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June 23, 2008
paintbrush holder
by sven at 9:42 pm
Two weeks ago I built this paintbrush holder. While I'm waiting for animation to render, sometimes I use the time to work on a "B project." This project was one of those.
The top is made of clear acrylic. There are divots in the base to help keep the brushes from sliding out of place.
And yes, I've put matching labels on the brushes and in front of their respective holes. Anal? Well...
Toward the end of Monster Month 2007, I decided that I wanted to invest in a bunch of decent brushes in different sizes, but all of the same brand (Winsor Newton). Prior to this, I'd been using a completely random array of brushes...
I want to move in the direction of understanding what distinguishes one brush from another. Making a holder that forces me to think about what brush I'm reaching for is part of this process.
posted by sven | permalink | comments (5) | categories: other art, painting
May 21, 2008
j&m's wedding card
by sven at 8:00 am
Third wedding this year: our friends Jacqueline and Mari are getting married in July. (Yay Oregon!)
Their gift is still a secret, but here's the hand-painted card I made.
And here's the inside... Simple, but heartfelt.
Interesting story: I actually figured out what I wanted to write inside the card during one of my clown classes.
There's an exercise called "Experience," where you imagine that someone from your life is going to be leaving on a boat the next day, never to return. You do a guided meditation about spending the night talking with them, driving them to the boatyard in the morning... And then at the last moment, you go with impulse and run up to end of the dock to shout one last thing.
And this is what came to me:
Take care of her!
posted by sven | permalink | comments (1) | categories: painting
May 20, 2008
k&t's wedding gift
by sven at 6:21 pm
A fun little painting project...
Our friends Kristen and Todd just got married. Seemed like their gift should have some snazzy decoration -- so I pulled out the butcher paper, acrylics, and white artist's tape, and threw together this stained-glass/Mondrian-sort-of thing.
What's inside the box? This print of "Almond Branches in Bloom" by Van Gogh, which was the image on their wedding invitation cards.
In hurrying to the wedding, we actually forgot to bring our gift along! So, we took it by later that day, and consequently got the satisfaction of seeing it opened.
Both box and gift made a big impression. Yay! :D
posted by sven | permalink | comments (5) | categories: painting
December 27, 2007
monster month book for sale!
by sven at 12:47 am
Monster Month 2007 is now available in book form, for sale at lulu.com!
I'm really proud of how it turned out. It really looks and feels like... a book. Gretchin and I put in some crazy hours during December, secretly slaving away so that we could get copies to people in time for xmas. Now that the recipients have unwrapped their surprises, we're making the book available to anyone who wants it!
For the book version of Monster Month, I wrote up a new foreword, assembled 7 gorgeous new maps, and did a new painting for the cover. The book's a bit pricier than I'd like -- but ya gotta understand: everything's in full color!
Here's the promotional text for Scarlet Star Studio's first publication:
Monster Month
by Professor Ichbonnsen
Thirty-one days, thirty-one monsters: Monster Month!
After a lifetime of trekking jungles, climbing mountains, and spelunking caves, the world's foremost cryptozoologist at last reveals a selection of his greatest discoveries. Herein you will find the Adameve, the Dark Strider, the Opium Gore Golem, the Trick Squilligoss, the Zompire Bat... And many more fantastic beasts!
With the keen mind of a scientist and the bold heart of an explorer, Professor Ichbonnsen provides illuminating descriptions of how the creatures live -- and astonishing tales of how he found them.
Both adults and children will marvel at the Professor's adventures... And be left wondering what else remains yet undiscovered in the unexplored corners of our rich planet. Like the map-makers of old, you will understand: "Here be dragons!"
Monster Month is lavishly illustrated with 32 full-color paintings by Sven Bonnichsen, and 7 full-color maps tracing Professor Ichbonnsen's travels.
Again, where can you get it? At lulu.com. Here's the direct link: http://www.lulu.com/content/1744791
Thank you to Gretchin for the fantastic help laying out the book... And thank you to all the readers and supporters of Monster Month!
posted by sven | permalink | comments (5) | categories: bestiary, painting, writing
December 20, 2007
fish!
by sven at 1:37 am
Two Sundays back (12/9) it was my friend Lane's birthday. I'm point-person for organizing her party each year. So I ask: Cake? Angel food with strawberries. Movie? Ice Age 2. Decorations?
...FISH!!
Fourteen years ago, during a difficult summer, I decorated Lane's house with lots of ginormous painted fish. It helped.
Play it again, Sven!
So, in the midst of an all-nighter, wherein I was hard at work on a super-secret xmas project, I managed to squeeze some time in during the wee hours just before dawn -- painting fish.
The original fish were watercolors. The new ones were done in acrylics. I cut 'em out, stacked 'em up, and drove 'em across town... Our friend (more like family, really) Jacque distracted Lane while I redecorated the house into a walk-in aquarium.
Lane was delighted! ...What a fun little project. :-)
posted by sven | permalink | comments (7) | categories: painting
November 11, 2007
paint storage boxes
by sven at 3:15 pm
While you're painting, it makes an incredible difference to be able to easily see all your available colors at once. Alesia Zorn gifted Scarlet Star Studios with a paint storage box that really transformed the experience of painting for me... But now I have more paints than it can hold, so I set out to make some customized storage boxes.
I'm using 2oz bottles of Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paints which I get at Craft Warehouse for $1.29 each. This isn't an "artist's quality" brand... But for most of my purposes, having an abundance of colors to choose from -- and feeling like I don't have to worry about wasting expensive materials -- outweighs any quality concerns.
The paint bottles' diameter is approx. 1.5", and they're 4" tall.
Each paint storage box holds 56 bottles of paint. I could have made a single 2'x2' box that accommodates more than 200 bottles at once... But paint is heavy. It would have been a bear to move; shelves bowing would have been a concern; and it would have been more difficult to organize the rows by color.
The silhouette of each box is 12" wide by 13" tall. That means the interior space is 11" wide by 12" tall. This very neatly makes room for 7 shelf spaces, each exactly 1.5" tall.
The boxes are made from poplar that I bought at Home Depot. The sides of a box are 1/2" thick. The shelves are 1/4" thick. The backing for a box is 1/8" thick hardboard.
The boxes are 3.5" deep. The wood I purchased was listed as 4" wide -- but the reality is that 1/4" gets planed off either side of that at the factory.
The shelves sit on 1/4"x1/4" rails, and are removable. The rails are each attached using two 5/8" long #16 wire nails.
Home Depot sells 2' lengths of Poplar that were very convenient, in terms of not having to make many cuts.
The stuff that's 1/2" thick cost $2.48 and each box requires 2 pieces. The stuff that's 1/4" thick cost $2.09 and each box requires 3 pieces. Rails that are 3' long cost $.69 each. A 2'x4' piece of hardboard costs $2.48. Thus, materials for each box cost approximately $13.
My prototype took 3 hours to build. I did a batch of 4 more all at once, which took 9 hours -- thus only 2:15 hours each. (One box is going to be a gift. Who for? My lips are sealed.)
Process-wise, there were a few things that really helped make this project turn out nicely... I used a miter saw to cut the wood, giving me really clean and straight cuts. I used corner clamps to hold the box sides at 90 degree angles while putting them together -- and 2' long clamps to hold the pieces tightly together during drilling. I inset the screws so they wouldn't scratch anything... I drilled pilot holes for the screws, then drilled into the same hole again with a larger bit -- but only went about 1/8" deep the second time.
Oooh... It is such a thrill to sit in front of my "wall of paint" now! Looking at all those colors just makes me lust to create something!
posted by sven | permalink | comments (4) | categories: painting, studio space
September 1, 2007
monster month challenge
by sven at 8:00 am
Woo-hoo! I've just gotten my first paid illustration contract!
My employer is noted cryptozoologist, Professor Ichbonnsen (no relation). He's hired me to do illustrations for his forthcoming book, "Lifeforms Heretofore Unknown by Science: New discoveries from the world's most renowned monster hunter."
I'm actually kinda baffled as to how he found me, given that I've never really done illustration work before. It's possible that he found Scarlet Letters by googling his own name -- after all, I did mention (1, 2) his work during last year's monster month.
It's also possible, though, that he's mistaken shots from Let Sleeping Gods Lie for actual documentary footage... And thus thinks that I'm a fellow crypto-enthusiast??
Anyway, the Professor -- he's never mentioned a proper first name (hm...) -- has asked me to do illustrations of 31 creatures, to be delivered one-a-day over the course of October. Doing that many is a bit of a challenge, so I've already started work on some sketches and studies. I plan to use this as an opportunity to develop my skills in painting with acrylics; that's how I'm hoping to do all the final pieces.
