Day 65: Lightning

 

Lightning (1995 or 1996) Technical pen and sharpie over pencil on paper. Cut out and collaged onto black bristol.

This is really more of a draft than anything. I never really finished it, because my heart really wasn't in it.

There are clear problems with the anatomy, especially in her feet and legs. I was concentrating on the head and arms, so the legs were just kind of afterthoughts. I'm looking at reworking her, too.

I was working on this, or some other random sketch around the same time, during slow patches while waiting for customers to come to the register at the comc shop I worked in. A guy I recognized form conventions came to the register, I rang him up, and he noticed my work.

"That's really good. Do you take commissions? I'll pay you ten bucks for drawing."
"Depends. What of?"
"Joan of Arc."
"In battle? Or on trial?" I know where the drama is in the story, so I figure those are the two most likely requested vignettes.
"At the stake." Okay, ew, but that's dramatic, too.
"Uh, okay, come back tomorrow and I show you a rough. Something like that I can't work on at work. Rory's not paying me to draw for you."

I work up compositions on the bus home, do a real rough with recognizable people in it at home, and bring it in to work the next day. She's standing at the stake, defiant, brave, etc. Some scumbag is leaning in to light the fire, there's nebulous crowd at the back, clouds in the sky. It's still mostly just blocked in, though.

Guy comes back, looks at the sketch, and says "That's not what I want. Can you change it?"
I don't even want to ask, but ten bucks would have bought me two meals back then.
"Okay, how do you want it changed?"
Smiling, he says, "Can the fire be lit?" EW! But, yeah, MORE dramatic...
"Okay, come back later. Like I said I can't work on this here."

I change it. There's flames, scumbag has moved back away from the heat, I've drawn in outlines of smoke. She's still defiant.

He comes back, a day or two later, asks to see it. I show it to him while ringing him up.
He says, "Uh, can you change it again?" Inwardly I am beginning to have alarms go off.
"How?" ...
"Oh, can you make her naked, like the dress had burned off and on fire and dying and (pauses) liking it? Like she's ... giving in? Enjoying it? Oh, and make the ropes more obvious, like across her front." My lizard brian is running in circles of disgust and anger (ewewGRRRewewewGRRRewewew...), but I just give him a blank stare. Someone gets in line behind him.
"NO. Keep your ten bucks. I don't do snuff pictures. You'll have to find someone else to do it. Maybe at a con? NEXT!"
"Please? I really wnat it, I know you can do it."
"No. There's a line. I'm working here." And, fortunately, someone came over and asked him to move so I could do my job.

That whole experience really creeped me out in a deep, deep way.

In light of recent turns in the industry, I'm creeped out even more. This is apparently the new target audience for comics. And he wanted me to, essentially, take this and make it into this. And they've given him, and everyone like him, what he wanted.

Days 61 and 62: Clipangels

 

 

Both untitled (2001)

Victorian scraps, scanned and recolored digitally.

I made these for my christmas cards in the year 2001. This is more design than art, in my view, but they are pretty cool.

day 43: Wallflowers

 

Wallflowers (1999) Digital photograph.

Two of the dolls from the ragdoll project (CafeGirl and PonyTart), posed.

day 14: Girl

Girl (1996) (three stages) Pen over pencil underdrawing, dark areas filled with black marker, with red marker to add color, then the image was photocopied and strategically erased.

I saw a similar pose in a magazine and wanted to try drawing it. The final image turned out wiht an entirely differenct fell (not surprisingly) than the inspiration image. I played with techniques, since the drawing itself is not technically challenging, and I wanted to do more with it. I inked the sketch, filling large areas with magic marker, then I photocopied the inked image and made it as dark as I could, deciding to use the surplus toner as a sort of scratchboard, except that I used a pink eraser instead of a stylus.

It came out pretty well, for a piece of "office supply art."

Textual interlude: Toy design

Hey, where's day 13? There is no day 13. Look! My April fool joke was a lack of posting.

I'm thinking making a few plush Gregors. Okay, stuffed Gregors, as I suspect a plush cockroach wouldn't really work. Maybe an edition of 5. Or so. With accessories... Anyone interested? They'd auction for a starting price of about 30 dollars.

I'm also considering some more dolls. Still percolating, though.

More Later.

Day 12: Mousecat

 

MouseCat, 2006 Posed digital photograph of a needle-felted scuplture of a cat. Minor digital cleanup/tweaking.

I made this for my mother and psoed and photographed it on her desk, which is made of a long-ago-gutted pianola. It's a charming little bit of fluff, but some of the photos I took were downright surreal.

Day 6: Androgynous Boy#2

 

Androgynous Boy#2 (2001) Scan of a three dimensional object, a jointed, poseable doll.

Amazing depth of field effects can be got from scanning 3-d objects. I was photographing this doll before sending him to the person I made him for, and on a whim, posed him several times on my flatbed scanner and this was one of the two most pleasing results. No further digital maniputlation of the image was necessary.

He is a doll with a jointed, poseable skeleton, with padding sewn in place and a cotton knit "skin" laid on top and carefully sewn in place. He's a model, a needle sculpture, and an articulated doll in one. Practically speaking, he has yarn hair, faux leather trousers, silk shirt and waistcoat. His face is needle-sculpted and drawn in with art pen. His limbs and torso are intentionally longer than would be proportional, to make him appear tall and fey.

Day three: Poppets, Bouquet

 

Poppets (1999) Digitally manipulated photograph of four posed, armless, faceless, rag dolls. Dolls are cotton and polyfil.



Bouquet (1999) Digitally manipulated photograph of detached, stuffed cotton doll legs, gathered in a box. Legs are cotton and polyfil.

This is something that grew out of my taking documentary photographs of a craft project. I was making a series of character rag dolls from a pattern I designed for the project. While photographing the various steps, I posed the dolls and their parts in various ways, and took photographs that had little to do with the steps involved in making the dolls themselves. There are about 10 photographs in this series, and perhaps 30 of the documentary, instructional series.

Day One: Secret Book

 

Secret Book 1999

This is really two works.

The book is a journal, made of paper, board, cloth, thread, wire, glue and ribbons. After making the journal, I photographed it and digitally altered the photograph. The journal is approximately 5x7 inches, closed, and I think about 60 pages. It is in a private collection, and was intended for use.

The creative process of the book was very intuitive, involving as much "let's see if this will work" as traditional bookbinding techniques. The paper was sewn into signatures, which were then sewn together, and glued to the fabic-covered boards. I chose the spiralled wire decorations for the outer binding, as I enjoy working with wire and I loved the way the stretched spirals evoke Asian depictions of clouds. The ribbons tied along the spine serve the function of the spine of a traditionally bound book, taking some strain off the signature stitching when the book is in use. The third ribbon functions as a latch.

The book is so evocative of dreams, clouds, night, and older votive books that it suggested a certain arcane, occult feeling in the photographs I took, originally to document the physical work. I decided to explore digital manipulations of the photographs to further express that feeling.

This piece is the result.