SCULPTURE: "Sun Face"

I just finished up on a sculpture project I made for my friend, Christopher. This little bit of sunshine will appear on his shelf at work. He requested two different facial expressions, and we collaborated a lot on details until we landed on what he liked. I used Ave's Epoxy clay on half of a styrofoam ball...painted it with metallic acrylics.

CHALK ART: "Postcard #27"

It's time for a new Autumn "Postcard"...#27. A middle-school-aged kid (who I had chatted with yesterday while I was working on this) happened to walk by as I was rolling this out for a photograph. She stood reading the postcard. After a bit of silence, I asked her, "Do you get all the jokes?"

She said, "Yes...they're Dad jokes."

Exactly.

SCULPTURE: "DragonHead and Dragonfly"

 

I wanted to show you a fun "experiment" that I'm working on with my son-in-law, Brad. I've never had a sculpture of mine cast in metal before. Brad has a small forge set up in his garage, and we've discussed having him cast something I made. I was thinking of a medal/belt buckle sized bas-relief piece. We agreed to have me sculpt a Dragon head and a Dragonfly. I'll post again, whenever Brad has had some time to explore casting these in his forge.

P.S...I painted up colorized versions of plaster casts I made from molds of the originals.

SCULPTURE: "Seahorse Merman"

I finished a new sculpture today...a "Seahorse Merman". This idea started in 2012 with a sketch I doodled while on a long flight home. It's mixed media...wire, wood, aluminum foil, Ave's "Apoxy Sculpt" and "Super Sculpey" clay. I did not try to duplicate the characters from my sketch, but just let myself explore the concept 10 years later.

CHALK ART: "Postcard #26"

Here's a new "Postcard" for OCTOBER...number 26. I had several nice conversations with folks walking by while I was working on this. At least 4 of them told me how much they enjoy seeing these in my driveway. That makes me smile...everytime.

 

UPDATE!  

After my eldest daughter and my grandson both laughed when i told them what my ORIGINAL idea was for the latest "postcard", I decided to change it for the rest of the month. Now it's Jenni and Jack's fault if the kiddos have nightmares.

 

SCULPTURE: "Mantis"

Tonight, I finished a little project I've been working on. It's been a while since I'd done a full on sculpture in the round, so I made 3 little "bas-relief" sculpts..the other two were posted here earlier. The MANTIS finishes the set. 

I did my "sketch" of the Mantis in Photoshop by cobbling several photos together to get the pose I liked, and found a nice Celtic knot design for the background. I transferred the image by punching holes in a flat layer of Sculpy using a pin. 

Then I roughed in the shapes. Turns out that the Celtic element didn't work as hoped...it's too large in scale and makes the Mantis harder to see. Live and learn. 

The last phase was painting it with acrylics to create a "faux bronze" effect.

UPDATE:  I decided that the background was a bit hard to read, and competed with the Mantis. So I muted the background tones, and added more "patina blue" so the Mantis would pop more.

 

CHALK ART: "Postcard #25"

I just finished another chalk "postcard"...number 25 in the series. I decided to try a little experiment. This postcard concept is taken from the very first chalk mural I ever did...way back in 2014.

Hallmark Employees and their families helped with a clean-up and planting day at the Kansas City Zoo. They also had an artist project for people to enjoy. That year, I was involved with the planning committee, and I suggested doing a "chalk walk", since I'd always wanted to try one. 8 years later, I'm revisiting the image I had done. 

 Not sure I've improved upon the original...there are things I like about both.

 

SCULPTURE: "Bird Feeder Tree"

Today, I finished a project that was originally started in 2018. This version is the third "upgrade" to my bird feeder. The concept was to create an organic tree that had foliage designed to keep the snow off of the birdseed in the winter. 

The first version broke due to my poor engineering. The second version was a total re-sculpt of the tree with a "Tiffany Lamp" feel to it. The shrink-wrap plastic that I used on top was too reflective. 

This final version adds more foliage to the outer rim of the feeder, and uses plastic screen between the limbs, much like stained glass. 

I also re-built the stand to support the added weight. I used epoxy, PVC pipe, Bondo, and wood, then set the stand into a concrete base. 

I used wood stain, various spray cans (brown, tan, black), and acrylic washes to color it.

 

CHALK ART: "Postcard #24"

Today I finished "Postcard #24". I decided to leave off any words and let the picture do the talking. My concept was how the cat sees himself. I'm sure there could be many variations on what the viewer makes of it. I had a lot more "visitors" walking by for this one...it was fun chatting with the kids and parents after school about ART. Even had a guy trying to sell me home improvement upgrades stick around to visit and take photos. Makes me happy.

SKETCHBOOK: "Longmont, CO"

Last Thursday night, I got home from a trip to Longmont, Colorado, to see my eldest daughter Jenni and her hubby, Brad. We made pickled onions and cucumbers, played some putt-putt golf (each of us got a hole-in-one!!!), and I got to sketch a little bit. Great food, great conversations...a great time! Oh...forgot...baby goats.