Studio Snapshots - Tumblr Posts

Progress update. I had a figure break overnight yesterday, made worse by it falling off the shelf. So a lot of my studio time has been repair lately.

A horde of small strange aspen tree monsters are almost ready for the molding stage. Just need to reinforce them a bit.

Slowly but surely. It’s essentially a self portrait, so refining the physical form has been good. The next thing to come is more flame, more details, and more eyeballs.

Working on an idea for a painting.

Here’s some development for a print in progress. This is the sketch. It is subject to change. The actual print is going to be sized 24 inches by 48 inches and it’s going to be woodcut.

So the deal with the heads is that I am in the process of re-making master copies of them from molds I made in grad school. There is approximately 30 of them, although I have made around 40 in total. The oldest ones date back to my BFA thesis show. As a goal, I would like to have 100 of them.

Successfully casted the first prototype cast of my customizable blank. I miscalculated the amount of resin, but it worked as a proof of concept. This figure is called Nopperabo, or No-Face.

Messy workbench, but the tree sculptures are coming together.

I reoriented my drawing table to be flat while I sort out my originals that I want to clear out and sell. It’s probably going to stay flat, because I remembered that I prefer to work on flat surfaces instead of inclines.

Had a studio purge today. I’m throwing out five big bags of old art that’s unsellable, embarrassing, low quality, or I simply never want to see again for other, more personal, reasons. I have held on to a lot of things for a long time; some of that stuff is over a decade old. Doing this feels healthy. Part of the reason I’d kept a lot of it was that I wanted to see if my opinion had changed. It hadn’t. If anything, I disliked it more now than when I did it initially. I’ve got room in both my head and my space for new work.

I wanted to do one of those “2016 art in review” things but my work doesn’t fit nicely into monthly boxes. Sometimes, works take months to finish. Sometimes, I did a lot of important experiments that haven’t led to successful results but were very informative and educational. So in lieu of that, I am going to instead do a review of “Art Things Rebecca Did During 2016″

THESE ARE THE ART THINGS REBECCA DID DURING 2016 IN NO PARTICULAR CONSECUTIVE ORDER

SCULPTURE CATEGORY! 

I started making collector’s market style figurines, starting with Sans and Papyrus from Undertale. In progress are some of the cast of Problem Sleuth and the Midnight Crew, and completely finished is my own character Weirdo. Finished, anyhow, until I accidentally knocked her off a table and now I have to repair her. That’s sculpture!

I also recast an older sculpture with kind of a touchy personal history and decided I would make the best of it. It’s much cooler than it used to be, although it’s still in progress.

Speaking of casting, I taught myself how to make molds and cast resin in a way that didn’t end in tears and disaster. I’m not where I want to be with it but I’m better than I was.

And since I was making molds and casting resin, I decided to make a Metric Butt-ton of Shiny Plastic Cephalopods. Sorry they aren’t for sale yet; some of them didn’t react well to my mad science and started leaking a sticky black ooze after about two weeks.

I taught a workshop on anatomical ecorché. It was an adventure.

I completed one of the first totally new pieces of sculpture that I’ve created since grad school. It was a reiteration on a work I made while I was still in grad school that was never quite as good as I’d wanted it to be. It took six months because it was too full of experimentation, but now I think the process will be more streamlined next time. 

I designed an entire product line of Revoltech or Figma-style ball-jointed action figures featuring a large variety of women with different body types, as well as the revolving mechanical ball joints they will use. They’re in the process of being sculpted. It’s not done because it’s a big project. I am personally making a projection of 2017-2018.

PRINTMAKING CATEGORY!

I taught myself two new kinds of fine art printmaking, screen printing and polyester plate lithography. This is one of those things with lots of experimentation and no quality product as of yet, but there will be soon.

I made a big ol’ woodcut that’s 2 feet wide by 4 feet tall. This is a test print. I’m printing the edition over winter break.

I started doing drypoint etchings for the first time since 2009, but on plexiglass this time, and that’s been more fun than should be allowed. Art is more fun when you get to do it on your own terms. No pictures yet. Just wait for it, I got special graphite ink so the prints look like pencil drawings.

I have a lot of neat limited edition prints planned for 2017; watch this space.

I started selling open edition prints in my shop. And a couple people bought them! That was exciting.

I recently got my studio rearranged so that I can use my professional inkjet and my plotting cutter. No pictures because it’s not that exciting, but I’m excited because hey! I can do more!

DRAWING CATEGORY!

I did more figure drawing. That’s always an awesome thing because a: it makes me happy, and b: it makes me better at drawing. 

I did Inktober? I know, I’m still surprised. But there’s 31 ink drawings, and I’m pretty sure I’m the one who did them. Some of these might get to be prints, watch this space.

I did a couple of other random drawings that I’m pretty reasonably happy with but they didn’t belong to a theme or anything. Here’s a dead bird done in fountain pen.

PAINTING CATEGORY???

I did 30 paintings in a month. As someone who doesn’t really consider myself a painter, that was a surprise. I have no formal training in it and the bulk of my painting experience is purely digital from back in the “I want to be a concept artist” days. I suppose my not-a-painter card has been revoked, because I actually decided I really like the paint I was using. I have plans to smear more colored mud on more surfaces to create more images.

I did some other paintings too, both digital and analogue. 

GENERAL STUDIO STUFF CATEGORY!

I made a logo and have been working on a lot of brand identity. 

I opened a shop! Here it is. I need to put more stuff in it. Soon. 

I actually started keeping track of the financial business-y side of things. That’s not visually stimulating so there’s no pictures, but it’s important, so I’m mentioning it. 

I also started doing research on teaching private art lessons and workshops in my studio, which I just found out I’m able to do with my insurance, so that’s something that I hope I get off the ground in 2017.

SO IN CONCLUSION:

I was feeling pretty crummy last night because it felt like I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish, but it actually looks like I did a lot? All of this was in addition to my teaching job. Funny story, but teaching at a university takes up a lot of my time. I taught two new classes that I’ve never taught before, too. 

A lot of people have said 2016 was a dumpster fire of a year. In a lot of ways, it was, both for me personally and for society at large. Societally speaking, I can’t see 2017 being a whole lot better. However, my goal and hope for next year is that some of what I’m doing will actually start to get off the ground. Here’s to that.

Got a new friend for my studio. He’ll be a good exercise for students.

Printmaking experimentation update: pasta machines do totally work for tiny drypoint etchings.

Been trying to teach myself how to do lithography using polyester plates. It’s been an adventure because my only experience with other kinds of lithography has been from watching other people do it. I went so far as to get an old laser printer for making plates. However, I finally printed what I would consider to be a successful print, so I’m pretty chuffed. That is, until I realized that I had made the plate the wrong way around. Oh well. It’s all an education.

Been a while since I’ve given an update on this piece. It’s still in progress. Self portrait, recycled from an older piece associated with some tough memories.

Experimenting with UV-reactice invisible ink in inkwash and suminagashi marbling. I don’t have a goal in mind at the moment but I am too excited to stop.

Dumpster-dived a ‘new’ chair for my studio and Jake loves it. Jumped in, refused to move, and went right to sleep.

Got some new stuff for my finishing stamp. For once it looks like how I want.

Some tiny paintings in progress for Art Brownie at Gallery50 in Toronto. I’m excited to do a miniature art show. The theme is Summertime, and I’m making bugs.

Sometimes, it feels good to remake old work that didn’t turn out quite right. Gouache and water soluble graphite.