April WIP brings May.... Robots?

johnchoi

@EliaMurrayArt holy moly this is incredible. Never heard of needle felting (or pretty much any of the other techniques you’re using), but getting to see your process - it looks so fun! Especially love that shot of you dumpster diving for your girl and her robot

EliaMurrayArt

@johnchoi thank you! Needle felting is great! I highly recommend it as a pastime if you enjoy sculptural work at all. It's fun, repetitive (almost meditative) but keeps you on your toes because you can stab yourself pretty easily Haha

EliaMurrayArt

Robots update. I found this tiny switch, and some tiny light bulbs. Some colorful electrical wire.

What I'm debating heavily right now is how/what to paint... photographing metal can be difficult... plus since the head is not metal it might be hard to get the head/body to look like they belong to the same robot. But I think I can work it all out.

Definitely a mess, but I suppose that is ok for an exploded robot.

Coley

Do you have any shiny metallic paint? I think Barbara Reid, Plasticine artist extraordinaire, paints some of her metallic items with metallic paint
before photographing them. At least that’s what I think!

johnchoi

@EliaMurrayArt adding it to my massive “things to try someday” list

EliaMurrayArt

@Coley I will look into those!

I am thinking that I will paint both pieces and then sand away some of the paint to reveal some metal below... that way too, I can control the color scheme of the whole piece!

I am currently gluing tinfoil to the head in places where I will sand the paint away a little. Hoping that will create the illusion that the whole thing is metal.

baileyvidler

@EliaMurrayArt This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing your process!

EliaMurrayArt

@baileymvidler my pleasure!

EliaMurrayArt

Woo today has been really tough...
I was feeling all confident about the puppet and the robot... and then I really settled in to building the room and it alllll came crashing down...

First I tried building the walls with cardboard, as show in the first picture, but they warped and wilted when I tried to paint them and they just looked bad. Then I realized that Lisa's table was TINY when alone in the room it just looked terrible.. so I decided I needed to build her cabinets... I thought perhaps cardboard with spackle over it to give it texture. Bad move. Bleh not good. Tossed that version. (All in the first picture)

Then I remembered I had some plywood left over from an old project. So with some help from Zac (the ever patient husband) we constructed some plywood walls and I carefully built some new cardboard cabinets with no spackle (though I am still most likely going to paint them.) (Second picture plus some blue prints Lisa made)

Woo. Still got a long long way to go but I'm learning a whole lot!!

Oh! Zac also helped me build Lisa a mini blow torch it is constructed with some little copper tubes, and an old computer wire.

Coley

Sitting here smiling while reading this so much fun. You have a fabulous husband!

@EliaMurrayArt Wow, this is has been amazing to watch, and I love the room and cabinets!

EliaMurrayArt

@Coley what is not pictured is his immense anxiety as I paint in our living over the carpet.

He has since "suggested" I move to the kitchen where the floors will be safer.

ArtofAleksey

This is amazing I love watching everything unfold

Coley

@EliaMurrayArt ba hahaha that’s hilarious

demotlj

I don't know how many times I can say "Holy Moley" but about 400 times might get close to my amazement at what you are doing.

EliaMurrayArt

I thought I should give you guys a look at the scale that I am working in... also the mess that I am creating Haha

It's easy to take photos that look relatively "tidy"... but you can see that I am anything but. I dream of the day when I can have a studio, outside of the home, in which I can set up a workshop of my own.

chrisaakins

@EliaMurrayArt This is so freaking amazing. I am really excited to see who this turns out. I wish you had been documenting your process by making a video. I would have totally binge watched it.

EliaMurrayArt

@chrisaakins ugh that would have been SO COOL! Next time - I will set up a camera and film... it's been many many hours! I don't really know how to film things so I'll have to learn but that is a great idea!

theprairiefox

@EliaMurrayArt this is so much fun!

This reminded me of one of the Mo Willems lunch doodles where he talked about how he created a village using boxes and such. Might give you some ideas:

Lunch Doodles Ep. 04

EliaMurrayArt

@theprairiefox thank you for sharing!!! I'll definitely check it out