Post #620448 by tigertail777 on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 7:56 PM

I am almost done with the Puffa Puffa parody, just a few more touch ups and then trying to do some screen captures of the videos of the old commercials on youtube to see if I can get a glimpse of the sides to get them painted. Plus I want to make and glue on wood cereal box "flaps" on the top of the box to give the impression of it being an open box of cereal.

I have had more time to work on this because my job I had didn't work out. I realize now after much contemplation that all the jobs I have ever had ended in much the same way; because I had great difficulty grasping concepts with a lot of steps, with numbers, or steps that vary. Leading me to look at the elephant in the room that has been staring at me for years. I am quite positive now I have some kind of learning disability. I suppose the first clue really should have been the fact I can't tell time on a regular clock, or read a ruler properly because the numbers get mixed up in my head. But all my life I have told my friends and family that I knew something was wrong, and they always would reassure me that everyone goes through this kind of thing, there is nothing wrong you will learn it. I suppose it is the stubborn mix of German and Irish in my family that we don't do anything about this kind of thing until it is quite plain we have no other recourse. Well, frankly I am tired of feeling like an idiot with each job I get because my brain does not go directly from point A to point B, but rather takes the scenic route. As an artist it is useful to jumble up unrelated objects and do out of the box sort of thinking, but when it comes to real life I am afraid that has proven to be a major stumbling block because my brain can't seem to shut off that sort of thinking and applies it to everything I see or do. In short, I seem to perceive and process things like no one else and when I need to do it in the normal way I cannot. I have lost dozens of jobs because of this despite being polite, punctual, easy to get along with, and communicative...everything from cashier to newspaper carrier. My brain is very slow in comprehending things, but once I have a routine down I can do it. In order to have and keep a job I need to know how to deal with this. I am looking into getting official testing done for learning disabilities as my first step.

I am telling you all of this because I consider many of you a sort of family, and to let you know why it takes so long for me to post things, and why it may get even longer. I need to have some kind of income I can rely on, and it is painfully obvious I am not good enough to make a living off of my art after trying to freelance as a graphic designer and illustrator for a couple years now (again the big stumbling block there has been my inability to understand a lot of computer software required for the work. In college I actually maxed out the number of tutors they would allow me to have per month, as a result I really don't think I got as much out of my degree as I should have.) If nothing else good came out of my latest job, it is the fact that I know I need to seek help to work with my brain and how it does things, the elephant in the room can no longer be ignored.

Now that I have that off my chest, on with the show...

Just a few more minor details such as the one hand, and the flower in her hair and I think (aside from the sides and above mentioned flaps) I will be done. This time I just went with straight acrylics and skipped the oils, which I think gives it that more printed graphic design look of a real cereal box. I even made a few elements slightly off register to mimic the cheap printing techniques that would have been used. Part of me wishes I could have actually shown the screen tone dots, but I suppose for a painting that would have been carrying things too far. The printed look is also why I added the white hi-lights to the wakine, normally for a painting I would not do that but it perfectly copies what would have to have been done in printing to make the product stand out on the shelf, and keep the colors separated enough to prevent trapping etc. I am not sure if the cardboard used in cereal boxes has a perfectly white printing side (maybe now they can do that, but I somehow doubt in the 50's/60's they could do it) so I am betting that if they wanted stark white in the design it would call for another plate with white ink, thus adding to the cost because it would no longer be four color printing. Plus the vivid green background would probably be a spot ink. I know they spent more than the usual often times in printing cereal boxes (and still do), so it is possible they could have done all those things and then saved some money by printing less colors on the back/sides. I don't know, but these are all things I contemplate when working on projects like this; exactly how it was done and what would be outside the bounds of what was conceivable. It makes for a more convincing final piece I think, and is naturally how my brain tends to work.

Now for a little bit of a close up on the shocked wahine..

It may or may not show, but I loosely based her pose on an old Betty Page photo I ran across in which Betty shows a playfully shocked pose when a freshly caught fish is pushed towards her. Her hair is also somewhat similar to Betty's, but also based on other time period "do's". I had to take a little artistic license with some of the coloring to darken the volcano background to make her stand out, which at first I was opposed to, because I really do not think they would have printed anything that dark for the time period, but as an overall painting it seems to work so begrudgingly I have come to like it.

Sorry for all the rambling about printing, as I said it's how my brain works: I have to understand all the steps of how something is done in order to closely examine the details and replicate them. I guess it will give you a bit of a peek into my jumbled thought processes.

Until next time, Aloha Tiki friends. :)