Saturday 20 October 2012

Clowns and Green Men


         Did nothing this week, except the usual noodling around with blogs, emails and so on. Well, did write the beginning of a new story that I promised my agent.
          I thought I'd put up the clown mask I've been playing around with. I partly painted it with white acrylic, but as I don't have much paint and no brush (I used my fingers) things haven't gone very far. The lips are coloured with a felt-tipped pen, but I'm not happy with them. Acrylic would be better, but I was so overwhelmed with the choice of paints that I ended up not buying any. The clown is based on portraits of Grimaldi - I wanted to avoid the Ronald MacDonald look - and his hair should be blue. There should be bright red triangles painted on his cheeks too. I don't know if I'll bother to finish him.
          I started playing around with the Green Man too. My 'studio is one corner of my kitchen table, and while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil, I seize bits of paper and card and work on it for ten minutes at a time.  It started like this - 


A cheap plastic mask of tragedy, which I coated with vaseline. After lots of paste and torn paper, it turned into this - 

This detail of the top left hand corner shows the cardboard holly leaves, and a crumpled paper sycamore leaf,

It's all made out of old newspapers, cardboard boxes, unwanted junk mail. At the moment I'm trying to make a small bird's nest by layering paper around a small (greased) measuring cup. As I want to keep the whole thing light, I'll have to find something I can model acorns and hazel-nuts around. I am looking at household objects and bits of rubbish with a speculative eye.

          From Green Men to Blue Cats...


5 comments:

Joan Lennon said...

Your Green Man is amazing! (I like the clown too, but I can see he's more of a work-on-the-way.)

Tree-hab ... tee-hee!

madwippitt said...

I like the Green Man - really coming along. Have you thought of incorporating reall acorns and nuts into his leafy hair - they will last for ages if you dry them. And nuts can look really good if you paint them gold or silver first - mine have lasted as Christmas decorations arranged in terracotta plant pots and nestling amongst green non-glitter tinsel for over ten years now.
I like the clown too - but it looks more like Elizabeth I with that ruff and white lead makeup and red lips ...
If you have a Poundland near you, go look for some acrylic paints in there - cheap and often a handy range - and cheap brushes too. Tissue paper (or even toilet roll) as a final layer will give you a better surface to paint on.

Blott - these puns get worse - but in a good way! I do love a good pun!

Jenny Alexander said...

I totally love that you're using bits of junk mail to create your green man - go, Nature! He's looking amazing. Can't wait for the next stage.

Susan Price said...

Thnnks for all the encouragement! Madwippet, I was secretly hoping for tips! Thanks - I will explore my local Poundland. (Hadn't thought of looking there for paints.)
I had thought of using real nuts, and seedheads, but thought they would probably rot. You encourage me to try it out. It would certainly be eaasier than modelling them!

madwippitt said...

Check the internet for info on making wreaths out of natural materials as it'll probably give you loads of ideas!

You'll need to protect it when you've finished it too - I use a satin finish clear wood varnish. Chat up any chippies you know!