Quatinus

Photo journal of the last two weeks, Part 1

2011-10-16T22:20:00.000-04:00

There hasn't been any posting on the mural, or the study for the mural, since June. That's because life happened! In the last two weeks there has been a flurry of activity related to the mural, and the study for it (thanks R!), for the same reason that there was such a lull (thanks R! :P). With a newfound hope, and zeal, and discipline, I continue to work.

What a huge part of my life this mural has become. How strange to look back at the photos I've been taking all the while, and think, that was a year ago, or that was two years ago. I've learned so much, been terrified, been disappointed, been surprised (pleasantly!) at it's success so far, been aching to get it done so I can move on to other things, and been patient because I know there is so much more work to be done, and been excited when I can catch a mental glimpse of the end of the road, of how I know it'll look in the end.

I've had lots of help all along the way, but without a certain engineer, and uncle, and parents, and boyfriend, and yes, a scruffy little naughty puppy dog to keep a sharp eye on, I wouldn't have beautiful canvases to work on nor a plan to hang them, I wouldn't have great practical advice and cheerleading, I wouldn't have a space to keep everything and in which to work in comfort and security (and for free), and I wouldn't have the discipline to keep at it, and furry company, without them. Ugh! There is still so much to do, sometimes I think it'll take me another 3 years to finish, but I have to just keep on swimming and not get hung up on the time, unforseeable obstacles, or the fact that I've taken over my parents' studio and they kinda want it back!

I haven't taken any pictures of the progress on the mural itself, I'll have to take care of that later (there is some progress, but nothing major yet). The most work done since my last mural post has been on the study. I actually thought that the stage it was in was good enough to leave as is and move back to the mural proper. Wrong! I still need a lot of experimentation to determine the coloration and process, and I have to have a finished painting with many, many progress photos to see just exactly what to do on the huge one, step by step. There is not enough paint, time, and energy to get a large section done only to realize that I've made a mistake! I have already taken the knife to the little study and scraped off failed experiments, and luckily I think I've only wasted about a quarter teaspoon of paint, and a couple hours time. I don't want to think about how much could be wasted on a 6x6 foot panel!

Without further ado, here is the study, untouched since June, in it's new setting, roughly two weeks ago. Beside it is my plan I made that day, thinking that I'd get that much done in one morning. Ha ha. I'm still working on those tasks.

And here is a few days' worth of work, putting in the blue shadows.

That's it for right now, time to go to bed and get rested up for another productive week.

Wakeful House, Sleeping Tree.

2011-07-28T22:47:00.001-04:00

Watercolor ACEOs, Done yesterday and today. Really, all I wanted to say was in the first one, and the next two are like the melody and counter melody seperated. I'm not yet sure I like the second two as well as the first.

Work work work!

2011-07-28T13:25:00.000-04:00

Getting work done! I will have a progress picture or two on the mural sometime, probably in the next week or two. Just want to let you know that a large majority of the painter's amnesia has cleared up. Besides the mural, a couple series are working their way around in my brain, a new one and a not-so-new one.

This is part of my new series, the first one made, and somehow it is linked to my other series.

Playing

2011-07-15T12:13:00.000-04:00

Oh dear, I have been slacking, because I have been playing. Here it is so far. :)

My floutist met my fox in the forest, the foliage of the foxgrapes creeping all around.

My illustration Portfolio

2011-07-11T21:34:00.000-04:00

It shall go through some refinements. But, here it is. :)

mariannatodd.daportfolio.com

Mural and Art with the Spark update

2011-07-10T18:55:00.000-04:00

Well, after seemingly forgetting how to paint, I've made a little headway on the mural study again. No pictures to show this time, but just know, progress has been slow. Meh!

Good news though, I've gotten my etsy shop almost all up to date with oodles of matted prints, and some bookmarks from a few seasons ago.

Art with the Spark

Pretty soon now, I'll have a bunch of unmatted prints posted, and hopefully some new paintings. Keep in touch!

Etsy Prints

2011-06-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Oops, it seems I accidentally let all my etsy listings expire. But that's ok, I have a lot of new ones to post and some old ones to update with new pictures. The column on the right shows some of the new ones. :)

Warms in place

2011-06-21T12:32:00.000-04:00

When this latest glaze dries, the next steps will be the real science. Time to step over that threshhold!

The study must be done in order to make the mural make sense.

2011-06-16T20:56:00.004-04:00

As I work through this project I learn lots and lots on what to do, and what not to do. Such as, never underestimate the power of a study, and, when you do something this large (like a 12' x 17.5' mural), always do a study and do it right!

Working on the 2' x 3' study for the past three of four weeks can easily feel like a huge setback. It's far more helpful to think of this as simply doing what I should have done in the first place. I did do 2 color studies early on, but neither of them were done in a methodical manner. They were useful to show the persons concerned approxamately what the end result would look like, but not very useful as a roadmap for doing the actual painting. I had a lot of confidence in my ability to "know" what to do colorwise when it came to that point. Eehhhhh........

When it came to applying the color beyond "trees and green and water is blue" (all those wonderful secondary and complimentary and other-ary colors that are like myriad musical notes supporting a melody), and sideways to boot as I was putting the vertically connecting panels together (my ceilings are only 10' high, 2' shy!), I came to realize just how ingrained in my brain (and everyone else's brain I'm sure) is the imutable up and down as we know it, and conceiving of this in a context where down was now at my left hand was mind boggling. I just stood there looking at the paintings going "ooooh noooo." How do I solve this? Move to another studio where I could stack my panels 2 high, with all the added troubles of paying rent and moving the whole party? I entertained the notion for a week and a half I think, doing research and generally feeling miserable and hopeless. I even thought about installing the mural early and working on a scaffold. (If some of you are laughing now, it's ok, I'm laughing now too. ) My uncle helped me realize that the solution, or a possible one, would be to do another study, and make it a full, complete one that I could then take and apply literally to the mural. Not feeling very optimistic but willing to do just about anything I set about it.

