Maudlin Marionettes: Snail Skates and Exoskeletons

I have all these new ideas swirling around in my head.
Sadly, they'll just have to shrivel up and die of neglect, because I also have half a dozen unfinished projects laying about that I simply must finish before starting anything new. But there's only so many hours in the day, and a limited supply of motivation in my bones. And so many other interesting things to do :P

These are two that I'm trying to finish right now...



untitled as of yet, working title is SnailSkater...
(snails instead of skate wheels make for quite a slow getaway. Or pursuit.)



They Promised Me An Exoskeleton
Haven't quite decided where to go with this one, thinking of maybe adding a bit of goldleaf??

Pandora continues...

Almost done!!!  After several weeks away, I'm finally back in the studio.  This time I worked on the box, the gold designs, her face and hands...  I still have a bit more to do on her hands and maybe a few other details, but for the most part she's done...

'Air à danser

Pandora's current incarnation...

Finally getting somewhere with this.  Still contemplating what to do with her robe and the background...  then I have to get to work on her face and hands, and the box...

Here's a photochopped pic of the direction it may be heading...

**note** the woodgrain across her face/hair isn't quite so conspicuous in real life, the scanner tends to highlight it.

and so it goes...

Pandora's coming along nicely...  nice and slow...  frustratingly slow, if you must know.  all those little cloudy bits are a bit time consuming.  But I'm having fun with it, also doing a couple other pieces on the side...

It was supposed to be Pandora letting all the little evils escape, but then I realized that they're not quite 'evil' enough, so it must be hope escaping...  Or is hope evil too?

P is for Pandora. And Pomegranates.

I've been working on this off and on for the last month while I was in Michigan. It's going to take a while to finish, as all the subtle ones do.  I'm thinking of going all Klimt-y on her robe, deep dark red, with a dark indigo for the background.


So I started another, just to finish something. But this is going to take several days too. Oi.

*update* here it is finished:

Just a wee bit of grass...

K and I went out painting last week, down by the Laguna, found some cool grass by the edge of the water...  Above is what I did that day.   


And this is what it looks like after working on it in the studio for a bit.  It's about halfway finished, I think.

**update**
Finally finished:

Spinning The Thread of Life with Thought and Memory (unfinished)

(oil paint, pen, coloured pencil on pine frame)

Another piece that I've had sitting around for a while.  Originally, it only had the figure, straining against the sides, trying to escape the 'box'.  Then I added the string and the crow on the bottom holding the end of it.  After I drew it I felt really bad at creating this world where a crow was being jerked around, like I'd tied a REAL crow to the end of a string.  So I stopped and stuffed it in a box...  Until last night...

I added a second crow and continued the string past the bottom crow, giving them both a more 'active' role in the situation.  But then I needed to do something at the end of it...  

__________________________________________

Lately I've been reading more Norse mythology and a bit of it seems to have worked its way into this piece.   

• The most logical choice for the end of the string was a spool or spindle. The Norns are Norse demi-goddesses of destiny, dieties who "spin the threads of fate" of both gods and men.
• The crows turned into Odin's two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (their names mean 'Thought' and 'Memory') who fly about the world delivering messages and gathering knowledge.  At night they return and perch on Odin's shoulders and whisper into his ears everything they've seen and heard.

  So this is turning out to be a Norn spinning the thread of someone's life, deciding their fate, with Huginn and Muninn watching closely (and maybe lending a foot or two) so they can tell Odin all about this new person coming into the world...  But even as she's spinning she's getting tangled up in the thread as well, maybe losing a bit of her objectivity...?

I love it when these things happen.  This thing has just been sitting for the last 6 months because I couldn't figure out how to finish it.  Then everything just falls into place.  Stuff I've been reading, pictures I've been looking at, all just seem to fit together perfectly to make it complete.  

  ---   
norn=woodsprite?  The woodsprite was my consolation/therapy piece for not being able to finish this one when I started it.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

I've been toying with this idea for ages, finally decided on the right figure and composition this week.  

Now that I have the room, I decided to take advantage of the space and use my overhead projector for the first time - almost four years in storage, it's about time I used it. But the smallest it would get (and still be in focus) was still too big for the canvasses I had.  So I went to the hardware store and picked up a few sheets of 2'x4' birch plywood.  It's the largest painting I've done in a long time.   Eek!! 

I've been making it a point to stop periodically and take pictures of each stage. I've never done it that way before, since I generally like to finish paintings in one sitting...   I have the feeling that it's going to take me a while to finish this one.    

This is just the underpainting to get the  colours and shadows figured out before I start the real painting...

More of the same, but different

Almost done! Added a few nibblybug holes in the leaves, still have some details to work out (mainly shadows on the face), but overall I'm pretty happy with the outcome...


passion, pre-decay...

Wallowing in passion and decay

Ooh, two posts in one day! How'd you get so lucky? 
Just thought I'd throw in my real 'lastest' piece.  
(Yeah, I lied in that last post)
It's probably about a quarter of the way done so far.  Slightly Lord of the Flies, I think? (should that be 'Lady of the Flies'?)  I was thinking of adding a couple bugs on the passionflower.  Hmmm.  I still might, if I can make it work.  And maybe a few small holes eaten through the leaves.  Raw passion as decay.

 
Because of the way the wood interacts with the coloured pencil, you can see more of the highlights at an angle.  That's one reason I love the stuff.  It changes as you move around it, you see new things, little details that you wouldn't see standing even a foot to one side or the other.  The woodgrain plays with your head :)  Doesn't necessarily translate that well into a photo though...  Oh well.  Who cares?