Delayed Art Day!

Posted by Somnium Exertus | Posted in , , | Posted on 23:59

I was so distracted with things today that I forgot to post!



So here's where I take advantage of changing post dates so this post still happened on the 8th. Just keep it a secret, ok? I had a rather productive day with lots of thoughts, distractions (mainly talking to awesome people I haven't heard from in a long time) and good old fashioned naps! Here's your first glimpse of how I use my sketchbook to record my ideas.




Here's a typical brainstorm session of mine. Two related ideas and one other old one I'm thinking of revisiting. You know those times when you wake up and just can't seem to get moving? I thought about how there's the term "concrete shoes" that have been used by organized crime groups to weigh down a body, but I didn't feel that concrete had the visual impression of weight that I was looking for. What's heavy? Lead! A lead block looks rather dull, especially when it oxidizes (chemistry joke, sorry!), so I thought about the idea of having "a lead concrete block". That way there'd still be the interesting form and texture of the concrete with the look of lead. I'm not totally certain, but I believe that for familiar materials the brain will gauge the weight of the object before it considers the form, similar to the "what's heaver, a pound of feathers or a pound of lead?" question. Either way, I plan on making a scaled down cinder block/cement block or some other type of weight as part of a sculpture that illustrates this 'hard to get moving' feeling. A rough sketch of that is in the bottom left, my scribbles about the process for making the block is above that.

The coffee cup and S/$ squiggles have to do with another project. I'll keep this one as more of a mystery for now as it'll probably be fairly simple to make, so I could save the whole process for another Saturday post.



This is just a quick sketch of a torso wearing a t-shirt. The reason for this is that I get ideas for shirts/sweaters a lot of the time and figured if I have a stock image worked out already I can simply hop into Photoshop and start the work flow. Expect to see these in the future. Expect them to be awesome. EXPECT THEM TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Just kidding.





These next two are the results of some time well spent in the summer, and now some time well spent in the winter. The time in the summer involved making the stencil for these images with a stock photo of a speaker, so so Photoshop magic and some careful cutting later and I had two layers to work with. The best kind of paper to make these kinds of stencils on are your plain manila file folders.





I used acrylic paints, a pearlescent/sparkly paint additive and some india ink on these, both done on sheets of cardboard found in the backs of new calendars. One thing I really like about the stencils is that after you use them, the paint that dries on them actually strengthens the stencil itself, so you don't end up wrecking the fine detail parts as soon as you'd think!

And so ends the first post of artful nature.

Song of the day: Belleville by Django Reinhardt
Page of the day: Footage of Historical Americal Nuclear Tests
Pocket change: $3.07

Comments Posted (3)

  1. Wanda has writed...

    Ok, I'm going to first off start with the picture of your bed. Please, please tell me your room isn't that small, it looks like it's the length of your bed! Oh, and the other thing is.. what is that thing under the sketch of the lady torso.. My dirty minded gears are working and it kinda looks like hand restraints but heck, you only have one! O_O But remember that is dirty minded Wanda speaking.. Clean Wanda just doesn't know what to make of it.
    Now for my second part of this comment, I would like to tell you that you rock at sketching/stencil work. I really like the speakers, I feel a little extra special cause I saw them on Skype the other day. :D
    But anywho, keep going with your blog thing. I secretly love stalking your awesomely amazing life.
    Sincerly,
    Me.

    Posted on: 00:41
  2. The D-Man has writed...

    A canvas.

    My verification word is: gratida

    Posted on: 18:03
  3. Somnium Exertus has writed...

    Wanda - My room isn't that small, but that's more than half of it! It's 10'4" by 12'2"... in the photos of me you can see my bed against the wall, it bumps out to make room for the shower, plus there's more room stolen by my closet. Sooo yeah, it's kinda small.

    Posted on: 08:25

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