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

Wow Robb! I love the way you transformed the sun dappled original image into something dark, moody and absolutley gorgeous!

I'll join the ranks praising your Quiet Village podcast interview as informative and insightful! A rare peek into the inner workings of a gifted artist's world!

And I recently had the unexpected pleasure of seeing the Pele painting you did for Digitiki in person... stunning! Breathtaking! A masterpiece!

Thanks mucho, Tobunga. Your Valentines card work was mind-blowing.

Hi everybody. I was away for awhile, we went on our 10th anniversary trip, and have been doing series paintings that y'all have already seen.

But I've got a new velvet featuring something I haven't done before: A NEW GUINEA HORNBILL!

A bird?

Yep.

And it's kicking my butt. I can't seem to get exactly the right Japanese Wood Block print effect (a favorite compositional style of mine). So in the end I'll end up improvising a lot. And holding my breath.

Here's a few of my sketches. I found some pics of these birds, but in an attempt to do my own thing, I'm doing my own pose for this animal, without much luck (I've been on this about a week).

I decide to do a large sketch so I get a good look. This bird's beak is weird, and looks a lot like a pair of talons, but I can't draw it correctly.

I have to look at this sketch and keep in mind that I want light areas around the black areas of the bird and black behind his yellow head.

I sketch in a rough setting, not knowing that I'm about to junk much of it. I need a break away from working in my house and go to Daddy Katz (Dayton's Tiki/Hot Rod shop).

Bill Winger, Daddy Katz' owner, puts up with me as I complain my way to this stage of the painting.

I haven't been able to get the freaky beak of this creature to look right in a week. I'm hoping that I can pull it off as I paint it for real but am a smidge nervous about blowing it....

http://www.robbhamel.com

Check out my website or my
mom will destroy the world!

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-04-06 07:36 ]

Wuss!
you gonna let a hornbill kick the butte of Ohio's Premiere velvet painter?
Sometimes you just gotta leap off into the void...
If you make a mistake
you make a mistake
remember,we're demigods
and still have those human foibles..
if you do blow this one
(and it is coming along very nicely)
then remember to START with the beak first
that way if you don't nail it
you didn't spend hours painting everything else!

Also gotta say...this fascination with plants and birds
the natural environment of Tiki
is such a great progression
There are always little pieces of your paintings
that are masterpieces in themselves
a shoreline
or a plant
or a leaf
now you're honing in.....
RAD!

Lovely, Rob! Man! You just started, and it already looks like it was painted back in the 50's... Your authenticity factor is through the roof...

I love your tiki in the jungle paintings and then you bust out that hibiscus - so beautiful! And now a hornbill? Wow! Nice to see the progression into more challenging subject matter. So far it's looking really good, the mood is there, great composition. You gotta go for it, if you don't nail it on the first go, then go again. You sound like me though, I'm such a perfectionist and have no tolerance for myself making a mistake. It just adds to the stress, so I have to keep telling myself it's a prototype! It's a test! It's a study! But really, Robb, it's looking good so far!

You need to blow your own horn....bill!
It looks really great so far! Very moody and velvety.
It's darkoreekius, mysterious, jungleisious, and horny.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome.

Wow! A way better response than I'd hoped for.

Ken: I will NOT let this bird beat me, 'cause you done gave me tha eye of the tiger with that pep speech.

Sam: 50's authenticity? Thank you. Some continuity is a good thing... but not with 70's velvet!

Kiki: thanks for noticing that I'm trying to expand my subject matter as I slowly learn more about this somehow mysterious medium.

Tiki Shark: darkoreekius, jungleiscious... I like those words.

Mr. PuPu: mondo thankarinoes.

It took all day yesterday to make this little bit of progress:

I start to bring the bird out of the shadows, bit by bit.

The menacing beak gets attention.

I get the beak without much hassle when I realize that hornbill beaks look like CRAB CLAWS - it has been in the back of my mind for a week and until is realized that I couldn't paint or draw it.

Very cool!

Well done,young Jedi!

crab claw :lol:
sometimes it's not what our mind "sees"
and we actually have to look at it as it relly is...

for instance -imagine a snowman
i ain't never seen one like the one in my mind!
kapeesh!

This one is kickin a** and chewin bubblegum,Robb!

Beautiful work so far on the bird piece! Great Atmosphere already.

Eerie and beautiful!

