Raw Jaeger pic

I've been pretty lazy about taking in-progress pics of my recent pieces. This is the jaeger before being primed.

Hessian Jaeger, 1778

Here's a AWI Hessian Jaeger based on, I believe, a Peter Copeland drawing. This is my second version of a Jaeger from the Revolution. There's just something about that uniform and kit that makes the fingers itch.

The head is from Hornet and the rifle is a Historex conversion. The body is made up of AVES, MS and Kneadatite.

Berlin Wall "vignette" finished!

Here's the finished piece. As you can see I've made some changes. The JFK portrait was originally inspired by photo-realist painter Kent Twitchell's painting, and it was decided to stay close to this particular image of it. I may do some touch-ups here and there.

I may also take some better pics of the East side of the Wall, as there is much more contrast than shown.

Why the wreath? A failed "escape" attempt? I did add some pock marks on the wall to let the viewer's mind wonder.

This isn't a "documented" incident, because nobody on this side was allowed this close to the Wall. But it does give a feel of forbiding, isolation and sadness.

Like the "Storm Child" piece I did a couple years ago, this piece makes you think and invoke emotion into it. To be honest, these are the only pieces so far where I felt I was creating something that may be called "art".

Hope you like it and thanks for following.

JFK painted and Wall construction complete

Here's the finished JFK/ West side segment of the Berlin Wall. Not a great likeness of the man but I'm pretty happy with it. It's more or less graffiti art anyway.

Yesturday, I cut about 3/4 of an inch off the base. After some consideration and suggestion, the tighter the subject behind the Wall would be the more intimate the scene. I also added a 54mm scale chart to show the aproximate height of the Wall.

Up next is painting the figure and tying the scene together.

Berlin Wall- Rough outline

I've begun constructing the wall. Not too complicated yet. Going by images and drawings, with people standing next to it for scale, is making the task much easier.

There is a slight taper when looking from a profile with it narrowing at the top. The top of the wall was made of sewer pipe to make to make it difficult to get a good grip. And how I'm going to make that, with the materials I have at hand, is beyond be at the moment.

The wall is made of sheet styrene with balsa wood sandwiched between. I put a couple shims at one end to help with the taper. I then textured the surface with Liquitex modeling paste, let dry then sanded down to give it a rough surface like a cheaply formed concrete slab.

The image of JFK was inspired by one made by an artist from California (more on him later). What I'm showing is the begining stages of the "graffito" portrait. I used an image from the internet and printed out a "wallet" size picture. Then, I used carbon paper to trace an outline of his features and the rest was painted in. Note, as of this posting, I have re-done the one being shown and will explain later why.

Oh, I've put composition of the scene aside and leave the decision to the person who has interest in the piece.

Berlin Wall- Composition Proposition

Taking a break from the Rev War vignette/dio to get a jump on this one. It's a little homage, for lack of a better word, for the efforts made by leaders the "free world" to persuade the East to open it's borders during the Cold War. Since the Wall was torn down in '89, it's not an overtly political piece today, but I'm sure would strike a cord somewhere in someone.

Right now I'm working the composition and trying to decide which view is more effective. Reading left to right makes me see the portrait of JFK, then what may be going on behind the wall. On the other hand, I first see what may be going on and the JFK bust stops my eye, then makes want to turn the base around to see the back.

More on the JFK portrait later and whats going on behind the wall.

Sorry for the long delay. This project is a monster but enjoying every bit. I'm much further along than what I'm showing (Taking pics of in-progress stuff feels like a chore sometimes). And I also wanted to fill in that July slot on my blog:)

Sneak Peek

I'm not as active blogging as I'd like to be. This current project has taken up a lot of my "free" time but I'll show a little teaser of what I'm working on. This will be the largest project I've taken on to date. My early large vignettes were not well received for a reason I well know now...Effective composition. Hopefully this current one will have that bite that is needed. Time will tell if this is a "winner" or another exercise in mediocre figure staging.

The subject is from the American Revolution and the scene from a battle in the South.

Thats all for now. Stay tuned.

Mike Blank's MFCA Display

Here's another piece I could have spent much time in front of, Mike's "With Gods Help". Simply a work of art. Like many, I always walk away from his display inspired.

More pics from MFCA

Here's some more pics from the MFCA show. I was fortunate to be paired up with John Rosengrant and Marijn Van Gils for judging in the OPEN category friday night. Two of the most gracious and insightful artist in the hobby today. I learned much from that experience and will never look at a display again the same.

Speaking of Marijn Van Gils, his display was much visited over the weekend. His two mini box dios were wonderful. His "Reality TV" was not only well done and original but hilarious! There's only a handful of people in this hobby that I would call a true "fine art" artist and he is one of them. All his subjects are unique, well executed and original, traits of a fine artist.

Some MFCA 2010 show pics

Here's some pics from the MFCA show. I have nothing much to say to about the show other than WOW! The large number of pieces displayed, seeing the quality of work, that gets better each year and Bill Horan's retrospective, made for one great time. I honestly could have stood in front of his display the whole weekend and just study each piece. I doubt that many of us will see that much of Bill's work in one place ever again.

I regret that some of the pieces that I photographed does not have a name attached. I always mean to go back and write down the artist name to go along with the piece. From now on...

The two pieces that I do recognize with a name is Matt Springer's "Woodland Nymph" and Trevor Hensley's(sp?) "Avatar". Both excellent pieces that pics don't do justice.

More later.