So, I got a pad of primed canvas paper, cut 6 pieces to 12" square, mounted them on foamcore, printed the original final draft of the pencil drawing, gridded up everything, and transferred the drawing, square by square, thinking at first to do it sideways,forcing myself to see the shapes and values in an abstract manner, to train my brain to not get hung up on drawing/painting sideways. After that I had a thought: why not assemble the whole study and paint it right-side up instead of trying to learn to paint sideways? Seems like an obvious choice now. So, I did that, and went through every step I had previously taken on the mural: drawing, blue underpainting, and now local colors. I've got the blues and greens now, and what's left are the browns and yellows, and then the study will be at the point the painting is.

Once that's done, the real science begins, and when the study it done done done, I'll transfer all the color work to the panels, all right side up and occasionally laying them on the floor together to guage the progress. I'm sure it'll evolve a little as I go, and that's not a problem. It may take me another 2 or 3 weeks to get back to the mural proper, but I think this is, and will be, time well spent. Ah well. We all have to learn our own lessons somehow. To conclude, here is a visual progression of the last few weeks. :)

This is how I was looking at the painting some few weeks ago, trying to do mental gymnastics in order to forget about gravity and make believable atmospheric perspective. It made me cry.

I am happy I kept all those files I carefully made in order to project the drawing onto the canvases.

Action shot!

The corners were curling, and that wouldn't do. Time to break out the rubber cement.

After glueing the corners down, I used part of my library to make 'em stick. Perhaps an interesting cross section of what I read, lol.

I couldn't have gotten this far without Liquin drying medium! How fast this went....

So far,

2011-05-25T23:11:00.000-04:00

so good. Been working on the new study, transfering the drawing freehand with the aid of a grid, sideways. The whole thing will be completed sideways in order to train my brain to not fear the horizontal and non-sensical.

Woes

2011-05-18T00:09:00.000-04:00

When I set up some of the panels today for further work, I hit a brick wall. Picture the left bottom and left middle panels stacked vertically, now take that and put it on its side. This is how I intended to work at this point, by painting the vertical aspects on their sides. My brain just doesn't want to work that way though, and I forsee having major depth issues if I try to do it anyway. I thought about mounting them on the studio wall, stacked in their proper orientation, only the studio is 10 feet tall, and the panels are 12 feet tall together. I'm putting out word among my friends and colleagues looking for possible solutions, ie. a new studio space.

A word about the mural pic, plus some news.

2011-05-15T21:53:00.000-04:00

So, this that what I've been doing (see image in previous post). This post is just to give some clarification.

Please don't mind the funny cut and paste look with the corners that don't meet. Anyone who's used a camera to shoot something big and flat knows. Also, there are hue and contrast issues with both the photos and the painting itself, which will be worked out. Other than that, that's the mural up to date!

I'm very excited to be this far, and still wondering how long it'll take me to finish.

Some recent news, I've been in contact with the company that takes care of the fire alarm sysytems in the church, and we're going to work out something for the reflector that needs to rest about 2 feet down from the ceiling, over the cloud/sky area on the mural. There's no getting around that reflector, it must be there for safety reasons. So now, it's a matter of being as streamlined as possible, with a very shiny square thingy being right around where the rising sun was going to be. Maybe, it can be a square sun?? Trying to laugh about this, rather than cry.

{-`:

Latest on the Mural

2011-05-03T22:21:00.000-04:00

Made it.

2011-04-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

Last night was a long haul of hinging all the mats, mounting prints and last minute details, along with my mom who was showing her work at the fair alongside me, and I had finally gone to bed around 4 am. What a bad time it was to then get up after just 2 hours sleep to make it in time to set up shop at the designated time. Somehow it was done, with much frantic hurrying. Once there I searched for the "guy in charge," found out where to set up, scrounged one of the two remaining tables, and with my dad's help set up the market umbrella and arranged the 10x10 spot with my mother's and my prints, paintings and silk flower arrangements (the latter 2 being hers; I had only prints large and small). I set up my speedpainting station, intending to garner on-the-spot small commissions, and started drawing and greeting folks who wandered around and came to look. As it turned out my mom had another craft fair to tend to that same day, and wasn't going to join me until after noon. After a while my dad gave me his hat (the sun was very intense and I'd just recovered from a bad sunburn) and headed for home.
Something didn't seem right though. The hours ticked by, and hardly anyone was perusing the stands, tents and tables in the whole lot, not counting the vendors themselves having a look-around. It was dead, and stayed dead. A handful of people appreciatively admired our artwork and one took a business card. Most just gave a quick glance and a few rifled though the browser bins before moving on. I tried to keep folks around longer with a "Hi! How are you?" but usually got no further than that. When my mom arrived and manned the shop with me, it remained the same. There were just no people! Word was there was a lack of advertising for the event...
I ended up focusing on my one drawing, adding color, ink, etc. By the time it was done the wind had picked up and tossed prints off the table and threw business cards around, and even crashed my mom's heavy (by comparison) framed artwork on the pavement and nearly whisked our umbrella away over and over. We took turns holding on to it, since even the heavy iron stand wouldn't hold it down. I jumped up numerous times to help my neighbors catch their goods as they blew my way, as others did for mine. The little caddy attached to the umbrella pole slipped, spilling coffee into the caddy and thankfully on nothing else. As the Earth rotated and the shadow of the umbrella moved, my prints were exposed to direct sunlight and water from the matboard and paper condensated inside the plastic sleeves, lining the edges with droplets of water. What??? After moving the print rack back into the shade I opened all the seals, letting the water evaporate and creating a messy mass of sticky poly-sleeves willy-nilly in the print rack. I had to keep an eye on the other 2 browser bins and moved them as the day wore on. We ate our packed lunch and talked with our more experienced neighbor, who gave me all sorts of advice and insight into doing these shows. She was very nice! My mom made a trade with another lady who we know, who was selling lovely fabric purses and bags. A print for a tote! Later on, the "guy in charge" came by calling out that he had free hot dogs for us vendors. They were delicous. I was getting sunburned. The wind got stronger and people started holding onto their weighted tents. I was thankful I had not brought anything framed with glass.
Around 2 o'clock a few people started packing up. By 2:20, suddenly everyone began packing, unable to further tolerate the wind and poor showing. We were all supposed to stay until 3, but no one tried to stop anyone. I didn't sell a thing.
It wasn't a total loss. I learned a lot (mostly what not to do!), gained experience, took notes, and met some people in the business. I got invited to show at another fair in May, and I have oodles, and I mean oodles of items to list on my Etsy shop. Plus, I was able to do a new painting today, which I posted a few minutes ago.

That's it. We made it. Now it's time to clean up, reorganize and get going again. Whew.

Some pics of the day. :)

A Serendipitous Second Chance

2011-02-21T21:53:00.001-05:00

Last week I helped packed up a beautiful china set with a blue on white pattern, that reminded me very much of a friend's artistic style. The stamp on the bottom said "Made in Czechoslovakia." This had to be pretty old then, but besides that, it was lovely and whimsical and I wished I had taken a picture of it to show my friend who happens to hail from that side of our fair planet. I regretted it, but moved on.

Today, I had another chance!

The rest of the china set appeared, and this time, I took out my camera and snapped some pics. A friendly regular also saw the china and exclaimed, "Delft! That's delft china." Which is a Dutch style of china patterning, which is the blue on white. He also noted that part of the the stamp seemed to have been printed backwards and mused that such an anomaly would make it more valuable. I have included below the stamp on the bottom of an egg cup, which is one of the few ones that was not blurred in glazing. Many of the pieces had blurred lines, so the haziness in the photos is reality, not a mistake in the photography.

So, enjoy!! <3

Spices!

I was looking at the bottoms of the salt and pepper shakers here, and dumped their contents on the table. Oops!

That tiny bit enclosed in the middle: what do you think? Is it backwards? Seeing it up close, I think it says: JOME. Not backwards then? Hmmm....

Painting with molasses...

2011-02-20T21:32:00.000-05:00

It's been nearly a month since my last post, and so here is the progress to date.

I've used almost half a quart of linseed oil since I've started. Yikes!

I'm sorry to say it's not at all at the point I'd like to have been at by now. I was hoping to be done with the color washes on these two panels by February, I've been shooting for 2-hours-per-dium but have fallen somewhat below that. Try 45-120 minutes every 2 or 3 days. I've had work obligations supercede time on the mural for the last six weeks. Not much I can do about that at the moment, but I can do something about my time management. What's been happening is this: barely crawl out of bed, go to work, come home, eat dinner, vegetate, paint/practice/fulfill some other chore/obligation, and go to bed frustrated at the lack of hours in the day. Some super-self-motivated-person-possessing-boundless-energy would have the problem licked by now, yet somehow over time I have developed the work ethic of a sloth. I've got to *insert appropriate turn of phrase expressing sudden responsible action* and worry about what I can change, instead of what I can't.

If there is an immovable block of time negating painting time, I shall work around it, and pick either: paint early in the morning, or paint right after dinner. Neither option looks good, since both will put me in combat with sleepiness and brain fog, but the upside is I'll have more hours in if I begin at those times. Maybe, with a little perserverence (and caffine, lot's of it), I can paint twice a day at those times.

I must be crazy, because I also have plans to mat more prints and originals and participate in an arts/crafts show in April, create more inventory for my etsy shop, and tinker with a half dozen other projects! Yup, I'm crazy...

Grass green, I love that color!

2011-01-25T20:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a look at the last few day's work. After I reconfigured the studio things are much clearer, I can think properly about color again! In a way, my Structures in Space series has done much to prepare me for this mural. I find myself thinking in those same processes, planning ahead the steps necessary to accomplish the depth needed. I can see where the blues, purples, greens, golds and browns will go, how big the brush strokes will have to be. It's wierd, but I'm beginning to think in terms of viewing distance. I knew I had to, but now it's making sense to me how to accomplish it, but I'm a little afraid I'll come up with a really good solution too early, and then forget it when I need to implement it. One bit at a time though, local colors first!

When the mural is finished, I would like to do more gigantic landscapes. I think I'm addicted. I also think I might run out of paint before it's through.

Note of interest: my workspace is really that neat in real life, I didn't clean it up for the picture. My computer desk however, is a completely different story!

I did this painting in 2007, Structures in Space no. 2. I think you might see what I meant earlier.

Apres Hiatus

2011-01-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

Extra Holiday work hours: finished.
Christmas and New Year's festivities: finished.
Five-day trip to Tennessee for my childhood friend's wedding (and first sight of falling snow!): finished.

I almost forgot what it was like to be doing consistent work on the mural. The extended break was very welcome, necessary, obligated and refreshing.

On with the painting!

Don't mind the color shifts from third to third, I got them as consistent as possible in editing, but each time the lighting was different and so there is some difference. Below is my cleaned up re-oriented painting table, situated so I can mix my colors while looking at the canvases at a distance. I have little pallets I load up with color from the big pallet, and walk around with those. My music stand is doing double duty at the moment.

Update on the mural.

2010-11-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

Finally have some decent progress to show you all.

These 2 panels were very difficult to photograph, partly because I was trying to do so at night, and also because I couldn't get far enough away to keep the top and bottom from bowing out (some correction in PSP ensued). I'll try to get a better picture sometime. They'll stay off the easel until I can get the reflections on the water done, plus evening out the land masses where they meet the water. Somehow not everything is on the same plane! But, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to work on the bottom 2, middle 2, and top 2 (once the top 2's underpainting is done) side by side, and this means off the easel. But here's a fun twist. The garage floor (yes, this is in a nicely carpeted former garage) is sloped, so the center seam does not meet if left alone. To take the picture, and for working on it later, I found a metal shelf bracket and wedged it under the corner of the left hand panel. Hehehe.....

This second picture is a little weird. I don't like it but it'll suffice for now. The bottom 2 panels were photographed together in daylight, and the upper 2 panels by CFL at night. Also, due to the bowing effect of the camera lens I lost a great deal (3 inches or more) of the image between the upper and lower panels. There is essentially a strip taken out. You see that they don't line up and look funny! But, I want to include it anyway because to see the image begin to take shape it pretty exciting. Yikes!

In other art news, I'm making a new Christmas card design, and hopefully I'll post that soon too.

In other other news, playing violin with my church's choir is pretty neat! It's getting me to practice...

A process in multimedia.

2010-09-23T22:34:00.003-04:00

I finally finished this tonight, a small townscape painting that will be the backdrop of the menu screen for "Fables of the Penitent Thief", a quirky old school-ish rpg adventure created by Marcus Zuppinger and my bro, Dan Todd. Check it out here, Dan's portfolio. I wish I would have taken a picture or scan of the initial drawing (and I also wish I had been more careful in the initial composing), so the process here would be complete, but no matter. Materials used were pencil, watercolor, charcoal pencil, acrylic, and pastel. It is both fun and frustrating working with acrylics, and I hadn't really used them for several years, and now I remember why. Even though they can be extended with mediums, they still dry out too fast and they tend to dull as they dry on the painting. I don't want to think about how much I wasted that is left behind on my disposable wax-paper sheet of a pallet. However, they do let you work insanely fast and there is a nice sculptural feel when you build up the layers, while at the same time you can use them for washes. And, of course, they clean up with water and no priming of the paper is needed. I think I'll keep working with them, as I get the time to, and see if I can't make better use of them in the future. I'm not about to waste that chunk of change I spent on them at any rate. I'm surprised I didn't use any ink in this painting, like I've become acustomed to. That'll be another experiment. The following images show 3 major stages, pencil and watercolor washes, charcoal linework, and acrylic with pastel accents. I guess this counts as being mulitmedia. :)

I hadn't worked with this much red in a long time, and I like it!

Lower third.

2010-08-22T23:06:00.001-04:00

Good evening! I set myself a goal today to finish the blues on the 2nd panel, and to photograph the 1st and 2nd together. Pleased to report that the goal is met. Will do some touchups tomorrow. Time for sleep now. Heck yeah.

Preview of another project.

2010-08-17T22:15:00.000-04:00

I used to paint little trinket boxes, and I thought now would be a great time to do another one (right when I am getting really busy, of course!). This is just a tiny thumbnail of a tiny painting on the inside of the box. The box will have an outer painting on the lid, and the inside is divided in two sections, allowing me to make two more mini paintings. When it's finished, it'll go up for sale. And no, deciding to sell a painting before I actually decide on the subject matter, let alone finish it, does not make it easier to part with. That not withstanding, I am excited about this project, I am already giving her a name and life story!

Mural progress, and Etsy

2010-08-14T12:17:00.002-04:00

Somehow it doesn't look as far along on screen as it does in person! Well, this is the current status of the church mural, 2nd panel. The first panel is done as far as the underpainting goes, it's just not easily accessable for picture-taking at the moment. When this one is ready, I'll photograph the two together.

I'm working on some projects for Art With The Spark, one of which is a small trinket box, and hopefully in the coming week or two I will have something of a sneak peak. I've let the shop have too long a break. :)

Hope you are having a good weekend!

More work.

2010-07-14T22:57:00.000-04:00

When I'm ready to do the next panel I'll post progress less frequently but with more pictures. Maybe once a week. But I'm still quite excited to be painting and I want to share. :-D I'm getting a little speedier in this process, which is encouraging. Maybe it won't take me ten years after all.

One week later

2010-07-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

O joy,

2010-07-07T22:35:00.000-04:00

O rapture, I am painting today, and it doesn't stink, and it's been far too long, but everything's working out fine! I'll post some progress pics soon. As I was working, laying down the underpainting, I thought, I'm giving this painting values, I'm teaching it right from wrong. Sort of random but true in an odd sense. Please excuse my thought-scribbles and overuse of commas. :-)

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-05T11:00:00.001-04:00

I think this pie speaks for itself. Red white and blue!

Projection Phase Phinished.

2010-06-26T20:59:00.003-04:00

I will be quite happy not to have to work in the dark from now on, as I'm finally done using the projector! Lining up the horizontals proved pretty easy, now the sticky part is lining up the verticals. Since I can't stack them vertically (I wish) I'm still looking at them side by side, I just have to turn my head to look at them as if they were stacked vertically. Once I get the tree trunks lined up top to bottom, filling in the leaves will be pie.

Here they are, 2 top, 2 middle and 2 bottom. They may be a little difficult to see even with the bright/contrast and levels adjusted. Sorry about the distortion too, that just shows how big they are!

By the way, I never got around to getting an actual projector stand. Worldbook Encyclopedia FTW! I had quite a time trying out different bulbs in hopes of getting a sharper image, but to no avail. I even tried a halogen and then CFL bulbs because they don't get as hot, but they either (a) wouldn't fit in the projector, or (b) if they were small enought to fit, were not in a high enough wattage to be bright enough. So, I ended up back with the 100 wt incandescent. See what happens when you try to get all fancy?...

It pays to prepare.

2010-06-10T01:23:00.000-04:00

Hours spent working on the mural drawing (from months ago) have been well spent. When you make every inch as highly rendered as possible, a 4 inch square that gets blown up to 6 foot square is surprisingly undaunting. When you draw out every leaf to begin with it makes filling the square footage so much simpler.

But since the projector's 100 watt incandescent bulb gets so hot (remember the Easy Bake Oven?

those would bake a cupcake with a 100 watt bulb) I turn it off for 5 minutes of every 10. This slows down progress, but it also prevents the "table" it's sitting on from melting or catching on fire. I'm going to try a CFL later and see if it fits.

Here's some progress photos, and also the contraption I came up with to hold the projector. Ideal is not the word I'm thinking of, I mean to fix that soon too.

Projector!

2010-06-08T23:04:00.000-04:00

I'm actually putting the drawing up tonight! First of many such nights. Why night? Because that's the only time my projector will work. So, I have to become a night owl. I'm letting the projector cool down for a minute; it gets hot pretty fast.

Most of the work done yesterday was to get the enormous......I mean the great big enormous neverending... easel downstairs. I thought it could be done more or less in 2 or 3 pieces, but it turns out my spacial awareness has its limits. As it wouldn't actually fit through my bedroom door it had to be almost completely dissassembled, with everyone in my household helping at one time or another. I did eventually manage to get it put back together correctly (I think).

Once we got the first canvas on the easel, and turned on the projector the first time, all this big mural mess finally seemed possible. It looks like it'll really come together. It was zapping my brain with the awesome prospect of the thing actually working!!

Well, back to it. Yippie!

Run through the maze!

2010-06-04T23:15:00.002-04:00

100_0923
Originally uploaded by maritodd
Enjoy. :)

By the way, I am pointing out June 3rd because that was the date this was taken. Just for a point of reference.

Just in case it's not clear, this is a video, and you should click on the picture! ;-)

Onward...

2010-06-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

To make things a little more efficient, I propped up all the canvases at once to run a touch-up stripe of gesso along all the edges where the gesson had been rubbed off a little from the sanding (except the bottom edges of course, those come later). To my surprize they all fit in the stuio, and what a strange effect they created, breaking up the light and becoming something of a forest, or maze, or dominoes. I had to take some pictures and I even ran a video camera through the passageways, though I can't figure out how to upload it...I'll be working on that.

It's about time, wouldn't you say?

2010-05-26T00:57:00.000-04:00

I am almost done gessoing and sanding. I still have a pile of work to do on it, but the end is in sight. *happy dance*

The things to tackle while still in this stage are, finalizing the drawing and making a poster that will by shown to the parish. I have some ideas for the tweeking and betterment of the drawing that I've been putting off, and making the poster is well.......daunting for some reason. Maybe I'm just wondering what the majority of the parishoners will think of my pastor's proposal to have a mural replace the current setting.

Also, when I get a chance (which is more often than I realized) I'm doing clothing studies for my brother's book covers that he asked me to work on sometime last year. This is quite the little bit of fun, especially since the book I'm using for a reference is so chock full of illustrations, all interesting and dynamic, for me to practice from. I'm finally, among other things, learning how to draw shoes.

Well, no image to post this time. If you want to see the studies I've done lately, go here.

Later alligators. :-D

If wishes were staples...

2010-04-18T22:00:00.000-04:00

I've gotten all but one canvas re-stretched, and all the original staples have been removed from the final one. Here is my collection of discarded staples thus far. I'm trying to think of a clever way to use them, maybe in a sculpture...

I really did need all those bandages too, to protect existing injuries and prevent further ones! So, after tomorrow I should be able to recommence priming and sanding. Yeah!

Figuring it out

2010-04-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

After hoping for a week or so that I wouldn't have to restretch the canvases, after doing lots of research and asking loads of people for advice, after experimenting and re-experimenting and traveling down half the county for a miracle product that didn't cut it, I went ahead and restretched one of the canvases. And so far (I haven't done the corners yet) it has worked, re-establishing a satisfactory level of tension, something I can actually paint on. My knuckles are a little abraided and I used 3 times the amount of staples as before (a half-inch to an inch apart, versus 3 to 4 inches apart; thank you Goldenpaints for the tip!) but I can live with sore knuckles and buying more staples. I just have to give it time to see if it'll loosen back up again or not, I should know by the morning. When I put another coat of gesso on it, I think I'll do that when it's propped up, and not give the canvas a chance to dip down in the middle from its own weight. Only five more to go... Thanks guys for the help!
No pictures this time, just imagine my digital self sleeping soundly, knowing that there's a possibility it'll all work out now.

Well...

2010-04-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

Not much progress has been made lately. I've sanded a few panels, gotten some tight'n'up from a distant art supply store (though it doesn't help. huhhh.....) and asked numerous people for advice on what to do. I'm trying tech support from Goldenpaints, maybe they can help. I'm working on other things. I got my taxes done. There are bugs in my violin case again. I should go check my car's tire pressure. Well, here's to a great middle-of-the-week day.

In the gesso....

2010-03-30T23:38:00.000-04:00

This is a message I sent to a friend regarding the progress/problems with the mural and sums up things pretty well:

"I don't think humidity is the problem. I remember stretching 3x5 canvases at the FSC studio with it pouring outside and the door open and there was no problem with the canvas tension. I've had a lot of different suggestions, painting hot water before or after gessoing, blowdrying it, doing it in different order etc, and innitially the results were very good, but within 12 hours the canvases became looser than when I started. :-( In the planning phase of the mural, I wanted to go with home-made stretcher bars, but after discussing it with an engineer, someone who goes to my parish who was asked to help me with the mural logistics, devise an adjustable hanging system, etc, he was worried that we wouldn't be able to make the frames consistant enough to hang together in a 6-panel mural assemblage (made to be removable from the wall, as there are future plans to take down the church's back wall on which the mural will hang when the building is expanded), and all be perfectly square and flush and basically precisely engineered. So I ordered 6 pre-fab stretcher kits from Utrecht (Masters brand) and we began to assemble the frames.

They
were
a
nightmare!

Each frame has at least one bar that is a different length, many joints were rough-cut, almost all were crooked/bowed, and the crossbraces had to be wittled down on the ends to fit into the bars' tracks. We had to pick and choose which corners to make right angles so that the assemblage could hang (relatively) flush together, and when laid out on the floor, there are corners sticking up and the seams are not completely flush. Oh well, the both of us learned our lesson. Individually, the frames would have been fine, but placed together to make a large mural, uh, no.

Now the canvas streching/priming is the new nigthmare, but I am learning to accept the nightmares and try to work around them. We used the corner keys where we put the cross braces, to basically bow out the bars slightly to improve the tension. This produced only very limited success, but it was an improvement. Sigh...I just can't wait to find out what else is going to go wrong. :-) "

Ok, enough ranting. Here are some pictures, two are illustrations of our use of the "corner keys" being used to expand the canvas at the crossbraces (the 2nd one is one of the two trapezoidal panels, so don't mind the odd angles). Next we see the panels all on the floor looking impossibly huge, and then lastly, my CG self is contemplating the task ahead...

More on the Mural

2010-03-26T22:46:00.000-04:00

Well, lots of progress has been made on the mural project. I have my engineer and brother to thank for that! :-D My brother put it rather well..."You didn't need me to do very much except hold something for a few seconds and then not go away because I was going to be needed in another few minutes. Ok do you still need me? Yes, in about 10 minutes. So I can come back in 10 minutes? No, that was just an estimate, I might need you in 2!..." He was such a good sport. I think our engineer must have assumed we were both crazy...After several days of assembling the frames, it was time to strech the canvas. I had never stretched anything so large before, 3' by 5'8" was my previous record. This canvas is much heavier, and the supports much larger (6' by 6') and though I bought special canvas pliers for the job, we couldn't figure out how to use them for a gallery wrap and our engineer ended up devising a plier system in 3 parts that worked remarkably well. Once all 6 panels were stretched, we did the corners to finish them. Now, I've got 6 panels to prime. Oh goody! This morning I mixed a batch of gesso (had to dilute it) and used almost the whole batch on the first coat, 3 cups of liquid in total. Yikes...I hope I have enough gesso to go around...

Here are the 6 frames assembled in the mural's configuration. I had a hard time getting the whole thing in the camera's view, and I had to step outside the garage door to do it. It looks so much smaller on the ground, it's really decieving...

Over here, some corners are done, some not. That's my first mural in the background, it's so tiny!

There's me finishing the first coat of gesso. Uh-oh, my other self has gotten trapped inside the canvas, noooo!!!

Upon closer inspection I saw a Royal Guardsman and a Bobby taking a break on, from their perspective, what seemed to be a pristine white field. I bet it's a very relaxing spot...

In other news, I'm happy to say my herb garden survived a rather violent dousing during a rainstorm. The borage plant had a few leaves broken (which was practically the whole plant) and the catnip was lying half out of the pot, but it's bounced back almost to normal. :)

See you next time!

You have found another delicious food!

2010-03-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

This is a biscuit. Carpenters carry these around with them in little plastic jars and munch on them when they get hungry and it's too early for lunch. :-D If you already know what a biscuit is, my apologies, and if not, it's a little slip of wood that you can use to join pieces of wood together, like frame corners that have odd angles! Too bad I don't have a good pic of the trapezoidal frames that form the cap of the mural, but I'll have one soon, and it'll include the finished crossbraces (customized!).

This is a wooden clamp, made by our engineer. He makes his own tools! I thought it looked an awful lot like the Recognizers (see a picture) from the movie Tron.

Here we are sanding the edge of one of the frames. Just imagine those frames stacked 3 high and 2 wide...and that's the area (minus a little because of the pointed cap) I am to paint. I try not to think about it but people keep bringing it up!

Less than 90

2010-03-09T22:04:00.002-05:00

More than 90, less than 90, that was the most uttered phrase as we (me, my brother, and the engineer) have been building these frames. The strecher bars turned out to be not quite as precision-cut as advertised, and we have had a bear of a time getting and keeping any of the corners square. Square corners = proper fit. As you can see these panels are meant to be hung together with no outer frame around the panel; once the canvas is streched around them individually they will comprise a single unit. Making sure all the corners were square became fantasy the more we struggled with that first one. Tap tap here, pull here, push it in here, and the steel square was passed around so many times between the 3 of us it was rather amazing to see our engineer finally slide it under the frame (raised on blocks) 6 feet to either me or my brother on the other side (perhaps I'm easily entertained...). Eventually we decided that only the inside corners need to be square, and the outside corners could just do whatever. Well, there was not much of a choice!

The frame building is half way done. After this we will have a merry time streching canvas, then priming and sanding. After that my help goes on hold, as the next steps will be transfering the drawing via projector, in parts, on each appropriate panel. Then painting (Lord give me strength) and then, and THEN, the committee comes back in to take down the wood facing from the church's back wall, the engineer installs the hanging system, and the mural is hung. I feel that by hashing out the steps needed to get this project finished over and over, though maybe it is not very exciting to read, will help make this seem do-able to me. How do you eat an elephant?...

Packages, boxes and bags!

2010-03-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

Finally gotten all the art supplies I ordered. I haven't opened any of the parcels yet (I wanted to have them all in one place before I checked the contents), but I had to leave for work as soon as I had procured the final few bundles! So that'll happen tomorrow...
Six of the strecher frames and the canvas rolls (the rolls are a whopping 84 inches long) had to be delivered to the church due to a technicality, and two trips were required to bring them home where I'll be working on them. Heh, I had to make 2 trips because I didn't know the front passenger seat of my parents' Matrix could be fully lowered down at first, oops. Plan is to assemble the frames this Saturday. Let's keep our fingers crossed!...

My herb garden, despite the fluctuating temperatures (30's then 60s, 40's then 70s...) is actually growing. I keep moving it back and forth from the studio (the room pictured above, which is full of frost-tender plants!) to the patio, depending on whether it's supposed to freeze, sometimes my mom does it. :D But on comparing today's picture to the last one I took, when it was 1st planted, I'm amazed at it's progress! I love little plants...

The art supplies are coming!!

2010-02-25T11:53:00.000-05:00

Indeed they are. I got confirmation from Dickblick.com and ASWexpress.com, and Utrecht will process this Friday. Finally. It sure took us all long enough to get to this point.

At the church is some space to work, a little office-type area that as far as I know, is not secure 24/7. I have no idea how big the space is, or how much light it gets. I'm going to try to remember to check it out tomorrow. We were really hoping (the engineer and I) that we could have one of the classrooms to work in, but alas they are all taken for Sunday school every week, and it's just not smart to leave the paintings there among small (and not so small) children, all perfectly curious and investigative.

I may end up doing all the work here at home. The qi kung studio would be the location if it came to that; it used to be our garage and is nice and big. I wonder if I could open that garage door so I could get some good viewing distance on the painting as I go... The only hitch here would be transporting the finished paintings. Rent a truck?

You have found a delicious food.

2010-02-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

This is my little herb container garden. From the top clockwise is rosemary, catnip, camomile, thyme, and borage. It needs food. :-)

And here is a delicious food. Happy Valentine's Day! I didn't make actual valentines, but I made a cake. It has since decreased in size!

Books, Stories, Concept art, Mural!

2010-02-08T22:57:00.001-05:00

I'm well past due for an update here. Let's see...

I've had a fair number of projects to work on the last few months, besides the omnipresent mural (which isn't actually present yet, but more on that later).

"The Great Big Enormous Neverending Wall", or The Wall Book, a collaboration between my brother and myself has been completed in a self-published form, found at Createspace.com.

"The Story of Clifton Thrift" is still a WIP. This was, as some of you know, launched as a birthday/Christmas present for our family members with birthdays in December. Each one got a draft of a chapter (4 of them)and a complete draft on Christmas (with the 5th, final chapter). I've been since working on more illustrations, layouts, revisions, etc. It's turned into a much bigger project than we thought!

There is another project we are collaborating on (or was it two? there might be a book cover lurking in the shadows), plus a few story/illustration projects of my own, but they are in very young stages and I'll be sure to post some content on them when there is something to show. Just know, the wheels never stop turning! I did some practice/concept watercolors in the last week or two that I have posted in my deviantArt gallery here. After doing those (the 5 animal/environment paintings) I got another idea for a story. Yeesh!

Now the church mural has been more than a year in the "thinking" phase. Budgets have been drawn, money approved, but seemingly endless concerns crop up and get in the way. I don't feel 100% confident in moving forward, but if we don't then it'll simply remain as it is now: a really nice idea. I want to order materials, the engineer wants to order materials, so we shall, pretty soon. There are numerous aspects that still haven't been hammered out, but we can do that along the way. I think one thing is certain if we do start: we'll have to finish! I spent some time making a 2D model of what it should look like all put together, using my transfer drawing and changing the wall color from beige to green. The statue of the Risen Christ will be suspended from the ceiling by practically invisible cables, and there may or may not be some physical protection (rail, barrier, plexiglass, barbed wire?) for the lower 2 panels. These last two items I mention are some of the concerns we'll just have to plow through when we get to them. I'm glad I have a savvy engineer on my side.

Church mural update

2009-10-29T11:10:00.007-04:00

Well, there has been some progress on the mural project, though I haven't gotten yet to the point of actually painting yet. Surprise surprise, there are nearly countless things to figure out before the work itself begins.

I've been working on an oil study for the last couple months. However, due to how long that was taking, and the fact that the proportions were incorrect, that one is shelved, unfinished. It was very useful as a study though. My recent trip to Washington State definately allowed me to get a first-hand look at atmospheric perspective. Everything is blue, blue, blue. I used too much yellow in my study, and I don't have enough paint, or time, to fix it at the moment.

What I have posted below is a picture of the final design, which I'll be projecting on the panels. Oh yeah, the mural is not going to be painted directly on the wall, because that is going to be torn down in the forseeable future (5-10 years in fact, is the renovation schedule) and I suggested we use panels that can be removable, so the mural can be re-installed whenever the rennovations are completed. So a major portion of the delay has been trying to figure out exactly how big to make these panels (17.5 x 12 feet is the total dimention of the mural), how many panels to use, what materials, how to hang them, etc. I'm working with an engineer/carpenter/rocket scientist from the parish to figure all this out, and he's been invaluable. We are so close to a solution, I can taste it.

We've settled on a 6 panel model, with the bottom 4 being 6x6' square, and the top two make up the difference, and have to be invented. The hypotinuse section is going to be tricky, but that's where our engineer comes in. :) The panels will be canvas streched over wood frames. Primed, and painted in oils. I considered acrylics (for the cost savings) but I have only used acrylics a few times, and I know oils best. Heat and humidity (staples of Florida weather) are a problem, because the church is apparently not air conditioned all the time, so I've got to minimize mildew threat, however that is possible. I've got all my budgets (paints, canvas, strechers, staples, gesso, etc) almost worked out. Only the miscelanious remains.

What else...Well I'll let you know the next time I have a few minutes. :)

News and such

2009-05-03T13:33:00.004-04:00

Well things have been rather busy! Since my last post I've gotten my studio majorly under control, finished a commissioned portrait, been working on concept drawings for a huge mural for my church, worked on my illustration projects. Oh yeah, and bunches of other things not related to artwork whatsoever. My brother says I should apply for a concept artist job for a game company. I'm mulling it over. Mull, mull, mull...Anyway I need to do some serious updates on my webpage. Not just updates but actual changes in content and purpose of the site. It's not specific enough. Hmm. Also, I'm itching to have some art prints made that I can sell on etsy. I just don't have enough time in the day, if I work like a silly lazy person. I have to work like a serious industrial person. Yeah! The illustration project I was working on I'm shelving at the moment, because another one has surfaced and is nearing the completion of the first half, namely the story. Why I've decided I have to write my own story I don't know, it's more work for myself, but it's also more fun. Well here is a visual update. Cheers!

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-02T23:43:00.002-04:00

Just that. Only it's my studio. Man, there are a lot of things in there! And moving tables is kind of tiring...It's time to get serious.

No dice

2009-03-24T10:02:00.002-04:00

Well it looks like I won't have anything to do this Saturday, as the Silent Auction has been cancelled. Bummer.

Prepping for Silent Auction

2009-03-23T11:49:00.002-04:00

I was asked by the Jewish Federation of Brevard and Indian River Counties to show some of my work at their silent auction March 28th about a month ago, and now it's almost here! I am so excited, and I have a lot of work to do to get ready for it. Most of it I couldn't get done until this week, some of it I procrastinated on because I've been so busy. But anyway, here's hoping it's a blast! (and that I sell a painting!!)

story series

2009-03-22T14:03:00.003-04:00

I'm trying my hand at story telling; to be a good illustrator one must be a good story teller. I always start stories and never finish them. They get out of hand and I have no idea how to get them to have a conclusion. Anyway, I am going to post a series of illustrations in the coming weeks (months) with my little story. Here goes...

Research of Marketing

2009-03-11T11:47:00.003-04:00

I am becoming an autodidactic self-marketer. lol I sort of have to be, I can't afford to take any marketing classes, and though at FSC I learned lots and lots about being an artist, I didn't learn much about selling my artwork. That has been a problem, but I bought a copy of Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market and so far it's chock full of useful info that gives me some hope and confidence that I can become a professional artist. Also, the Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion is proving quite helpful. So, off I go to do more work.

Violin practicing is going well right now. I don't have a clear-cut goal at the moment, I just really need to work on basic techniques. Every day, every day.

Time Marching On...

2009-03-05T10:12:00.002-05:00

What shall I do about this blog? It must have a purpose and can't just sit here like a bump on a long. What can I post here that will be of any interest to anyone? Hmm... Do I just delete the blog?

I have a couple of projects not quite in the works yet that I've been itching to get started on, but can't really yet because I have other projects and obligations that prevent my from working on fun stuff. But I must find time! How about creating a schedule and stick to it? Ugh, that rarely works with me unless I actually have to BE somewhere. Well, how about whenever I make any iota of progress with my fun projects, I'll post about it? Sounds good ot me.

Shortly, more in store...

2009-01-20T11:31:00.003-05:00

By the end of the day I should have another type of item in my etsy shop, laminated bookmarks. And illustration! Have to figure out how to be an illustrator! grr I should have gone to school for this, ne?

New website = activated!

2009-01-18T23:15:00.002-05:00

It was kinda scary, switching out all the old files and replacing them with the new. I kept waiting for my computer to crash the whole time O.o

Also, my Etsy shop, Art With The Spark is up! Right now I have three Valentine cards for sale, whimsical, landscapy designs. :D

Almost there....

2009-01-09T00:11:00.002-05:00

My new webpage layout is pretty much done, and after I review it and get some critique, I'll upload it and such!

Cleaning House

2009-01-01T21:34:00.002-05:00

Going through all my records for 2008, archiving, clearing out to make room for new stuff, for all the '09 stuff. Even though some things look unprimising and downright bleak, I can't help but be optomistic. Was it all that sugar from Christmas cookies? Maybe, or maybe the next year will actually hold some good things. Who am I kidding? It's all the sugar!! XD

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T17:01:00.002-05:00

Hopefully I can get some things right this year...

For kicks and giggles I'm going to post a list of things I want to do in '09. Cause it's fun to dream. Also I'm pretty excited that my birthday will look like this : 09/09/09. ^_^

Still working on webpage, it's tedious!!

Website overhaul!

2008-12-29T21:44:00.002-05:00

My site design is going to be quite different, more streamlined and unified. Seems a lot easier this time than the first two times building a website (basically yeah, building from scratch each time). I'll try to have it ready by the end of the week. Hopefully I can!

Up and Running

2008-12-28T14:03:00.000-05:00

It's almost the New Year, let's see where we've been...

Maintain a portfolio website and upgrade with paypal *check
Create cafepress account and make sales *check
Successful audition *check
Selling Christmas cards *check

Seems like I have tons more work to do. My Structures in Space series is slowing down only because I can't afford materials, and my illustration portfolio is just getting started. Hm.

I'll let you know what the next step is shortly! (oh yeah, overhauling and using this blog!)

Website update

2008-04-02T19:56:00.000-04:00

Website revised! It looks much nicer. M Todd Fine Arts

New website

2008-03-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

I've finished a new website, one that will display my portfolio and probably end up serving as a blog of sorts (pertaining to my artistic and musical pursuits). Right now it's bare bones, and I hope to add a guestbook soon. Already I'm tired of the layout and background and such. We'll see how it progresses...

my website

quatinus

2007-06-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

Let's see where this leads...