Tiki Central / Other Crafts / Tiki Tiger Studios: Big long Egyptian trip report!
Post #634198 by tigertail777 on Sat, Apr 28, 2012 6:21 PM
|
T
tigertail777
Posted
posted
on
Sat, Apr 28, 2012 6:21 PM
Been a while... first off thanks VampiressRN for taking the time to post and your thoughtful words. :) Now I know, I know it aint Tiki yet, and I am sorry but I wanted you to see the tiger hasn't been an artist SOB and not done any more art lately. This latest piece has got to be the most insanely detailed thing I have ever done: a three tier diorama of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" for a art guild library show. I found an old curio cabinet and went to down packing it in with details. Most of it is sculpey sculptures, but there are other elements as well: the characters in the scenes are paper cut outs and the middle scene has real quartz crystals. The whole shebang is lit up inside with those tiny LED fairy lights, which is supposed to give the impression that the characters have Rumkopf coil lamps like in the book by positioning the lights behind frosted paper.The side outer shelves have artifacts pertaining to the book like dinosaur bones, an empty water bottle, a stone with ancient Icelandic writing on it, and lots of mushrooms because in the book they find a forest of giant mushrooms. Here is a overall view of the entire piece: http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/tigertail777/SAM_0420.jpg Now here is some close up details: A semi decent shot of the middle tier scene, where the characters discover a long passage of cave crystals. I used real quartz crystals because I wanted the shine and interplay of light reflection and refraction once I installed the LED lights. Unfortunately some of the beauty of it is blocked out by the long white shelf of stalagmites behind the Professor. I had to do this to hide the gaudy looking wires. The best executed scene I think is this one; the characters are on a raft trying to cross a large sea of water they find close to the center of the earth. The sea is very turbulent due to the strange electrical phenomena present in the vast cave space, and there are several dinosaur creatures that rise out of the depths such as this Pleiosaur. I stumbled on the idea accidentally of pouring E-6000 quick dry glue down him to look like water. A close up of the right hand open shelves: the top is a sculpted Rumkopf coil lamp and battery pack, the next one down is the ancient stone with the name "Arne Saknussem" in old Icelandic chiseled into it (he was the original person to journey to the center of the earth in the book, and left behind details of how to replicate his journey in a small piece of manuscript. This tiny manuscript is written backwards so people during his time don't accuse him of heresy and kill him, it is the sort of scrolled parchment seen being held by the golden fossil bones in the first picture. The next part is more mushrooms. The left open shelf side has a mastodon skull along with an empty water bottle to symbolize the chapter in the book where they run out of water.The bottom is another giant mushroom, with a fossilized shell and a sabre tooth tiger skull (naturally). And finally here is a nice close up of the T Rex skull before I painted it: http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/tigertail777/P1000469.jpg The tiers in transition with a lot not painted yet: http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/tigertail777/P1000485.jpg And part of the unpainted mushroom forest before I carefully hand glued cardstock "gills" into the undersides: http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/tigertail777/P1000479.jpg It's all very crazy I know, but "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is my favorite book, so I wanted to do it some justice. Hope you all pardon my non-tiki post I will try to get something tiki done soon to get things back on track, but hopefully you enjoy this as well. |
