Ecto1 - Slimer WIP

This little Slimer is designed and drawn by Dan. It's been a challenge to figure out the right amount of UV paint to put on it so this isn't the only thing that pops out of the Ghostbusters diorama.

Enoch Thompson 1

Play Boardwalk Empire theme song here. And please, no spoilers! We haven't watched the last season yet.

We love Boardwalk Empire, and Nucky Thompson is a perfect character for Steve Buscemi. Dan's been working very hard painting these wooden cut-outs. The painting is actually all finished now. Just waiting to install everything.

Non-expressive-post-abstract Expressionism

If you haven't heard of Non-expressive-post-abstract Expressionism, shame on you! It is just the most un-made-up, the most believable, and the most important art movement ever! In fact, I am surprised it's not on Wikipedia. What is up with that?

The best example of Non-expressive-post-abstract Expressionism by Dr. Daniel B.

But not to worry. I am here to put your mind at ease with a link. Here's where you can find out more about Non-expressive-post-abstract Expressionism. Now run along and study.

Dokkaebi 1

Dokkaebi? Dokebi? I don't know how to spell it exactly, but it's spelled like this in Korean: 도깨비. Oh my. Mad skills!
Dan had been curious about these mythical Korean trolls and designed a few characters. We are hoping to create another diorama with these things.

This photo is of a paper cut-out he colored digitally. I guess once we work with wood, it'll look slightly different. Maybe. As for me, I will be working on the background. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with another interaction idea for this too.

Ecto1 - More Details

This is for the Ghostbusters car "Ecto 1" diorama we've been working on. Dan is a really good character artist so he did the sketch of some of the ghosts for me. Here's a shot of Slimer doing his thang. The ghosts will be painted with UV paint to glow in the awesome UV LED lights.

I also need to glue the doors to the car body with the hinges. Which means I need to paint the hinges so they blend into the interior of the car.

I will be adding all these extra details for the rest of this week, and possibly next week. I can't wait to see what it all looks like in the end. Hopefully I can wire everything ok.

Pelican Skeleton 2 - Finished

Remember the Pelican Skeleton we worked on a while ago? Well, it was finished a while ago too. I just never got around to posting it on le blog, you see. But here she is! In all her skeletor glory. It looks pretty awesome if I may say so myself. I really hope we get to do more of these creepy scientific illustrations in the future.

This piece measures 9"x9"x1.75", and weighs about 9oz. Which is amazingly light. It has a sawtooth hanger on the back (which we will make sure to take a photo of before putting it up for sale) so you can hang it on the wall. Or you can just have it on your executive desk with your other laboratory experiments. I mean equipment.

 The funny thing about collaborating with Dan to create something awesome like this is he gets super attached to them. So he thinks twice about selling them. We have SO many of our original artworks because they eventually became his babies. It's really sweet, but we have no room for all our crap!

Snow Leopard Project - Finished

The Snow Leopard Diorama is finally finished! It is now in an almost 12"x12" frame. It measures exactly 11.8"x11.8"x3.5". Everything you see here is made by us including the shadow box frame.

It actually looks a lot better in the frame. I originally wanted a free-form diorama. But it didn't work as a wall art. Here's a photo of it.

I am pleased with how the subtle the markhor meat pieces are showing. I wanted more blood, but that would've been a bit distracting.

I think the frame shows just enough of the art work and hides all the ugly construction pieces - Dan was feeling very strongly about hiding those bits because he's crazy OCD.

The frame is made of birch plywood and oak craft wood. So it's not too heavy - 1.1 pounds. We will put it up for sale very soon.

From Taryn

A few months ago I had created cut-outs for a friend's wedding. She wanted an illustration she could use for her guests to sign, and eventually frame it as a home decor item. Here's where I explain it better.
She recently contacted us with photos of what it looks like now. And it looks awesome! It was such a unique way to celebrate your wedding with everyone - and to remember it! Here are her photos.

So much painting

These are just some of our current projects. We have reverted to using traditional media, so everything takes a lot longer to complete.

I am still waiting for some parts to arrive for the Ghostbusters car (Ecto1) project. The car itself is painted. Now I need to paint the characters in it, create a frame and install the lights. Piece of cake!

This is my other project, which is also incomplete due to some of the material being somewhat different than what I had initially thought. I am hoping to create a couple of wall arts with these, with hidden text. I shall elaborate further once everything arrives.

And finally, a frame for my snow leopard project. It has taken a long time to come this far. We had to custom make our own frame due to the unique dimensions of the artwork.

Ecto1 - The beginning

Oh man... This project has been delayed by EVERYTHING. I thought it would be cool to try a wood cutout, add a few UV painted ghosts with UV LED lights. Sound simple? Yes. But is it? NO!

I had trouble with the UV paint I bought. It wasn't working well with wood, and also it didn't work with a lot of UV lights. Also, the acrylic paint I ordered for this project never got shipped, so I had to find something else. So I was back to square one for a while and blah blah.

The concept was created probably a few months ago now. I am not impressed with how long it's taking for all the supplies to arrive and the lack of information I get given of each product. But I'm getting there! Still waiting for the correct UV paint to arrive, and then I'll order the correct LED lights after making sure the UV paint works.

The project goes on.

Why you gotta be so difficult, Wordpress?

Oh why?

The bloglull (it's no longer March) explains that I've been sidetracked. We drove to Portland for a wee while. Got to catch up with friends, Dan did a job interview, he also drove and navigated around this confusing city of no road signs. But somehow I was the exhausted one after the trip. Man, it really hit me. Also, I've been trying to learn / find the right template for our new Wordpress website.

I've made websites before. 2 counts as plural here. And I understand basic html and sometimes weird scripts. I know how to look things up when I get stuck and find my way around to setting up something that looks decent to the code virgins. But Wordpress? That is a whole new language. You have to know EEEEVERYTHING. For example, I learned breadcrumb trail is a terminology in the web language talk. It's basically a code for "you are here" and it looks like this: Home > Shop > Fat Free > Cheeseburgers
Apparently, the term came from Hansel and Gretel. Interesting, no? Zzzzzz

Has anyone tried learning from the very beginning of WP? I ask this to nobody in particular because I would very much like to. I really would. But just look at everything you need to know here. And CSS is not my friend.

For those who are not crazy would be fine with free basic templates and tweak a few things to be happy with it. Me? I am as crazy as it gets. I don't care if I don't know how to use something. I have to do whatever it takes to make it look like the pretty drawing I did, which is constantly changing.

Anyway, here's a completely unrelated piece of information. Since it's April Fool's Day, here's a prank I wanted to try on Dan but never did because he had to work in the rain and I didn't want to upset him.

Source