Stained Glass

 I'm way out of my comfort zone.  My wife found out our adult son was doing beautiful stained glass windows and now she has commissioned the both of us to do one for her birthday.  

We have a long window at the side of our front-door she wants to fill. I've never done anything like this before and this is larger than anything our son has done.  I designed an original paper pattern, did a photoshop overlay of the actual glass choices on my layout to see how it would look and inserted it into a photo of the window space. Now our son is busy building the panel using the pattern.

Here's what we've got so far.  I'm curious to see the finished piece!

Mock up of the design placed in window

Original design and color version with sampled glass choices over-layered.

P.S.  I just saw some photos of the work in progress and it's better than I expected.  The straight lines have been softened with curves that simulate water, and other details are added.  We are very excited now!  

Work in progress looking good!

 

A new update came in. This is the glass installed in the window!

Owl & Pussycat

 This is a work in progress.  It's a digital sketch for a painting that will be done using acrylics.  These are original character designs of mine for an Illustration for The Owl and the Pussycat from the poem by Edward Lear.  I've started working color, design and compositions digitally before committing to canvas these days.

Latest Paintings...

 I keep forgetting about this blog so I don't post too regularly.  The latest painting I did was a modified copy from an unknown artist I did for a friend who has been on me for years to do.  I flipped the image and removed a figure making a total of 14 people.  I also made it monocromatic and used acrylics because color and oils would have taken for ever to do.  They were happy and that is what matters in the end.

Happy Birthday!...

 I don't keep this blog up consistency, but thought I would include the painting I did for my granddaughters birthday.  She's just turning 11 and is into aquatic life, so I did a painting for her room to celebrate her birthday with an aquatic theme.  It's a bunch of reference material from the internet composed in Photoshop which I transferred to canvas and then painted using acrylic paint.

I'm still getting used to acrylics and approaching it like watercolors. I blocked off the critters using a latex matte and then did a wet wash for the background in blue, then added the critters after removing the mask or matte.  Hope she like it!

Old School Animation Table

 I have this custom made collapsible portable animation stand that I'm not using these days.  Now that everything is digital, my poor drawing table sits idle.  I had it built with two lawn-chair hinges so I could raise and lower it for a comfortable drawing angle.  I added a removable copy stand rostrum for a digital or film camera and used it for pencil tests and full production work.  It's still cool and I have it set up in my office just for kicks right now.

CLAYDREAM..Documentary about Will Vinton

 This is the trailer for the finished film started in 2017 originally called "Welcome to My Daydream " about Will Vinton and his studio.

 CLAYDREAM_Follow link for the Tribeca premiere screening: TODAY Sunday, June 13th @ 4pm pst https://www.tribecafilm.com/films/claydream-2021

This is a still from the documentary of Will and myself discussing a scene

 Will and I discussing a scene

 

Music and Mood in Animation_ The Two Jinn's

 

I made Jinn Jinn Meets Sadiqi over the CoVid lock-down purely as a distraction.  During the making, I fell in love with the scratch track by Ravi Shankar because it captured the playfulness and spirit of what I was trying to do in animation.  As it usually happens, I couldn’t get the rights to use the music in its entirety and had to find free music that fit the flavor and action but it changed the whole level of energy and mood.  It works, and you can see it here: https://vimeo.com/447473057    But, I still missed the Shankar tribute version, so I put this version of the Ravi piece here on my blog just to show how much music can influence the feel of an animated cartoon.  Sorry for the poor quality, (go to the linked version above for better image quality and the alternative sound track), but this way I won’t get any strikes or violations…

Another View Master Artist

 

I never know who or when someone is looking at this blog, I don’t tend it every day or give it much attention, but it’s been a great way of learning things!

Just recently, a comment on one of my View Master posts led to the discovery of a new artist who worked on translating my favorite cartoon characters into 3d sculptures for the View Master reels. 

Meet Martha Armstrong Hand who, I can only conclude, worked around the same time as the already mentioned Florence Thomas and Joe Liptak.  There seems to be some confusion between Martha and Florence on who is who when it come to the photos, and I am thinking some got miss labeled as Florence when they should have been Martha.  Regardless, we have more information on Martha, and learn which View Masters she actually worked on plus learning of  her career as a doll designer for Mattel Toys!

Read more about Martha Armstrong Hand here: https://www.niada.org/portfolio/martha-armstrong-hand/

 

Special thanks to Lori for sending this article!

 

 

                                                               Martha Armstrong Hand