Mobile Tangent

Occasionally, after a painting that requires intense focus I need to take a break. Recently, I have been playing a bit with making mobiles. I had a dream about constructing a wing. Here is what followed.

I started with this image that I snapped from the internet. I sketched what I saw at the scale that I had envisioned.

I cut out the pieces and selected several woods that I thought might be complimentary. I used the paper as templates.

Then, I shaped the wood using our belt sander and a dremel. Each of the separate feather pieces I attached using a dowel. I cut the dowel down the center using the bandsaw so the feather could fit.

Several coats of wipe on polyurethane and some work with #14 gauge wire. I balanced the wing with an egg that I carved several months ago.

I'll post a picture later when I have hung it in my new studio space.

Thanks for looking. Cheers!

H is for Horse

Some of the work that I have been doing in this off season has come from requests that I get at the shows. Alot of people love horses and so it is pretty often that we are asked if I have any horses. Here is a first try at a horse:

Thanks for looking. Cheers!

S is for Stegosaurus

Well well well. I have been a bum. I have been working like crazy since mid December, since I was able to extricate myself from the elementary school, and yet I have not posted once in this space. I have thrown some things out on instagram, but other than that nada.

Anyhow, my new resolution is to try to get back in to a once a week posting. Likely, for a while I'll post two-a-weeks for a time to share some of the works that have been missed.

This first posting is a new possibility. A long time ago I had a notion to make a stegosaurus machine. I collected some images for study and considered how appropriate a dinosaur seems with my machine constructions. As of this post I am drawing out a triceratops and then I know that there must be a T-Rex.

Here is that stegosaurus idea fully formed:

I began, as usual with an outline sketch of the figure I plan to sketch. Sometimes I work from several photographs. Most of the time I have a mental image of the animal. Even as far as the direction that the animal should face.  

The machine parts come out in several different areas first in my minds eye. Often, I connect bits that I did not realise would be together as the machine grows on the paper.

Once all of the machine parts have been sketched and most of the original outline has been erased I start adding color.

Depending on my mood, I sometimes work all in one color until I have blocked in all of that color that I intend. As I work, I visualise colors that will be a part of this creature. Generally I have the pallete in mind before I begin.

I knew, with this work, that I would use yellow-green, orange and purple. I cannot explain how I knew that these were what the colors should be.

After all of the base colors have been laid down, I begin to apply the layers of darker colors. I always leave the glass tubing for the final layers. Something about the glass just seems to bring it all to life.

I took this photo to try to give an idea of the scale that I have been working at. This is my third painting that measures 16" by 20". It's funny, but I struggle to imagine how I used to fit these beasts into smaller space.

Thanks for looking. Cheers.