Keeping velvet tiki art alive...? TWO PIECES ARE WRAPPED! YEAH!

Hello Centralites! I've been working on new paintings but thought I'd share my previous stuff before moving on....

"The heart of Uapu"

"A cool pad, baby"

"Mondo Moai and the midnight revival"

"Green Tiki"

"Yuat Falls"

"It's a dry heat" - my first

"The forgotten one" - my second.

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2013-05-01 17:52 ]

Outtasight Man!
Welcome to Tiki Central and thanks for sharing your awesome art!
You got the whole range,from junglegirl tiki all the way to Tiki Modern Tiki at a swanky poolside locale!
these are great!!!! Any tips for those of us too scared to even attempt pai nting on velvet?

Wow, those are absolutely gorgeous!
I love the dramatic lighting in all of them.
I especially love the highlights in the 3rd one, and how realistic they look, like the 4th one; that's such a trip!

Welcome to TC! I can't wait to see more of your paintings! :D

On 2008-03-10 10:18, little lost tiki wrote:

these are great!!!! Any tips for those of us too scared to even attempt painting on velvet?

Thanks bigtime. The only advice I have is to use oils and to buy 1/4 yard of velvet & start playing around. Don't take it seriously, just think of it as fun. Go for it.

beautiful work, love the giant moai fire ritual, great lighting. Keep posting.

very very nice. You are a talented artist.
Welcome here.

Velvet paintings always look awesome. Well not always but if you know how to paint as is obvious you do then their awesome.

The paint just punches off the velvet.

Great work.

Aloha Robb!!
Finally somebody doing velvets. Love the first one. Keep it up brah!

I've been admiring your work for a while on ebay, some other art/craft site I can't remember, and I think myspace too? Great to see you posting here!

beautiful work

I like'em all, but "The heart of Uapu" really speaks to me!

[ Edited by: 4WDtiki 2008-03-14 19:10 ]

You'll be able to see Robb's work at the Hukilau Art Show "Fine Art Tiki" brought to you by Harold Golen Gallery of Miami!!!

Incredible work - just incredible.

I agree...absolutely awesome. Would be good to show at Oasis too. I especially like the Poolside Tiki and the Moai....breathtaking!!! :)

Love them all, but particularly fond of the first one! Is it for sale?

What the hell? Are any of them for sale?

PTD

Welcome! Your work is vibrant and gorgeous. Makes me want to stop using my oil brushes as artwork and actually do some. Not that it'd be any good...sigh.

I especially like the drama captured in the 4th one. Will that one be part of the Hukilau Art Show? In any case, I'm really looking forward to seeing the velvets in person!
~gina

Gorgeous work and welcome to TC :D Cant wait to see more pics of your art, and we LOVE progress shots :wink: :D

Fabulous work...post more pics.

Thanks everbody for the wonderful comments, I wish I could respond to all them, but here's a couple: I've posted more pics and given the names of the works. Sorry, but I've sold many of these already. Only the top one is a portfolio-grade work, the rest were meant to be reasonable to produce and purchase so they are not examples of the limit of my skills. I have another portfolio piece - one that is close to Tiki Kiliki's heart, but I'll save that for Hukilau.

There are such talented people here it boggles the mind.

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2008-03-12 18:57 ]

man those are great, Mrs. Frostiki is even more revved up to try her hand at painting on velvet. Keep up the good work.

visit us at http://www.frostiki.com

[ Edited by: frostiki 2008-03-14 08:42 ]

"Green Tiki"

Whoa! Nice work, Robb! Green Tiki is my Fave. Post more when ya got 'em. Welcome to TC!

Nice work Robb, I love it. It was great to hear from you, welcome to TC too :)

Yeah, Green Tiki! That's my favorite! No, but the Giant Moai is so cool... okay, that one is my favorite! No, whait a second... and then the Very Clear Evening is freaking amazing! Love the rflectiona, and I always dig big pufly clouds! ...wow, they are ALL really good!
U ROCK!

Man, Those paintings are just too bitchin' . Inspiration for my carvings for sure. Would love to own one of your works for my groovy pad. Anyway I can contact you to acquire one?

Nice stuff. GROG like.

"The forgotten one" is my favorite. Splendid.
Is it gonna be for sale ?

Beautiful work!

I agree with virani, "The forgotten one" really strikes a mood with me as I'm partial to Marqs.

They all are great works though, color, lighting and composition all work great to set the mood in each.

Hope you have some work for sale at Hukilau, would love to pick up a piece for my bar.

What can I say except AMAZING! Beautiful velvet work!!!! its really wonderful to see someone doing velvet paintings. It seems like such a lost art these days! Keep up the beautiful work!

chiming in with the same compliments as everyone else.... awesome to see a new velvet painter out there with such talent. the volcano ones are my favourites.

looking forward to seeing some more progress and how-to posts from you here on TC, maybe you could help start a velvet painting revival?

cheers,
harro.

Please ignore my previously badly mis-worded comment (now edited to reflect the proper word). I got sidetracked mid-word and started typing again and combined whatever I was trying to say to come up with something bad. Sorry about that.

ooOOOOoooo ahhhh woww! so beautiful I love how well the green works wit the black makes me wanna get some oil paints. "The Forgotton One" is my favorite.
can you psot a link to your myspace page Dawn

Awesome!

the forgotten one is amazing bro ...that is hands down one of the best mood setters i seen in a while bro ...yer a badass painter bro ...

The wonderful and helpful Tiki Lee's of Las Vegas offered me my second Tiki commission, though a tight deadline meant it would be the first to be completed: a limited series of four identical paintings that he would vend at the Tiki Farm Parking Lot Sale.

With time very short, I reviewed my sketchbook designs. I got an image in my mind and went to work without a sketch, improvising as I went. The intention was to get a little spacey and lowbrow artish instead of hardcore Tiki. The size is small, 16x20.

I've never had time to Photoshop the unavoidable dustspecks from the image below. Also, the smooth-to-the-eyes nap of velvet shows up in digital pics looking like a starfield of grey dots and needs a lot of attention.

"Sleeping Sentinel"

Next up: a painting that would require lots of design sketches.

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2008-04-29 17:03 ]

as the artist one always sees the flaws and things that ar not quite perfect. BUT From an outside point of view. ITS SUPER COOL DUDE!
nicely done. Dawn

I'm drooling over this last one. Wonderful wonderful!

MrsHoptiki

GO ROBB!
you're nailing it!
That green one is my fave....
it's got a shimmery jungle vibe
that i can't shake!

this is by far my favorite it has pointy teeth..im totally biased for pointy toothed hooligan tikis

Thanks everybody. I'm always impressed with how supportive Tiki Central fans are. I try to check out everybody else's work, but time limits that.

Robb, if you hadn't said that those were dust speck I would have thought that they were stars and intentional. I think it looks cool with the star/dust specks in the painting. l am impressed with all the cool stuff you've put out on the velvet. Keep it up.

Nice work Robb! I can't wait to hang my Robb Hamel Original "Kapu Cave" commission in my bar when it's complete. Wish I had a better photo of it. Maybe Robb does??? :) Thanks again Robb...I'm diggin' it!

Hey Robb. I was lucky enough to see that last one up close and personal at Tiki Lee's booth at the Parking Lot Sale the other week. Awesome work! Can't wait to see the new pieces.

CH

splendid. I really love the way you work with the shadows and dark atmospheres.
Can't wait to see the next one :wink:

Thanks everyone.

Sorry Frostiki, I didn't explain completely: the most visible dots are stars. Not many off the artifacts and dustspecks show up here. My wife also flipped out over Mrs. Frostiki's great zombie painting.

Just saw a show the other day about a place called the Velveterium, or something like that, located in Portland, Oregon. They call it a "museum." But what I saw on the show was NOTHING compared to your stuff - WOW! Keep it up man! Wish I could purchase ANY of those gems!

Awesome! Much cooler than Elvis or card-playing-dogs. :)

My next painting, titled "Kapu Cave" was for Hiphipahula. She commissioned it for her Tiki bar of the same name. It measures 24x36 and was one of the most difficult designs I've worked on in a while.

Hiphipa hula, on the other hand, was terrific to work with. I've been invited to Tiki Oasis and had a lot of questions about it. She spent an hour on the phone giving me helpful info (thanks Kelly!).

Below are my first thumbnails for the project.

Including two Tikis, a cave, a volcano, and flowers was a real challenge for me.

On 2008-04-28 07:56, Robb Hamel wrote:
The wonderful and helpful Tiki Lee's of Las Vegas offered me my second Tiki commission, though a tight deadline meant it would be the first to be completed: a limited series of four identical paintings that he would vend at the Tiki Farm Parking Lot Sale.

"Sleeping Sentinel"

I had the booth next to Tiki Lee, and got to see this fantastic painting in person.
Viva Velvet!

The main goal of this painting was to present the cave in a mysterious way. I tried this simple and very direct way to convey that.

This thumbnail is what I emailed to Hiphipahula for approval. It is only about three inches across and didn't photograph well.

It was too simplistic, but the tikis and colors were approved.

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2008-05-01 06:01 ]