Post #482206 by little lost tiki on Tue, Sep 8, 2009 5:33 PM

BEFORE I GET TO POSTING THE ACTUAL CANVAS IN PROGRESS...
I'd like to share a few fun photos of the cruise to Ensenada...

Monumental Street Art!

great street signage!
here's my wife with a background example...

and look!
a Tilt-a-Whirl! in mexico!
a Mexican tilt-a-whirl!
Viva la Funtime!
Joy!

Damn fence!
Que Lastima!

i want one!

Tanks for the memories!

thus concludes the tourist photoslide show....
thank you for your patience....

well...the Squid invasion canvas has started..
but first, some close-ups of the study for it
a study in contrasts,at times ...
as you compare it to the canvas....
olcano and stars falling out of the sky Revelation stylee!

i had to simplify the figures
lest they steal attention from the SQUIDS!
they are merely pawns and victims in this Grand Scheme of a painting!

one slithering ashore
while another attempts to scale a hill...

carnage....silent wet tentacled carnage...

check out the fellow running...
he dropped his spear!

i used a lip with a tapa-ish motif to separate the surface from below it..
i'll be using it to rim the clouds on the upper part on the canvas...

the KRAKEN! actually a giant Humboldt "Red Devil" Squid!

Okay! now that you're familiar with the initial inspirational elements
let us move forward....

to the CANVAS!!!!!

First off, this was to be based on those polynesian Storyboards that are carved from wood...A lot of them are very simple and basic
but i found a few that had some pretty good detail..
not LLT SuperHappyFunTime detail'''
but enough to satisfy my horror vacuii inclinations...

So first thing is i went to the Art Supply warehouse
and got some supplies
mainly a 24 x 36 canvas!
we had wanted an 18x36-but it don't exist in standard frame land... :(
Anyways,first thing was to grab some burnt umber/raw umber/sepia/naples yellow/raw umber/etc and did some wide brushstrokes
down the canvas vertically..
After that i sketched the scene-adjusting for size
as compared with the sketch...

(ARTISTS NOTE:None of these have been adjusted for color
just think "wood color" okay? thank you)

after pencilling in a part of it,i began to brush in with Raw umber
the outlines ,and to add washes of color,to build up the shadows..
the shadows are the most important in this piece
because i want to keep that low relief illusion going...
Love this style,it retains a bit of that Indian miniature
meets Giotto kind of perspective...like a roman frieze..

added an extra squid here..

big eye!
sing it like that Cheap trick song!

Here's a good close-up to show the washes i build up..

SECOND DAY!
much progress-more fleshing out of the sculptural elements..

trying to get the shafts of light to look carved
yet still remain a painting..

Squizzes!

added suckers
to give it more movement
and slitheriness!

big eye under the tapa lip...

the ceremony on the boat....
slowly coming to life!

worked out the figural simplification a lil bit better!

Thanks for visiting!
have a great day!
:)

[ Edited by: little lost tiki 2009-09-08 18:57 ]