So,

back on track. Here's another Tentacle Chick. 60 x 90 cm, Acrylics on Canvas. I realize how I keep learning lots with every painting. That's great. Also, screw small paintings! Large is the new black.

Oh, I'm not sure if this one's finished yet, there might be an update later. As always, excuse the crappy photo quality. Once summer comes around with proper daylight, I'll take pictures outside that should turn out better.

And this: if you want to post one of these images or show them around, do so, but always link back to this blog and give me credit, ok? I've got most of the originals in my flat and can prove that they're mine, so I suggest you don't try to make money with my work.

Hey there,

today I'll post something out of the line. It's not haunted, weird, sexual or anything, but quite mellow and nice. It's a requested piece, some kind of harbour scene after the humans are all gone. I went all Bob Ross on this one :D
It was a nice experience, though. Halfway through, when I hadn't painted all the big ol' trees yet, the reflection of the ship looked really convincing. Then I painted it over :/ But it reminded me that reflections are something to do more often. It's so easy: Paint something, then paint it again upside down, with slightly darker colours and a bit blurry, and that's it. Looks perfectly like water.
Well, there'll surely be other water paintings in the future.
For now, I'll back away from that friendly nature stuff, since it looks like I'll have an exhibition later this year. Can't talk that much about the location + context yet, but it would surely demand something else than peaceful landscapes. Right now, I've got the second tentacle chick in the making.
Oh, and I did another Cthulhu. Not sure if it's done yet, but I'll post some pictures in the next few days anyway.

So yeah, enough talking. Here's todays piece. I like the lighting on the Ship. Looks sunny :)

Final steps



So, I think this one is done for now. Next steps are to find out what kind of finish to use, since the conventional varnish would eat up the colour, then apply that, paint the head (I haven't got the neck here yet), finish that and finally put the baby back together again.

In this last big effort, I decided to give the front side two distinct layers, by making the "lower" parts darker and keeping the brighter, more saturated tone on the "lips" and tentacles.

Also, I'm very happy with the elongated teeth and depth in the mouth. The lower part of the mouth will be obscured by hardware, so I had to find a way to incorporate that into the painting. I think this "deeper" part in the jaw should do the job





Here you can see how the decoration goes
all around the body. I'm particularly proud
of that veins- and-bubbles part on that stretch of flesh in the middle. Seeing how that turned out, I decided to paint more of these blisters or bubbles on the lips.







The pieces of "skin" that cover part of the front side wrap around the edges of the body and connect again on the backside, creating a cloth-like surface with blood vessels on the center of the back. Most of the pointy edges of the guitar stick out from that, as I thought that would emphasize the shape and at the same time help create the illusion of an organic entity, rather than an instrument.







This "skinned flesh" look you can see on the side here (and on several other parts of the guitar) was a new experience for me: The highlights are created by removing paint with a dry brush. Usually, I would have either used white paint to lighten up the colors, or applied the red and blue tones in very thin layers. Instead, the really smooth surface of the white base colour allowed to wipe of the freshly applied paint in parts, thereby generating this very organic, chaotic effect. Even from close up, it looks really fleshy and "alive" (in a painful way) in some parts. Also compare the "neck" in the picture above.







Finally, here's the one really sharp picture my trashy old camera managed to take in artificial light.
I love to paint with relatively big brushes, aiming for a convincing effect from the distance by working with rather rough strokes and low detail.

In the end, this guitar will be seen in stage light, often through haze, and from a couple meters away. microscopic detail makes no sense here. Instead, effects like strong drop shadows, color contrast and unrealistic reduction and exaggeration of details are necessary to transport the image under the given circumstances.

Overall, this project is more related to stage design or movie prop making than it is to classical painting or fine art. I find this very interesting. Painting a picture is fun, of course. But painting something with a distinct function in mind, and therefor having to respect certain rules of perception is a very different task.

I'll take proper photos outside in the sunlight when the guitar is complete.

In the meantime, check out the band it belongs to once more: myspace.com/tsagd

Yay everyone, here's a new project, and a really different one, too.
Upon seeing my custom painted guitar (that one there on the right) on a gig a while ago, this metal dude asked me if we could maybe co-operate in the future.
Turned out he was totally dedicated guitar player, or even guitar nerd, as he quit school in order to have more time to practice and even build electric guitars on his own.

Some months went by when he (who is named Thomas, by the way) approached me on another show and showed me his new, hand-built, edgy heavy metal axe, which he apparently assembled from hand-picked parts that he ordered from all over the world. Of course, it had no finish on it, just the smooth pure wood.

Well, now the body of that thing stands on my easel, and I spend hours giving it a face that fits the purpose: His band is called the splatter and gore department, they play death metal and usually have an additional band member operating the barbeque on stage. So the way to go was: blood and flesh galore, make the thing look really horrible, but with the tongue in cheek.

Now, here are some photos of the process.

This is what the body looked like after applying several very thin layers of white acrylic paint:

I forgot to take a photo of the outlines I painted on it after that, so here's an impression of what it looked like after a few hours:


Before I went back to it today, it looked like this:


And now I'm going back to work on it for the rest of the night. Next steps are:
- Getting the whole thing covered in paint, so I get an impression of what it'll look like in the end
- Adding cool shades and blue-ish relections for more depth
- Adding loads of tiny detail, like maggots, scars, and blood vessels of all kind.

If this guitar turns out well, that is, if it still sounds as awesome after the painting is finished as it did before, we're planning to make some more guitars together, and that might even include desgning a new body shape instead of using a pre-made body that the world knows already.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited!