Three day weekend - productive

Lots of progress over the long weekend. I had plenty of time and very few distractions, so the latest wallet is ready to be sealed, have the hardware attached and sew it together. A bout of serious web surfing revealed a new source for chain, and a very unique solid brass chain has been ordered to adorn both this and the possum wallet.

Here's a progress shot of the possum/skull wallet, with all tooling and dyeing complete and ready for sewing:

And here's where things are now. The wallet and belt loop are both complete, now I just need to order an appropriate chain to connect the two.

One of the projects that's been on the back burner for a long time is making myself an awl. I've had the awl haft for a few months now, and have had the ebony blank for a number of years, but never made the time to put the two together...until today. Finally, I dragged out the belt sander and made an appropriate handle, inserted the awl haft and voila:

Also started the next wallet today. This one will be of Baphomet, and here's a shot of the design with the interior pieces transferred to the hide:

Both of these wallets have yet to be claimed....

Measuring tape case

As promised, here is the measuring tape case. Simple, effective, and possibly useful only to me. Also in progress is another biker/trucker wallet, and this one isn't promised to anyone as of yet.

Working, working

My last post referred to a new case for a dressmakers tape measure, and I seem to remember promising photos of its completion. Well, forget about that, because the first version was terrible. Too small, which made it too hard to snap shut and distorted the shape. So I made another, better one, that will allow me to place my signature stamp in a better location. Once again, pictures will be arriving later.

I did finally get off my lazy rear end and post some of my inventory to my Etsy store. The two front pocket wallets with the racing stripes are new, and were just finished the other day, but the tampon cases have been laying around for months. The idea was to create a new page in my 'proper' website, just for these, but that never did happen. So, let's see how they fare amongst the Etsy crowd:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/orfeet

I've made custom versions of these, but want to see how the plain ones sell before offering the option for customizing.

Latest project

Last night was spent working on a new project for myself, that could be useful to other creative types as well. Ever since the belts that I make became somewhat popular I've found myself with the need to carry around a dressmakers tape measure. I just rolled it up, placed it in a small plastic bag and thought nothing of it, and would be prepared to take someones measurement if they expressed interest in ordering a belt. However, while browsing for wallet inspiration recently I came across a Japanese leather brand that made a small case strictly for the purpose of carrying just such an item. Their product is lovely, but is a two-piece affair, and I thought the design could be simplified and still be useful. So I created my own version....which isn't pictured here, as I forgot to photograph it. It's also a prototype, and not really a finished version, but pictures will be posted as soon as a nicer version is complete.

Changing things around

It's time to resurrect this blog, as there's a lot of information I'd like to share that doesn't necessarily need to clutter up my official site. Officially this will be where I can keep clients up to date on my progress, what projects I'm working on, who is next in line for their commission, etc., but also where I can post photos of works in progress or of things that don't really fit into a leatherwork or painting category. So, onward to the updates.

Projects that are complete and are waiting on the client:

Paul C. - bottle opener belt.

Mark H. - robot wallet. Also, let's talk soon about your bookbinding tool project.

Sandra Z. - tentacle bracelet.

Who's next in line:

David A. - belt(s) and bar mats (let me know when you've got time to meet.)

Ongoing:

Still creating some inventory, to stock my Etsy store and to keep busy while I'm in between commissions. What I'm working on is mostly wallets, but will probably expand that to include bracelets and cuffs. Recently I finished a batch of brass teeth, and there are seven of these available:


These would make excellent necklace pendants, key fobs, decorations for wallet chains, or whatever else you can think of.

Complete!

It's done, finished on Tuesday night. Now it just needs a frame, wire, a finishing coat, a print made of the digital pic, some glue to keep the canvas edges from fraying.......maybe it really isn't done yet.

I decided to go for it and added some details to the background, hopefully this will tighten up the composition and keep the painting from looking like a drawing plopped into the middle of a bland expanse of background.

If all goes to plan and my ceiling doesn't cave in, this painting should be complete as of tomorrow night. Keeping fingers crossed....

I've been painting every day lately, with the exception of Wednesday, and as I haven't been posting each time a photo was taken I lost track of the time spent each day painting. Although I know for sure an hour was spent working Thursday, and about six hours today. So, here are the pics:


The obligatory studio shot:


Here is where things stand currently, and where I'm stuck. I'm tempted to push things and add some detail to the background, but would that be overkill? It doesn't really look like an underwater scene yet, but maybe that's not really necessary. Time for a break, and I'll come back to it tomorrow.

Bomb Scare=Productive

So someone called in a bomb threat to the University Teaching Center today, which led to the (not quite so) immediate evacuation of that building and the PCL Library, which is where I work. After only working for one and a half hours we were told to go home and not come back till tomorrow. Hah! Turns out it was an empty threat, but who am I to complain? Especially when there's more time to paint:


After allowing for some serious goofing off I worked for five solid hours today, strictly on the crab body. Onwards to the detail shots....

The weekend

Lots of painting this weekend, starting with making a royal mess out of the background:


And then fixing it. Turns out that after all this work on the background the earlier layers aren't really visible, except in one or two small spots. I'll just chalk those wasted hours up to experimentation.


A few base colors are added to the crab woman's lower anatomy and claws, and the shading is loosely worked out. Then, it's time to start playing colors against one another.

A bit more drawing and painting

Since the last post I've done some work on the drawing itself, and have been working out the shading for the painting. Once again this is unfamiliar territory, normally once the drawing was committed to the canvas I would have just started painting and figured things out on the fly. But, I have to say, having a nearly completed drawing to reference is working out just fine so far.......although, it doesn't feel quite as loose and spontaneous as paintings usually do without a study to refer to. The following photo is after an outlining session last night, and some time spent working on the hair tonight:


This next photo is of my painting area. This isn't the entire studio, but the area dedicated strictly to painting. Also visible is the result of a leaking air conditioning unit from the upstairs neighbor....there has been a lot of water leaking from the ceiling lately, which explains the tarps over my stereo and computer. And the drywall on the ceiling starting to collapse......

More painting progress

This is the drawing of my piece, executed on tracing paper and ready for transfer to the canvas. Normally I would have covered the canvas with brown paper and drawn this full size, and then covered the reverse of the drawing in graphite. The entire drawing is then heavily traced while taped into place, which transfers it to the canvas. This is laborious and time-consuming though, and now that I'm in the possession of an overhead projector it seemed like the time to try a simpler approach.


The drawing after transfer to the canvas, it isn't too visible in this photo but it's there.


This version of the background is after a few more layers of paint from the previous post. Once I really got going though I stopped paying attention to how long I was spending on each step. And who knows how much time was spent on the drawing itself. Also, I'd like to thank Tori for agreeing to be my model for this, especially after all the contortions I put her through to get just the right pose.

Painting progress part 1

There is a group show coming up that promises to be a lot of fun, so I'll be documenting my efforts to create a painting for it. "Radical Nautical" is the title, and the loose theme as I understand it is the sea and related lore. There is only a vague idea lurking in my mind at this point, but that doesn't mean I can't at least get started on the background. So, on with the show! This canvas is 32" by 45", and after working feverishly for about an hour last night this was the result:


A complete and total mess, luckily this will be completely obscured by the time I'm done with the background. Another hour's worth of layering led to this:


The goal is a textured shade of green and blue, light enough to transfer a drawing to but interesting enough to keep me working. Still too dark at this point, so another hour of work this morning and:


Getting closer, but this is still a bit too dark for the transferred drawing to be visible against. Back to work......

Hero Abatement Process

One of the reasons for starting this blog was to have a space where I could play around, and not have to worry so much about keeping it looking professional, like my other site. For the most recently completed painting, "Hero Abatement Process," I took photos during the painting process, although not exactly at critical intervals. The documentation was taken at stopping points, when it was time for a break or to stop for the day.

The much-labored over background, which never really seems to be complete. If you look closely the transferred drawing can be seen.
Outline of the drawing, usually executed in black but for some reason, variety maybe, I went with red this time.
The first layer of black work, there will be two layers ideally, and three or four where needed. Also, this is straight black acrylic, which is never dark enough for me, subsequent layers will be black mixed with dark green, blue or purple.

It's never too late to revisit the background, although at this point the color scheme is mostly worked out in my head, and the background is almost dialed in.

The background is complete, and now it's time to concentrate on the main figures. At this point the skull is mostly complete, and the first layer of paint for the clothing is done.

The home stretch, I've mostly been concentrating on the female figure at this point, with many layers of paint for the skin tones. Her face never seemed to be just right, and it kept getting revisited and tweaked. At this point I ended up taking a day off from work and spending the whole day blazing through it. Once the skin tones for the face fell in to place the rest of the painting was a snap.

The finished painting, which was delivered to the client last night. I didn't want him to see the painting until fully complete, but now that it is in his hands this can be posted.

Testing

Testing, testing. In an attempt to keep my real website more professional, this will be used for more informal but painting-related material. Let's see if this will last for more than a week or so.