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

Oh yeah, the bluish progress shots were done on a snowy day, the final is about dead on color-wise.

Nice work Mr. H.
I can smell the tropical vegetation! Oh wait, my windows open.
It smells GREEEEN!

Dramatic and moody.

Robb~ this one is just Great!!
The atmosphere is so heavy with mystic intrigue
reminds me of a forest thats hiding/containing something very magical and
special-with the intense atmosphere protecting it.

Robb,

Great job! I envy your ability to know what to leave out of a piece.
It really is as important as what you put in. SO mysterious!

ST

Robb,

I believe this is my favorite thing on TC right now...I love, love this one.

This latest pastel instantly takes the viewer to places far beyond it's own imagery...It's exotic as hell! It's sexy! It's Haunting! It's full of magic! It would look great on my new red wall :-)

Damn "FINE" Art on this here thread...

IN-FUGGIN-CREDIBLE!
nuff said!
:)

Beautious.

On 2009-01-17 07:22, Sneakytiki wrote:
Robb,

Great job! I envy your ability to know what to leave out of a piece.
It really is as important as what you put in. SO mysterious!

ST

What you left out was the raincoat, that tiki looks like a FLASHER!!! :lol:

Just kidding Robb, I'm running out of superlatives to describe your work so I'll have to go with "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Yeahhhhh man, thats sweeet :D would look perfect in any tiki bar, that piece is awesome. Very nice work!

There is "good" bad taste, and there is "bad" bad taste, and the difference of the two is in the eye of the beholder - Sven Kirsten

[ Edited by: hewey 2009-01-17 19:52 ]

Robb you are freakin awesome!

I love the "Deepest Jungle"!
And all with just pastels?!

BEAUTIFUL!!! :D

Wow, you are the Tiki King of velvet! Nice work!

CRAP!!

Whatta response, thanks everyone.

This is the FIRST time I've done a full jungle setting that felt like what's in my mind - I can't believe I finally gave birth to the baby that's been painfully gestating in my brain for a year and a half!

Congrats Rob.... you hit this one wayyyyyy out of the park!

Absolutely beautiful.

This is my very first pastel Tiki work. It's from July '07, about a month after my wife first suggested I give Tiki art a try:

This is from my notebook packed with designs on black paper. With those designs I know some of the things I'll be working on this year and next!

That sketch pad page eventually gave birth to this painting and others:

Hey Rob, Awesome stuff!! Really love checking out your posts!
I went over to your website because I didn't want your Mom to beat you and it look's great!
Hopefully one day I will be fortunate enough to get one!

Sleeping Sentinel and The Forgotten Valley of Nuku Hiva are amazing!! Beautiful colors, details and ideas!! Keep them coming!!
Mahalo, TabooDan

Awesome stuff indeed, I was at art basel in Miami the other month and walked over to the Kaiju Monster exhibit(I'm a huge fan of the old Godzilla and giant monster movies), I recognized your velvet painting across the room immediately, hell, I enjoyed that exhibit better than art basel!

TabooDan - thanks, I don't get a lotta feedback on my 'site and it was nice for mom to lay off the hammering for awhile. What kinda website would you do, do you have a business?

Yoshi - outstanding: I was hoping somebody would tell me how Harold's exhibit turned out. Glad you enjoyed it. That Kaiju piece was a massive rush-job since Harold told me that I had two weeks less than I thought I had. Months of thinking about that piece followed by a HUGE burst of Panic-Painting! Thank Buddha the painting turned out and someone loved it enough to give it a home.

Very Awesome! Great art my friend, Cheers! Gogo

Very mysterious atmosphere feeling...me likes!!!

The sketchbook is boss, thx for sharing your process!

On 2009-01-23 16:02, Robb Hamel wrote:
TabooDan - thanks, I don't get a lotta feedback on my 'site and it was nice for mom to lay off the hammering for awhile. What kinda website would you do, do you have a business?

Hey Robb, Sorry. I meant one of your great paintings! I didn't mean websites. I don't know nothing about them! I have a website (www.tabootiki.com) that you probably don't really want to look at as we can't update the damn thing (long story)!! We haven't done anything on it for a while and really have to update our stuff.

Keep the art coming!!
Mahalo, TabooDan

You's guys are too nice. You really help me keep plugging along.

Next up I'm doing an 11x14" velvet that is turning out nicely - it just has to dry so I can take a pic.

HURRY! HURRY!

DRY! DRY!

Robb, your work just consistently blows me away. I can't tell you how mant times I've looked at your paintings just to daydream and get inspired.
You know what would be awesome? Doing one of these as a wall mural. Maybe even painted onto that velvet-y type of wallpaper.
You'd feel like you could just walk into it. Too cool to imagine.
One of your biggest fans,
John

Damn, you guys are too nice. Thanks for the super feedback.

LLT: you gotta big smile outta me with that one - and a chuckle.

Mr PuPu: I'd love to do a big, cool, good-paying (!) mural like that!

Here's the sketch that got me rolling on my new velvet:

This is how terribly the paper I do my sketches on photographs!

This is how much Photoshop work it takes to make 'em presentable!!!

I'll get a progress pic on here soon.

Is it entitled "Tiki Pinches a Loaf" ?
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Looks to be more gaseous. Robb, can you clarify?

When my budget allows, I will definitely be calling on you to create something for Hula Sue's, Robb.
And whatever that ends up being, it will have a place of honor on the wall. :)

On 2009-01-16 17:51, Robb Hamel wrote:

I've jumped the gun with this series and finished one early!

"Pastel Tiki 4 - Deepest Jungle" - 11x14 pastel on black paper.

Man, I haven't been keeping up. Beautiful piece Robb!

"LOAF-PINCHER" is looking real purdy so far!
that red is the BOMB!

Looks like he needs something to read while he's sitting? there; maybe a copy of Tiki Mag.

I have never been a velvet loving but you have changed my mind with this one, Pastel Tiki 4 - Deepest Jungle. Great work!

Wow - I don't know if I should keep going on the progress of this piece....

To those who were complimentary: Thank you.

To the toilet humor guys: Pfffffssssshhhttttt!

Oh well:

your pieces are always so dramatic- the colors make such an atmosphere
looks cool, Robb

Thanks Duddy, the atmo. is the #1 thing I'm going for.

Sorry I've fallen behind with the batch of pastels I've been working on, here's some new stuff:

I've mostly done all-over refinement on this one.

I've refined the peaks of the island. I also got the mast on, with the sail lashed to it. It isn't as dramatic as an open sail, but no sane sailor would weather this storm with an open one.

HEY - I just came up with an idea: maybe I could put a shredded sail on to increase the sense of danger! Foolish sailors about to get dashed against the rocks! Or is that too cliche?

I've just done a simple prow ornament because nothing else in the image has much fine detail and I don't want this to look tacked on. I'm not thrilled with it yet, so it gets played with some more.

Next, I put the sailors on the ship and start to wind this baby down!

http://www.robbhamel.com

Check out my website or my

mom will beat you!

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-02-08 16:49 ]

On 2009-02-05 16:27, Robb Hamel wrote:
Wow - I don't know if I should keep going on the progress of this piece....
To the toilet humor guys: Pfffffssssshhhttttt!

Robb, you have to consider the source(s): LLT, LOL, and MDM - obviously you can't trust the opinion of anyone with a 3 letter screen-name :lol: You've got to keep going!

You need to give the "Loaf Pincher" a real name so we can refer to him more appropriately. Great work as usual. Speaking of usual, is this a departure from your usual with 2 warm light sources instead of a warm and a cool?

The "Marquesean Canoe of Death" keeps getting better and better.

Robb,
Once again you amaze!! That painting of the tiki with just the smallest hint of light is fantastic. Its so minimal. I love how you don't really see the tiki, but only the faintest of slivers of light on it. It lets the viewer fill in the tiki how THEY would imagine it looking! Its very dramatic!! And the boat on the sea is simply awesome. The color and lighting makes it look like a tiki ghost ship.

They are even more stunning when viewed in person!!!

It was nice to see Robb's new work before going to the Polynesian Fire last weekend.

Keep up the fantastic work!!

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

the canoe is looking awesome,Robb!
the waves andempty boat add to the sense of dread!
and the prow is magnificent!
you ROCK the ROLL,my friend!

MadDog, I believe you are on to something about these guys!

Digitiki, I can't tell you how happy I am about how tuned in you are to what I'm desperately trying to do. Keep your hammers flying my friend.

Jeff, it was a real blast to hang out with all of you guys... even better than the show, and the show was very good.

Ken, you are the rocker around these parts, we all know that: quality & quantity. I'm jealous.

Here's the completed velvet:

"Tiki Still 1" - 11x14 - velvet mounted to bristol board.

It has the boring name because I want to do a series of still lifes of just tikis with a simple background.

http://www.robbhamel.com

Check out my website or your

mom will beat you!

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-02-11 18:37 ]

Here's a new SKETCH. It's meant to be quick and fun and tiki-free!!!

I did this sitting at a Witco bar set at the Daddy Katz shop in Dayton.

I just thought: I should've taken a pic of the bar! Damn!!

Now this is what you call a ROUGH beginning! The barely visible black and white printouts are very valuable pics I took last year at the Hukilau.

At this point the sketch is about halfway done.

http://www.robbhamel.com

Check out my website or my

mom will beat everybody!

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-02-12 16:43 ]

Thanks for showing us all how you lay this color down and attack this black sheet...these pictures are worth a thousand words. Right On!

Nice!
The Tiki Still turned out reeeeal cool!
All solid and stately-like!
And thanks for sharing how you build these up...
Priceless information there!
Any chance of throwing in
a sexy skinnydipper
with a huge afro?

Robb everytime I see new work by you I am in awe of how amazing of an artist you are.

Love the art on this thread. Beautiful work!

Thanks alot Babalu. Right On right back at you!

LLT: a skinny dipper is a great idea, but I'm just messing around with this - the world needs more 'fros, though.

leleliz: wow, that really makes me feel good because I'm one of those artists who almost always feels like a hack. It's great to hear different. When a piece turns out super-well I almost glow and the good feelings last for awhile! Thanks very much.

I've finally wrapped up the storm pastel:

Detail is sooo hard with these huge chalks!

I get a leader-type with a headress I found a pic of, and a roughed-in sailor.

Bad pic, but you can see the group of men lashing the sail to the mast and the group of non-essential personnel at the back of the canoe.

A shot to show scale.

"Pastel Tiki #5 - Monsoon Nightmare" 11x14 - pastel on paper.

Thanks for looking everyone.

Wow man, I cant beleive the detail you get with pastels! I struggled getting lines thinner than a finger! :lol: Once again you've finished off some awesome pieces, with atmosphere in spades! :D Awesome work, as always!

The progression pix of the waterfall are great, you make it look so effortless! So good to see the Monsoon Nightmare done(cool name) I love that the big kahuna just sits calmly in the bow staring ahead while the sailors struggle with the sail and the "non-essential personnel" huddle in fear in the back.

PS - tell your mama to "bring it" because I ain't checking your website :lol:

Outta sight man!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work