I built this city from, er, stuff and paint

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a new painting/mixed media piece entitled 'City'. It was one of the more technically challenging pieces I've attempted, encompassing painting, ink-drawing, collage and some unfamiliar techniques/materials so here's an insight into the stages it went through.

The initial collage layout - plastics, polystyrene, card and wood on laminated hardboard.

Everything was spray-painted white. It makes a good photo, but in reality looked like what it was - a blank-but-heavily-textured canvas.

Sections of text from a lecture on NGOs and environmental law, and graphs from scientific papers on ecology were photocopied onto acetate sheets, then cut and attached to the discs already present.

The background was painted in black oils.

The black background highlights key features such as the organic structures made by applying solvent-based (but non-toxic!) products to polystyrene.

'Stars' and 'galaxies' are added in white spray, oil and acrylic paints. It is now a city in space!

Details at this stage include a fox and an angel... to my eye, anyway - to yours?

The final stage - 'circuitry' details in black ink.

The finished piece - 'City' (80 x 60cm). Texture is a huge part of it, and a photo doesn't really convey this, but I hope you like it. Once framed it'll be up for sale...

The Great Gigeresque Ink Project (part 2)

Following on from the preliminary concept and sketches, to get an idea of the proportions of the tattoo (as Giger's design does not map onto a real human very easily!), I opted to paint a rough sketch on the person who will be getting the tattoo. This turned out to be essential as the proportions in the original meant that instead of extending from foot to hip, it would have reached far up her rib-cage. So, I need to know what proportions to use, and a mock-up is useful so she can see if she actually likes it!

Paint-job done

Does it work when stood up/full-length? I think so...

It's good to relax...

So, we agree that the design works - in the end it needed the thigh section of the original image to be shortened but other than that it is much the same. This is still at an early stage though - the image will have a surrounding 'background' and that's where the real creativity comes in as it'll be my original design. As I intend to draw it full size, it's time to find a nice big sheet of paper... more soon!

The Great Gigeresque Ink Project (part 1)

I was recently asked to design a tattoo - nothing especially unusual about that, except that it's a full-length hip-to-foot piece. It's also in the style of H.R.Giger - you know, the guy who designed Alien (there are lots of tattoos around inspired by his work). The size and intricacy of the piece means it's going to be a lonnnnnnnggggg project (months), especially as I may decide to draw it full size. So, with the eventual-canvas's permission, it feels like something well worth documenting as it progresses.

The core of the design is the microphone stand that Giger designed for Korn frontman Jonathan Davis. You can already see how this might work along the length of someone's leg, albeit with some tweaking to the proportions.

Concept art for the mic stand, full length

Concept art for the mic stand, detail of the top part

Giger's work is known for its intricacy and detail/realism (if 'realism' is the right word for images that are clearly a dark fantasy, but you know what I mean) but that's not a technical challenge as such - it simply takes more time. For me the challenge comes in fitting the design to the person so it looks right - after all, it's going to be there forever, and creating a background that can be blended into the surrounding skin and which will enhance the centrepiece. So far I have a preliminary concept sketch - very scruffy and scribbly, but it's something concrete to work on. Next step - fitting it to the recipient...

The first concept sketch...

So, more soon hopefully, and in the meantime, if you're wondering what 'KooKoo pins' means on the sketch, have a look at this album cover by Giger...

Synapse by stages

I've just finished 'Synapse', my latest science-inspired mixed-media piece - so, here's a brief insight into how it was created. Enjoy!

Stage 1: The baseboard is in the background - here some components from dead mobile phones...

Stage 2: Adding components to the baseboard - it could be a space-station, but it's not...

Stage 3: Adding more components.

Stage 4: Now the right way up - adding detail in gold ink - but the pen ran out and it's 10pm!

Stage 5: New gold pens bought, final details and white oil-paint highlights finish the piece, so here it is - 'Synapse' (40x50cm approx), £POA

Cortically speaking, I've just had an inkling

It's been a busy few weeks, hence the quiet in HubArtHub, but there has been much moving, and indeed shaking, in my developing artistic life. First up, I've embarked on the 'Creative Dave' plan which has been brewing for some time i.e. to link together my jewellery, painting/drawing (i.e. what's here on HubArtHub) and poetry. It's still a work in progress (look out for a dedicated website in 2014 if not before), but that's OK - it is progressing.Part of this has involved getting some pieces ready for sale - one of these is 'Cortex' - a mixed media piece on board which is inspired by the natural circuitry of the brain and works with my liking of intricacy and non-standard materials. It's for sale £POA so do let me know if you are interested...

'Cortex' in the middle of frame-choosing at Bridge Gallery.

'Cortex' - the finished piece (well worth the pro-framing IMO) - 30 x 40cm approx

'Cortex' (detail) showing the materials - tacks, gold paint and ink, electronic components - and many hours...

Getting in touch with my cyber-side

Halloween's coming (yup, it really is) - pumpkins, trick-or-treaters and of course masks. Being a wearer-of-glasses, masks can be a bit of a pain, but they do offer interesting opportunies for some not-flat artistic expression. Given that I like a bit of detailed pen-and-ink work, including some sci-fi cyber-style gold-on-black, you might not be too surprised at the route I went down to produce these. Better still, the add-ons are all recused bits and pieces (the red eye is from an old cycle lamp), and the blank masks can be acquired very cheaply from fancy-dress shops like this splendid independent one (my personal fave, hence the plug). Anyhow, here's what I came up with...

Cybermask I - an electronic pharaoh inspired by Stargate/Fifth Element.

Cybermask II - a head full of words and numbers...

Some artists don't 'alf pen-and-ink

Some months back, I saw exhibitions of Tom Joyce's ink drawings at The Art House and City Gallery in Southampton. I loved the cartoon style and mosaic/space-filling approach of many of them - to the extent that I was compelled to buy a couple of prints ('The Beetles' and 'Viking Village' which are still available here). More recently, I got round to sketching/doodling in ink following on from a taking-a-line-for-a-walk exrecise in one of Jani Franck's online workshop sessions. A bit of TomJoyceishness must have been floating around in my pen-hand (and maybe just the merest whiff of H.R.Giger) as the following started to take shape... more on the way!

Biomechanical I

Biomechanical spaceport

Introducing the Quantum Triptych

OK, here goes - the first proper 'look what I did' post on HubArtHub. To start, there's a few themes and about-me things that you need to know. The main one that's relevant here is that I am an unashamed nerd - in my non-artistic life (though that's being rapidly absorbed by the artistic one), I am a professional academic/ecologist with a penchant for physicsy/mathsy/sci-fi stuff. This informs at least some of my art. I also like to use recycled/repurposed materials (as in my jewellery), and this sometimes drives what I make my art from. So, what's the Quantum Triptych?

Well, I wanted to explore the aesthetic of very-big-and-very-small physics - you know, the interesting stuff that Brian Cox talks about on TV - fundamental particles, quantum-weirdness, cosmology and so on. I also wanted to look at this like a story with a beginning, middle and end. Actually, not the end - I chose 'now' as the end point, but the idea stays the same. Anyhow, I could babble on, but won't - here's the triptych, all 'mixed media on board' - I hope you like it.

Triptych part 1: '1.616 x 10^-35m'- this is the Planck length, measurement used in quantum physics, and the smallest unit of distance that has any real-world meaning - it is the realm of 'quantum foam', particles popping in and out of existence and so on.

Triptych part 2: 'The first three minutes' - after the Big Bang, the period when the Universe rapidly expanded and created matter as we know it. A lot happened in this short period of time, which also approximates to the length of many a song. This is a time of major transition, hence the loss of structure seen in parts 1 & 3.

Triptych part 3: 'Virgo Supercluster' - our corner of the Universe as it is now - a cluster of clusters of galaxies, and a structure that's actually large enough to be significant in what is a very grand scheme of things.

As yet unframed, but here's the triptych as it is intended to be displayed.