Wednesday 29 October 2008

My many and strange ART projects

Okay, I make stuff. All the time. Just to give peeps an idea this is a list of all the things I am in the middles of at the mo:
1) An oil painting of some boats
2) Drawing Paul Newman for an art class
3) Making a huge 5 foot sculpture of a faun.
4) Painting a dragon alebrije
5) Sculpting and apple-tree-man ooak figure
6) Sculpting a Hellboy 2 style tooth fairy.
7) Sculpting a goblin from Brian Frouds Labyrinth book
8) Painting another 4 legged alebrije
9) drying out apples to make shrunken heads
10) drying out mushrooms to make mushroom fairys (don't ask)
11) Collecting wood to carve
12) Painting some cups with ceramic paints

This is all I can think of right now but I know a load more will pop up soon I like to be busy! There are numerous long term or halted projects as well, such as stone sculptures and painted t-shirts which I need to finish. Also, when I'm not too busy I draw cartoons:

SEE YALL.

Saturday 25 October 2008

old lady graphite drawing

I recently drew this for an art class. I used a graphite base: using a knife to lay down graphite shaved from a graphite stick, and the built up the layers. It's A4 size and i'm pretty happy how it came out. It was really difficult to get the skin texture, whilst maintaining the areas of pure white.

The picture was an elderly artist, from an art magazine, and was really an exercise in tone, trying to match the photocopy as closely as possible rather than produce an accurate looking drawing. This means i couldn't use any artistic license and really had to aim for accuracy, something I don't normally bother with! This is a great way to practice and improve, especially in paying attention to the original and not becoming engrossed in your own work.

It may not be perfect but this was a good project and I'd recommend any aspiring artists to practice their tonal work using photocopies.

Friday 24 October 2008

The alebrijes saga part 1: so it begins.


I always have a million different ideas and projects on the go!!

At the moment I am focusing on mexican art. There are some beautiful and colourful projects which anybody can do, such as papier mache and wood carving, and numerous patterns and motifs to be taken from mexican folk art and crafts. Papier mache is used really effectively in mexican art, and has advanced beyond a childrens activity to a really beautiful and unique sculpture material.

Beginning with a wire armature, newspaper is used to build up a body and then layers of thin newspaper strips are glued on with papier mache mix (I use pulped newspaper, PVA glue and wallpaper paste). This is then sanded, painted and varnished. See the mexican art section on my website for more! http://www.junkpunk.co.uk/alebrijes.html

Wednesday 1 October 2008