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

Bula Vinaka Robb,
I wanted to know if your sketch of the "Kapu cave" was done with pastels? (not the thumbnails, the color version ) and if so is that how you work out the pieces before painting on the velvet? thanks Dawn

[ Edited by: Sophista-tiki 2008-05-01 08:37 ]

Yeah, looks like color pastels on black paper.

Very cool work. I really dig Sleeping Sentinel!

Thanks Shark and Sophista-tiki.

The sketch was only about 3x4 inches and done with colored pencils. I design on both white and black paper depending on what I need to work out - composition I mostly do on white, final design on black. Sometimes, the spirit strikes me and I do a sketch on black that I declare a final and go right to velvet.

Kapu Cave on the other hand, had a final sketch done on white:

The final painting, with a black base, would look radically different.

GREAT to see the progress of this commission.

Theres a lotta steps involved before hitting the velvet eh!!

Great work, keep up these posts, very informative and interesting.

Here's the final painting. When drawing it onto the velvet, I sat lower than the painting so that I had to look up at it. This helped create a better sense of perspective. This doesn't show up as well in the photo, but the photo isn't three feet across!

I'm quite happy with the finished painting. The overall concept was the commissioners, and it was nice to have someone conceive the idea for me.

This turned out completely awesome. A+. Go to the head of the class.
Two semi-opposable thumbs up. GROG like. Kelly lucky woman to get such a nice poiece of art.

ZOINKS!
The Hipster gets all the good art!
Very Cool!
from concept to completion
you were in total control the whole time!
Hip-Hip-Hooray!

I'm weeping right now...

WOW!

My current commission is for the MASTER OF THE VIBRACASTER, the mallet-man of the Tikiyaki Orchestra: Digitiki.

Digitiki asked for a painting of Pele the main mistress of lava. He sent me some reference material to show things that inspired him. I work best by making scribbly thumbnail sketches until I feel the idea is ready.

For two weeks, I worked on a SECRET commission that should be seen at the Hukilau while developing the Pele idea in my free time (the only free time I have to sketch is at red lights, lunch breaks, and when I'm the passenger in a car). These are those accumulated scribbles:

None of them impressed me except this scratchy 1 inch drawing:

It didn't look like much, but here's how it looked in my head:

I emailed the above 3x5 inch drawing to him for approval. He's made some good suggestions for improving it, and I'm working on a refined sketch tonight.

Last night, I did this quick sketch to get a feeling for what the inside of Pele's lair might be like:

I also did what I call a color wedge (an old Hollywood term) to test my paint's ability to work well in this painting. An ugly truth of velvet painting is that many colors turn to a muddy or grey on velvet, not brighter and more beautiful against a black background.

My sketches are very primitive because I budget time on a project like this and it doesn't pay to create ART... I just need to get enough of a feeling for what I'm doing that I feel confident in my my ability to create a beautiful final piece.

WOW!!!! :o :o

Thanks for heeding my request earlier in this thread and posting progress pics. I had no idea you would be so thorough and how informative and interesting it is to read about how a painting is created. Especially a commission where you are at the mercy of the wishes of your paying client, yet still want to express your artistic license.

I had no idea of the number of the preparative sketches you (and other artists must) do, but the results speak for themselves - amazing, amazing stuff.

Hey Robb,
These paintings are the best!!
Great work keep it up.

Robb, your work is absolutely incredible. Some of them make me think of matte paintings from some classic fantasy film. Others remind me of some of the cool background paintings from Fantasia. Really awe-inspiring.

Can you recommend some colors/hues that work best for painting on velvet or is that a dumb question. I suppose I could just hurl paint like a chimp at the canvas and see what looks good but you are a master. Talent is obviously the main ingredient but any tips on general technique would be greatly appreciated :)
Thanks for the inspiration!

