Mayhem. Now we have a story to tell, and much more to fill in starting with finishing the painted scene. Needs a space heliocopter or wreckage hauling garbage ship in the sky over the tank, suspended by wire etc. The terrain will be more terraformed and scattered with debris from the mishap. And I want to paint the crashed ship with a stainless steel iridescent acrylic that looks like metal. Not like I could mess it up any further.
Are we having fun yet?
What I'm after. My dad is hooked on these shows, and will gleefully watch two or more episodes a day if allowed. He admires how it stars essential workers who modestly go about difficult tasks in bone-chilling, dangerous conditions for basic pay. No false heroes being celebrated, just guys who go home to their families at the end of the day. Sit in a chair, maybe have a warm meal.
I used to hate it, and still cannot discern between the two or three shows if its kind that feature into our routine programming here at Camp Nyland. I believe they are produced by the Weather Channel? and all have that same narrator whose voice has become more frequently heard in our house than music. Or at least upstairs on B Deck where my painting area is. I hear that guy booming on all the time, and when the inspiration hit I felt it was time to respond in kind: "Just go for it, snarky media parody and all." Cross-topic interest with the potential of a new audience who follow the show and want artworks involving work crews cleaning up after rocket accidents ... I have a lot of broken space ships in my boxes of stuff set aside to feature in artworks. Consider this warming up a new trope.
Our pilot at right in gold, a Gumdrop Alien cyborg by LP Toys of Hong Kong. That's his spouse in orange begging him to please get down from there, same toy line. Assorted astronauts by Giant Plastics, Multiple Toymakers, Airfix, and LP Toys, all painted with acrylics by Golden's. Dutch angle closeups like these can be printed + framed, or projected, enlarged, traced, painted into, and become their own flat 2d artworks. Kind of a nice angle to work from right there.
Which wasn't easily arrived at. Total time invested could be rounded down to three months of stop/go work over two years. First the elements had to be found, some of which I've had since 2019. The figures and space tank had to be selected from that stash and painted. Then the box selected & its terrain begun, the prior idea with the space tank worked on for about a month. Then the inspiration of the wrecked ship had to present itself, along with an hour or so excitedly fumbling up the collection of elements shown. Another hour taking pix, several more sorting them, modifying them, and writing up the post. Other things were created during that time span as well so it's not like this was a sole focus.
Drydock at Ganymede Station, one of our commercial and industrial hubs on Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede, where forward bases to explore Saturn's life-rich water moons were established. Current population is about 22,000 mostly made up of industrial workers, miners, refinery crews and the support staff needed to provide lodgings and recreation for a small city's worth of humans. Which fifty years on is a mix of both Terrestrial colonists and Out Worlders who have never set foot on Earth.
One thing is for sure: My astronauts are always in trouble. One misadventure after another.
spacetrucks.blogspot.com/2023/05/gilmark-toys-hard-plastic-space-ship.html
No comments:
Post a Comment