Kool Kat

This project illustrates some of my improvements working with polymer clay.  The lesson here is how to get a nice effect with extruded clay.  For those unfamiliar, extruded clay are disks of different colored clay pushed out of a clay gun.  The disks of clay are stacked in whatever order suits you and inserted into the gun, which has a metal disk at the end where the clay gets comes out and a plunger on the other end to do the pushing.  There are many metal disks with different shaped holes in them.  It's like those playdoh gadgets where the playdoh gets pushed through different shaped templates.
The entire process can be found here http://polymerclaydaily.com/dreammachine.html

This is my first attempt with extruded clay.  Lots of distortion with my squares and the colors I picked are drab with little contrast.

Ah, much better.  This Kool Kat is ready for Halloween!  I know it's only April, but it will be here before you know it.

Stand Out from the Crowd

Many of us are making the switch to HD and wide screen.  Here is my piranha paper sculpture, Stand Out from the Crowd, in glorious widescreen 1920x1080.

Stand Out from the Crowd, September 2005

P.S.  I love my new iMac! 

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was most famous as a silent film actor.  He was born in London in 1889 and died in 1977 at the age of 88.  His character, The Tramp, was the subject of several films and is the character he is most associated.

Charlie Chaplin in the Spotlight, September 2004

Here is my Charlie Chaplin paper sculpture caricature.  The brick wall is a photo from a 200 year old church.  The steps were photographed at Longwood Gardens.  The paper sculpture of Chaplin was photographed and the whole business put together in photoshop.

The real Charlie Chaplin without makeup.

Chaplin as The Tramp.

With Jackie Coogan in The Kid, 1921

The Kid, 1921.  Jackie Coogan went on to play Uncle Festor in The Addams Family.

Modern Times, 1936.  Click on this pic for a Wallpaper 1024x768

This is my first paper sculpture of Chaplin, July 2000.  Every single brick and brick fragment was cut out individually.  Definite room for improvement here.

I have a huge file of this, but it is full of dust and scratches.  One of these days, I will give it the "once over" in photoshop, and post it for all to see and download.

Kritter Kids "Tikki"

I chose this strip because of the start of the 2011 baseball season.  Play Ball!

Kritter Kids "Healthy", October 1990

Tikki on Mount Gibbs, Sierra Nevada, California

Oophaga Pumilio

I started working on a batch of paper sculpture poison frogs a couple years ago.  My intent was to make 100 of them!  I made it to frog number 4 when work started on the polymer clay pieces.  Here is poison frog number 1, Oophaga Pumilio "Darkland Blue".  I would like to continue working on this project someday.  These colorful little creatures are just amazing!

O. Pumilio "Darkland Blue", May 2009

Raggedy

This was my submission for The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators art contest.  The challenge was to create a piece suitable for children, but based on the Rolling Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."  "Raggedy", where two girls are fighting over a Raggedy Ann doll, won 1st place!

Kritter Kids "Fleetwood"

This week, Kritter Kids focuses on my little turtle character, Fleetwood.  The picture below the comic strip is an animation cel over an Ansel Adams photograph taken in 1947.

Fleetwood at Aspen Grove, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona