custom vinyl painted marquesas figure - page 3

After my great trip to the US last year [Tiki Mag artshow] and getting to hang out with a lot of amazing talent, I decided to try my hand at painting. Most of my print work is a combination of ink work and digital colour, so getting out the acrylics was pretty daunting.

Started off safe with only 10x8 inch canvasses.

Here, for your entertainment pleasure, are some of my first pieces.

Titled - "Heyerdahl was almost right" - this is an idea that the polynesians did travel the pacific but not using rafts, but huge floating puffer fish, with sails.

Titled - "Invaders" - this is a continuation of some ideas I've had for a invasion from space of war of the worlds style tiki aliens...
I'd like to put the invaders into classic english countryside scenes.

Titled - "Trophy Room" - here I'm featuring a headhunter mask [papua new guinea style] that has been head hunted and made into a trophy? Note the bullet hole in centre of the mask.

Titled - "Welcome to the Sugar Cane" - A gift to the new tiki bar in London, created by Cheekytiki.

I'm working on few more now, planning on making a series of the trophy room idea.

If anyone is interested in one [except the trophy and sugar cane] then please pm me with an offer. I'm getting a bunch of my art pieces together and planning an ebay store. These painting will appear on there, I'll post on marketplace when I have more details.

I'd love to hear any thoughts [Trader Jim - but not everything that goes on inside that pith helmet of yours!!] and feedback. Thanks for looking.

http://www.tikiracer.com

[ Edited by: tikiracer 2009-02-15 14:06 ]

"Heyerdahl was almost right" -Very Cool!
And the Invaders series should turn out way cool!
Stoked to see you have a go with the brush!
Keep em pumping!
They're way cool!

very very nice.

These are great - Tikiracer!!! Nice job with the paints!!!!!!!

Great Blow fish
Love the gold frame

Thanks for the great words.

Been doing a lot more sketches on the blow/puffer fish theme, so look out for more.

Sold the blowfish painting today. Thanks to the buyer.

Hey tikiracer- That War of the Worlds type piece is cool! I've been wanting to do something like that.... maybe a giant killer shrew threatening the neighborhood McDonald's or something.... Very cool stuff you are doing....

cool - i like the sugar cane tang one.

nice frames too.

wheres the next one?

The pufferfish and the invader paintings have a really nice style. Cool stuff.

Thanks to all for the good words.

Here's a new canvass on the way

Cocktail Still Life - This WILL be getting one of the OTT gold frames shown about. Got more to do here, shadows, textures and some colour balancing. Thinking of adding a crackle varnish finish?

Studies-
Been reading and buying up some great artist books, I want my paint style to develop into a contemporary feel but still fit with any tiki collection.

This is an unfinished study of my new resin pendent - out soon

Thanks for all the positive feedback on the blowfish themed painting. I've been doing more sketches to move this series on. Here's a couple of studies.

You should be able to make out the blowfish penciled in the background.

Here's a blowfish in more detail.

Planning a large blowfish piece for the London Luau Artshow. Thanks for viewing.

I really like the study of the pendant.

Very nice, Tikiracer! Especially diggin' those blowfish :)

Good stuff man, keep it coming. Look forward to more of the headhunter pieces.

Got a special headhunter piece on the way.

I'm very lucky to live very close to the Pitt Rivers Museum, so went there in the week and got to see some masks for real.

Thanks for the cool words.

Ok so I've kicked off a new painting, in the blowfish theme.

Want this to have a real feeling of scale. I'm enjoying using the slightly larger canvas.

Wasn't too happy with the sky at first, went back to my reference and ...

Much better.

Then rough in the blowfish. Next will be roughing in the ship to get the balance between them right.

Thanks for swinging by.

Liking that new piece w/ close linkage to your first Blowfish painting, too.
Very nice!!! :wink:

Mate, this second batch is a real improvement - coming along very nicely I might say :D

Thanks for all your comments.

Got off to an early start today and worked up this canvas in the 'headhunted' series. Not quite as tight as the new blowfish painting, but happy with how it worked out.

Also got some time on the bigger painting. The ship still needs detailing, but going to workup the blowfish next. Should have this done next week.

Wow! I love your stuff, tikiracer! Can't wait to see the completed blowfish painting. Thanks for sharing!

Finally got the new blowfish ship painting finished. Pretty happy with it.

Here's some detail.

Plan to expand on this series, with another painting roughed out and a small postcard run on the drawing board. I hope to enter this in the London Luau artshow [more news on that soon].

Thanks for all the kind feedback, happy to get all sorts.

WOW!!

Love the sort-of supernatural impression this one gives due to the scale of the blowfish vs. the boat.

FABULOUS!!!!!!
:)

Hey, I really like your work, the ideas are a blast. The wife and I got a real pre-work kick out of the puffer fish. Your work looks good in closeup also.

Thanks to all for the great feedback.

Here's a new piece I've got done recently.
Needed a couple of goes to make this one work. Have tried this on cold pressed watercolour paper and like the smooth finish. I was finding on the small canvasses the texture was getting in the way. Might try a bigger canvas soon...

I like the contrast between the loose background and the detail in the blowship and tiki.

Thanks for swinging by.

Great pieces Racer!
The Blowfish series is coming along splendid!
looks like he's getting the worldwide Tiki tour!
Also, the headhunted series is great.. i like the trophy room one with the bullet hole
but that second one is really Special! looks like you've gotten your "sea-legs" going on those
and i'd love to see more...That looseness is nice! You got the skills and it shows
even in the loose style! More! More!
:)

Flying blowfish are just too cool! Love your creativity. Looking forward to seeing more!

O

Very cool, very innovative. Tiki art needs more artists like you.

Hey all, thanks for the cool feedback.

I know it's been a while. Been trying out some new ways of working, not all a success.

But have just finished these 3 pieces for the Denver Modernism show, appearing in the tiki lounge.

http://www.denvermodernism.com

Did manage to save a few wip photos along the way.

Start off with penciling in the outline and get the detail down.

Then start to get the background roughed in and get some sense of the colours, this is all done very loose.

Really laid the paint on thick on places...

Then I got done to adding some shape and form to the subjects.

Here's the final lineup and some more details.

marq_hook - 8x10" ink/acrylic on canvas
"Painting of a rare marquesan hook, found in a german print history book"

ivi_poo - 12x12" ink/acrylic on canvas
"A tikiracer look at the amazing marquesan bone carvings"

uu - 24x24" ink/acrylic on canvas
"Tikiracer warclub with hints of racing goggles, steering wheels and spanners"

Awesome work! Great to see the pix of your progress... always interesting to see work evolve into its finished form... what an incredible transformation!

Cool stuff.

I find if I apply a coat of gesso to the canvas I can lightly sand it down. I usually do this 3 times to reduce the texture of the canvas.

Great stuff tikiracer!! If you're looking for less canvas texture, have you tried painting on board? I paint on clayboard made by a company called Ampersand, and love the smooth finish that you can watercolor, acrylic, enamel or even oil paint on. They come in tons of sizes and also in 2 inch nested versions that are ready to hang...here is a link..

http://www.dickblick.com/zz149/15c/

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just today I bought some plywood [laminate board]. Plan to try a couple of options, one where I leave the wood finish and another where I'll sand and gesso.

I'll keep you posted on the results.

Your paintings are excellent. It's fascinating to see the process from start to finish.
My favorite is the hook. Thanks for sharing.

Aloha!!

I have always been a big fan!! Waiting to see more of your work and your style, glad the wait is over.... love the new stuff... one of these days I gotta see it in person!!

Thanks again for the support and great replys.

Board update - did buy some plywood. Seemed fine in a big sheet, but when I cut it down and it warped itself stupid. So will have try one of the other suggestions.

Did get this baby finished during a few days off work.

Title "at the marquesas of madness"
This one is a bit specialist - based on the story of "at the mountains of madness" by hp lovecraft. If you know it then you'll get...
One tipbit - a movie version of "mountains of madness" is scheduled to be made by Senior DelToro. So that should be cracking.
This is a 8x10 canvass in ink and acrylic.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nice!! Very nice!!

Tiki Racer your painting skills are leaping forward like an excited shagoth! I love it!

Really cool and moody piece! Del Toro is up to make At The Mountains of Maddness? Wow! Okay, when it comes out here's what we do: I'll go buy tickets for you and me and wait in line, meet you out front of the Archlight theater in Hollywood. (now all we gotta do is travel the thousands of miles tween us to get there!)

CAN I COME?
Great new painting Racer!
more people should read Lovecraft....

I love the new piece. Somehow I really connect with it, but don't know why. Serously cool.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Not posted in awhile some here's a quick photo update...

Adding some foliage to the mix

a new painting for the cover of the new mahiki menu

painted this for the cover of my fictional devil reef bar project

These 2 are part of my faces of tiki work. Experimenting in lighting and form.

Here's something a little more loose and abstract. Liked doing this painting, will do more in this style.

Now for something different.
I use a bright orange pelicase to carry samples around, so thought I'd add to tikiracer to it.

Thanks for stopping by.

I like 'em - excellent color. And I really dig the vector graphics feel of the Pelican case.

Looks like both atomictonytiki and I have been having the same cheese before bedtime...

His work
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=22830&forum=18&start=60

Mine...

Looks cool but what is it? :) (I mean what is that media? Here in the States, vinyl is usually a plastic coated cloth used for upholstery.)

Very nice paintings tiki racer . realy diggin um .

On 2009-02-16 13:42, MadDogMike wrote:
Looks cool but what is it? :) (I mean what is that media? Here in the States, vinyl is usually a plastic coated cloth used for upholstery.)

I am pretty sure this is a Munny doll. If you google "Munny" you will see that there is a whole community of artists that use this as their medium.

I am not sure if they are marketed the same over there but I assume so.

Thanks for the feedback.

Maddog - you're right this actual figure isn't made out of vinyl, but its one of the terms used for collectable artist toys, like Munny. This one is a mighty mugg, which I based coated, painted in acrylic and then inked on the tattoos.

In the States these are called Mighty Muggs. There is an online store where you can buy blank ones, just in case you feel bad about painting over a potential collector item. The blanks are about the same price as a themed one.

http://www.toynk.com/product/HBR-353320220-C/MIGHTY_MUGGS_BLANK_WHITE_FIGURE.html?cpg=%40CAMPAIGN%3a7353&cpn=30156231

You and Atomictonytiki haven't been alone in this idea... I wonder if this is some sort of Close Encounters of the Third Kind situation where we have to paint these things, or our versions of them, to get them out of our heads... only to find out we are being lead to some giant Munny/Mighty Muggs doll that we must worship? I guess as long as Mai Tais are involved, I'll go with it.

Hasbro has them for even cheaper-
http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/ProductsByBrand.htm?ID=22278&BR=880

Pupule Tiki!

[ Edited by: TikiMango 2009-02-17 07:05 ]

I learn something new every day :) I had seen those before but didn't know what they were.

From Wikipedia:
*Custom Mighty Muggs - There exists a large community of toy enthusiasts whose ambition is to customize toys. Though this is not a new phenomena, each new toy line does present new challenges and opportunities for expression. Mighty Muggs are no exception. The form is simple, humanoid, and the surface is smooth, rounded.

There are a number of accessories that have been produced, available only with certain figures, each of which offers exponential customizing options to a savvy customizer. examples: a helmet can be turned into a hairpiece, or a light saber can be whittled into a sword.

Still more options are available once putties or modeling clays are introduced, such as "Mighty Putty","Apoxie® Sculpt", or "Sculpti". With these modeling compounds artists have transformed flat surfaces into three dimensional eyebrows, hair, horns, tails, etc.

Often found objects, or parts of other toys are used to lend a more realistic or dynamic appearance to the figure. examples include: feathers for wings, or weapons from another toy figurine, or LED lights for lighting effects.

Still, the most prolific form of customization seems to be a good old-fashioned re-paint. The Mighty Mugg's surface is a nearly perfect ground for creating an image with paint, due to it's factory smooth paintjob and lack of protruding features *

The figurine looks great, the individual tatooes look thought out and look nice together. It'd be cool to see this produced.