Great great stuff Robb,
The perspective of the cave adds much enchantment and apprehension to the subject, while the volcanoe adds extra action and fantasy. Amazing to me that the final painting was sooo fast for you!
Looking forward to this thread in the months to come, as well as seeing your art in person some day!
Jon M

Love em'. They have such a gorgeous exotic feel. I'm hearing "Taboo" or "Atlantis" in my head just looking at them.
"Mondo Moai" and "Green Tiki" are my faves. "Green Tiki" actually kind of creeps me out if I imagine it jumping at my like a praying mantis. Yikes. Can't wait to see more.

Wow. I can't believe how enthusiastic you guys are. Thanks so much.

Mr. PuPu Pants - matte painting was once a dream of mine, you have an icredible eye. The secret commission I did just before this one SCREAMS matte painting and should be a the Hukilau. About colors, it varies per brand, but any color meant for glazing is nearly useless, unless you slop it on like the tacky paintings that sunk black velvet so long ago.Experiment!

I just emailed these two quick sketches to Digitiki and am waiting for his selection and approval, or corrections. If he gives the thumbs up, I start tomorrow morning on velvet.

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2008-05-04 08:39 ]

so great. Not only am I loving your work but im so curious about the process, I would love to learn more. Have you ever thougt about giving a one day workshop? Wanna come up to Seattle and give me and Pupu Pants a lesson. I will put you up in the Bamboo Grove as my guest. Dawn

The always super-fast replying Digitiki chose this one.

Tomorrow, I begin.

I'm glad he chose this one because in the first sketch Pele was showing a little too much wookie.

This shows how weird stuff can be in art: when I photographed this first sketch I was wearing an orange shirt, and it reflected onto the black paper as a soft glow. When I do Digitiki's actual painting, I'm going to consider putting that glow in. Compare this to the accepted one above.

Love the orange glow. Gives it an even more ominous atmosphere. Subtle difference but adds alot.
It's going to be a really cool painting either way.

Regarding Matte paintings--My brother and I used to make little stop-motion films on Super 8 together when we were kids and made really crude 'in-camera' matte shots with glass paintings. We would have killed for paintings like yours!! :)
My brother is now a Director at Dreamworks and I do Video production for Microsoft but we still long for the days of backyard film-making with just the two of us-- trying to teach ourselves how to do a matte painting or some grand special effect.
Thanks again for sharing your amazing work.

Do you paint in acrylics or oil?

Mr. Pupu: I used to do stop motion super 8 movies too. I ended up in Advertising for 11 years, sometimes doing special effects and sets. The horrible people I used to encounter were too much, so I left. Now I'm here with all these surprisingly nice Tiki enthusiasts... big improvement!

Grog, I use oils. I didn't like how acrylics looked or handled on velvet. I have to tell you, painting on velvet is tough! The only thing that makes it doable for me is that in high school I used to specialize in using colored pencils on black paper.

Thanks everyone.

This is bizarre :)
I graduated with a degree in advertising but came to the same realization you did -- only just as I was graduating. I went back to school for Film and Video, worked at the local ABC affiliate for a bit and ended up at Microsoft to help start up the production facility there. Are you my evil twin from the parallel universe?

I should have said "evil twin with more talent?" :wink:

Oh la la...that there is some mighty fine talent. FA-BU-LUS!!!

Robb, the commission for Hiphipahula is fantastic. Such a clean look on the tikis. Thanks for posting the studies and sketches. Keep up the good work.

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

[ Edited by: frostiki 2008-05-05 08:57 ]

I misunderstood an email by Digitiki and spend half a day laying in the wrong image. This is the one he chose, but wants straighted vertically:

Luckily, this image will look much more dynamic than the one I thought he chose.

Really looking forward to seeing this one worked up.

Thanks for sharing your sketches and work in progress stuff. Love dreamy feel all your works creates. Keeping detail and that soft velvet textures must be tough.

What sizing do you work to?

Thanks Tikiracer, I'm glad you've noticed the dreamy mood feeling I go for, that's the funnest part of doing these.

I usually paint 16"x20"s, and 2'x3', but have done one 3'x4'... that was a lot of velvet to fill up!

