Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Black Mountain Leaf

     Last weekend I was in Black Mountain for the Sourwood Festival. Sunday afternoon I was at the back of my tent when I saw a woman carrying a leaf. I asked if she would mind if I took a photo of her leaf. Here is that picture:
On Monday I decided to make a painting of it. Here is the process:






The original photo next to the finished piece.
This series of progress photos is my favorite so far. I'm pretty pleased with this one.
Thanks for looking.







M is for Marlin

     Last week I completed a Marlin for the alphabet book. Here are the process photos:
I decided to do a grey wash and here you can see the beginnings of the machine works inside my sketched outline.

I decided to make my central colors blue and green with golden accents.



Not the best photo of the finished work, but there it is. Right now it is at the print shop, so that I can have it for the show in Banner Elk this weekend.



Sunday, August 4, 2013

Saltamontes

     Saltamontes is spanish for grasshopper. This week I completed a new machine towards the alphabet book. Here is the process:
Rough sketch from a photo I took on our trip out west.
Beginnings of machining. I like to study the forms of the different body parts and then imagine how they might be materialized and connected.

Wings are often difficult to conceptualize because there is so little structure.
For the grasshopper, I saw a palette of oranges, reds with bits of green. I like the contrast of those colors and felt that they were also representative of the insect. 
Dramatic lighting.
Nearly finished. I decide to add some black to the leg, reflecting the actual animal. Then I will work on glassing.
Here is the last photo I made before I shipped it off to the printshop. I'll post the finished piece when I get the image from Henco. Thanks for looking.