One of my favorite songs is "Elvis on Velvet" by the Stray Cats. It's one of the many songs on my continuous I pod rotation I listen to while I work. Now, every time I hear it I think of you Robb Hamel! - and your amazing velvet paintings. Not that you've done an Elvis on velvet painting... that I know of.

But, I can only wonder at kind of what moody low-brow masterpiece you'd make of it.

Big aloha!
B~

Thanks guys. Shark, I hope I'm not ruining "Velvet Elvis" for you, but the truth is I really don't like those old velvets one bit!

A coupla nights ago I jazzed up the light on this tree. The dust is really starting to show now.

I thought I had the hornbill wrapped up at this stage, but later I removed its eye and put a better one on because this one looks sad and I wanted it to look curious.

When this baby dries, I'll clean it up and post a pic. Thanks for all the support this one has gotten, it's been a surprisingly long road for a small piece.

Fantastic! A great subject, composition, and execution. I absolutely love your work!

Love the color used here Robb!

Inspiring as usual. Thanks for posting.

Robb,

No one can paint haunting, mysterious, and sexy all at the same time as well as you...

You are truly the man!

this piece reminds me of Fruit Loops for some odd reason!
:lol:

You tightened up that lighting on the branch reeeeeal good!
what a Beaut!

Robb,

Excellent!

Thanks:

machinelf,
TikiG,
Babalu (THAT is some compliment - big thanks),
LLT (I finally bought into the painting myself after doing that branch!),
Dano.

I needed some encouragements, so thanks you all.

I hate to be a JERK, but I think I'll enter the hornbill painting in the Hukilau art show, so I think I'll hold off on showing the finished product till after!

This is kinda cool: last week I started a small test painting on one of the actual tables from the mighty KAHIKI! She is not simply GONE and only in our HEARTS - pieces of her still contribute in subtle ways. She was an organ donor who died and continues to help MANY.

http://www.robbhamel.com

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-04-20 06:22 ]

Robb, I don't think you will ever stop blowing me away. Wow.

Suzanne

Thanks very much Suzanne... I throw away SO many ideas that would have made perfectly fine paintings so that I can keep trying to expand my techniques and subject matter and, if I'm lucky, blow people away. Thank you for feeling the way you do.

Robb, I cant really expand on what's already been said here.
Your velvets are amazing . I wish I was going to Hukilau to
see them up close. MP

Do you have this one wrapped up yet Robb? Really looking forward to seeing the end result.

Leleliz - I just wrapped up photographing the Hornbill but I'm gonna submit it for the Huklau, so I'm holding off on showing the pic.

I just hung this beautiful piece by Dawn Frasier:

This Sophista-tiki sketch is sooo nice. The frame matches the trim in my living room.

Here's some oddball stuff:

This was my first experiment in sketching a face on velvet. It's from some time ago. I never said I was a portrait artist.

This pic and the one below are lighting experiments to help me create differently styled backgrounds.

http://www.robbhamel.com

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-04-27 07:27 ]

nice face!
thanks for giving us a peek into your reference..
A talented artist with lots of good reference is unstoppable!
and quit being such a dick and post the hornbill finished!

Ken: Pffffffssttt!

Although I did just find out what the Hukilau theme is 5 minutes ago and it doesn't match what I've painted. Damn!

Robb, your paintings are a constant source of inspiration to me. The composition, the 'lighting', the mood. They just help create a great mindset for me when I'm working on my own stuff. Thanks for putting yourself out there and showing your work, start to finish. Brave and talented!
Just one of your fans,
John (Pupu)

well Robb, thanks for making the past couple hours so wonderous! now i'm caught up. what a bunch of brilliance! had a couple good laughs, too.

On 2009-04-27 13:58, Robb Hamel wrote:
Although I did just find out what the Hukilau theme is 5 minutes ago and it doesn't match what I've painted. Damn!

What is the theme? I'm sure that problem can be fixed with a creative title for the painting :)

the theme is Poly Pop Architecture...
i think...

It's Poly-Pop living, so interiors, exteriors, etc. Harold would really like them to also be affordable - I think that had pretty much gotten out.

I coulda' really had fun with that if I'd known a month or two ago. No big deal, one will fit the bill with a title and lighting change.

THREAD HIJACK
But since you guys are already talkin about it....... whats considered affordable for this kind of gallery?