In the shameless self-promotion department, Lee Scott (tiki lee's) is going to have three copies of my painting "Sleeping Sentinel" at Caliente this weekend.

I wish I could go to these things, I'd like to meet you guys.

My favorite paintings have almost always been ones that I'd like to walk into and look around. Maybe that is related to the fondness for matte paintings we were talking about. Every one of your paintings is like that to me. Like a window to a cool place.

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2008-05-07 10:56 ]

Where are you located?

Grog, sadly I'm stuck in Ohio. Eech.

Mr. Pupu, I feel a connection, 'cause I've always liked to mentally "walk into" a painting and have always tried to paint for people who are like that.

I've been too busy to post my work on Digitiki's Pele painting, but here's some pics. I'm keeping them far back because I don't want to show too much right now.

I've been painting in my living room because it has a 9'x9' window for more light. I went out and took photos of rocks for reference, my wife posed for Pele photos, and an image from a volcano video, and taped them next to the velvet.

Our 6' Tiki named Shuggie observes.

To me, the scary thing about velvet is that you can't paint over a mistake :)

Velvet is scary in general.

Love the velvet work, Robb!

On 2008-04-29 06:04, Robb Hamel wrote:
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.

Hey tell us about it - sorry I took so long to find you.

Your velvet work is amazing Robb. I remember 'kitch' NZ/Maori velvet paintings from the late 60's early 70's but they were fairly nasty mass-produced tourist market stuff. A bit like those 'large/sad-eyed kid' illustrations (French?) of the same era, only characterised Maori warriors/dancers and the like - nothing like the true artworks that you have shown. Incidentally though, even they have become quite sought after collectables nowdays.

Love the wooden figure in 'Yuat Falls' and everything about 'The Forgotten One'. You achieve an incredible spacial quality to your land/sky-scapes that cant just be attributed to the richness of oil paint on black velvet - You've got magic happening!

Thanks for sharing.

Tama :)

On 2008-05-04 10:53, Robb Hamel wrote:
The always super-fast replying Digitiki chose this one.

Tomorrow, I begin.

I'm glad he chose this one because in the first sketch Pele was showing a little too much wookie.

LMAO @ "wookie"!!!
What stunning & beautiful Art you are creating, Robb~ you are very talented!

Thank you very much Sam, Tam, and Moai Mama.

Thanks for laughing at the "Wookie" comment, I didn't think anyone would notice!

This is from yesterday:

The next pics will really be an improvement over what I've shown so far.

Whoa! Its hard for me to post anything becuase I'm speachless--its beautiful.

Thanks Mark! This is working out exceptionally well because it's not crammed with stuff. I'm a very serious Modernist, which means I'm a minimalist, and this painting is right up my alley.

Here's a newer pic with the part of the lava tube that leads to the outside world nearly done. Pele now has a place to go.

This pic should show how dirty the velvet gets while I'm painting... by the end, the painting is repulsive. When It's dry and I clean it off, it's like seeing it for the first time.

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! I love the tiki with different colored light on each side, the PELE painting is also fantastic! Classic look with a modern sensibility in both of these.

Where can one obtain the velvet with which too work upon?

Thanks, Sneakytiki, I used to get a nice velvet from a Joannes' fabric store. I switched to a mail order place, had quality issues and am looking for a new place now. It's been nothing but problems getting good samples.

Below is an actual sample I received and is meant to let me judge the superior quality of their goods:

Here is the Pele painting missing only the lava:

Robb, This is some really fun stuff here. This painting turned out bitchin' This daughter of the underworld gal really looks like she rising up through some kind of ancient active underwater lava tube...erie cool...whoa!...

[ Edited by: Babalu 2008-05-11 16:11 ]

WOW Robb! Stunning!

Hi Robb,

I've been enjoying your thread. Really like your most recent one. The up lighting and down lighting is just awesome on her.

How do you clean velvet? Tape?

Many thanks to everyone. This is the most supportive crowd the human mind can imagine.

Here is the finished work. When it's dry, I'll get it cleaned up and take a good photo of it.