On 2009-05-12 06:47, Sophista-tiki wrote:
THREAD HIJACK
But since you guys are already talkin about it....... whats considered affordable for this kind of gallery?

We usually just find out how much you're asking
and then lowball it...
Remember ...there's commission too!

Fantastic stuff Rob, Pastels or velvet it's all amazing.
With some creative framing aand lighting they must look
awesome in person. Im pretty sure the forgotten valley
of Nuku Hiva would look right at home at our place.Watango

Whew!!!!

Lotsa commissions and no time to post.

Here is an update to one of my favorite paintings. I loved the first and didn't want to do another exactly the same way so I UPDATED it.

Here's the first. I liked it so much I put it in my Tiki Mag ad.

This is how the new one turned out. It is packed up and ready to ship to its' new owner.

The changes are to the cycad/palm thingie I made up.

I hope you guys like the changes.

Another fine painting Robb! I love the way you paint light/shadow!

cool, man! - so if a cycad and a bird of paradise mated, right? or was it a banana?

I would really love to see you explore doing portraits more.

Any plans to go that route?

I can send you my photo for inspiration. haha

A marq with a very contented smile. Simply beautiful, I love it. Amazing.

Robb, This one one is my favorite. I love all the darkness in it. Great work as always.

Hey Rob, that looks stunning. Love the majority of the darkness just makes the colour sections draw your attention so much more! :D

Sam - thank you, I'd take out anybody in the room you point at to be able to do lettering like you.

Pat - I think it's a blend of palm and something a little more phallic.

Leleliz - I do have plans to do more portrait/wahine stuff but commissions have been doing the steering lately. If you have a pic of yourself with good lighting and some tropical accessories, I might be able to use it for an experiment.

Markusk - big thanks.

mp - darkness is the real fun, isn't it?

hewey - I'm using some new paints to give the bright areas more pizzaz - not that it would show much in pics.

Thanks guys, I'll try to get some of my other new work on here soon.

Awesome elaboration on gorgeous first piece!
The lighting has a diff hue in the second...
adds a slightly diff vibe
so friggin gooooooood!
and the vegetation difference adds a soother flow to the piece...
right on Marvin!
:)

Thanks Ken, the difference is mood was to further seperate the new piece.

I've been up to something REALLY different lately.

DaddyKatz, the amazing local Tiki/Hot Rod/Retro shop needs a paint job, sign, and a design around its giant Tiki.

Owner Bill Winger asked for help deciding on which way to go.

I can't afford Photoshop, & don't like using pirated software, so I'm stuck with a photo editing program from the '90's. I used what I have to do some quick, broad color changes to help Bill decide what color to use:

This is the current color of the building. When this was taken the Tiki hadn't been put up yet.

I thought maybe a more 1950's car blue might be okay.

The next few were just wild swings at wilder colors:

Bill wanted a black background for the Tiki that I could design a background for.

The front of the building being in shade made judging colors like the white one above hard to do, so I took a new pic:

Yellow seemed to be the preferred color and I was given a particular one to use. I also started to do a more refined job.

We may be making a sign for the building ourselves. This used an existing font just to see what lettering looked like on this part of the building.

This has been an especially interesting project. After some roof repair is finished, we're gonna start really attacking the building color....

Major show velvet there boss...don't price it to low...it's to nice.

Its cool that your having fun with the Daddy Katz gig, and the yellow DK picked is wonderful...I wished he would have thrown some of that show stopping green in there too.

Keep up the great work Robb!

QUIT COLORING BUILDINGS AND GET BACK TO THAT EASEL,BUB!

Daddy Katz is gonna look very stylish after these slight adjustments!

LLT: CALM DOWN, WILL YA? Too many zip fizzes....

Babalu: thanks my man, I'm sure happy with how it turned out.

Here is an extremely fun velvet I just finished:

The first step was the moon, something I never get tired of painting. I like using a glass palette.

The rocks look only adequate in this pic.

Clouds are another favorite to do.

"Lunar Equinox" 11"x24" black velvet on stretcher frame.

This image is a copy of the far right six inches of a painting I did last year. That little sliver of painting was so cool I put it on my website. I was thinking about doing a stand alone copy of it when a collector of my work contacted me and commissioned me to do exactly that! Yahoo!

http://www.robbhamel.com

[ Edited by: Robb Hamel 2009-06-08 14:13 ]

MOON ificent!

Robb's back and painting moons and clouds and mountains!
MOONiful!
:)