Ichbonnsen, frankly, seems rather eccentric. I confess, based on the adventure stories he's told me so far, part of me's wondering if he's flat out delusional! But, money is money...
(The "Dark Strider," the "Noble Shellkaye," the "Trick Squilligoss," the "Colossal Ubertuber," the "King Shielyana"... What the heck are these things, anyway??)
an open invitation
I'd like to invite all my artist friends to join in the fun. I'd love it if you'd do up some monster sketches of your own for October and post them on your blogs. ...BUT -- and here's the trick! -- be sure to make them illustrations of purely imaginary creatures!
See, I want to play a little game and test the good Professor -- to see whether he's really the World-Class Monster-Hunter that he claims to be -- or if, rather, he's a Certifiable Loony!
When I point him to the pictures on your blogs, will he believe that the intentionally made-up creatures are also "new discoveries, heretofore unknown by science?" ...Or will he immediately see through the ruse?
Help me discover the truth!
P.S. I want to give everyone adequate time to start thinking about this. But please DON'T post any of your pictures until October 1st! That's when I'll start posting my own pictures, one-a-day -- and we don't want to tip our hand to the Prof, OK?
posted by sven | permalink | comments (5) | categories: bestiary, exhibits & events, painting
June 16, 2007
like a good neighbor
by gl. at 9:40 pm
i helped linda paint her new studio this week. i enjoy being asked to participate in projects like this -- not because i am building up recriprocation points, but because i honestly enjoy helping people create things and making things happen. truly.
(and i didn't think i could really be bribed with pizza, especially since i don't drink beer and i am trying to be better about cholesterol. but i had an extra slice of rovente because it was so good!)
[last stroke!]
linda is converting her garage into a studio: the project is a lot of fun to watch & read about. she's certainly more patient & braver than i am! she's going to start hosting classes next month: go, linda, go!
posted by gl. | permalink | comments (2) | categories: miscellany, painting
August 26, 2005
LSGL painting
by sven at 5:31 pm
Fridays this fall are tentatively "studio days"... So to the studio I went. I was thinking about trying to do a little comic book version of "Let Sleeping Gods Lie" (painted then photocopied) -- but nothing came of it. Instead I got this painting... Which has some nice moments.
It's 10.5" x 13.5", acrylics, in a basic Canson sketch book. I've been trying to get more comfortable with acrylics... I feel like I made some progress today; still haven't found my own voice in the medium, though.
posted by sven | permalink | comments (1) | categories: let sleeping gods lie, painting, sketchbook
July 4, 2005
Portrait of Shield Albright
by sven at 8:05 pm
Today's my brother's birthday. ...Happy birthday!
Going with my 2005 gift-giving theme, I decided a few months back to paint him a portrait. As with the portraits of Michael and Alison, I started from a source photo.
It's a graduation picture, and bro is doing one of his traditional Boris Karloff mugs for the camera. I'm really quite fond of this shot, actually. Both my bro and I are a little... odd. This shot captures his... uniqueness ...rather nicely.
I was going to do a 5"x5" posterized painting. But after hours of fiddling, this was the best image I could put together. It's not so bad -- rather reminds me of a "Misfits" album cover. But it's just too complex for the scale I was after.
So, throwing up my hands, I started fooling around in new directions. When I came up with this next image, I fell in love. Notice, compositionally, how the frame of his eyeglasses creates a circle at the very center of the image. I thought that was neat; very powerful. It also gave me this Rembrandt / Francis Bacon vibe that I really wanted to capture.
I imagine giving this picture a title like "anxiety"... Yeah, it's macabre for a birthday gift -- but like I said, we're both kinda unique.
Now here's the painting I did. It's 2'x2' on gessoed masonite, charcoal and acrylics, covered with clear tar gel medium. Those rich blacks -- they're all charcoal. I had intended to do the whole thing only in charcoal, but I couldn't get the whites I wanted with just erasing. I wound up going in with white acrylic to work the highlights.
It's a bit distorted, but I'm OK with that aesthetic. It's free-hand afterall. The forehead isn't quite what I intended -- but I'm pleased with the hands. And the completed results look very painterly.
It seems like a very raw piece, so I didn't want to frame the portrait. Instead, I hot-glued wooden rails to the back, and used them to attach a wire for hanging. The intent is to avoid putting anything between the viewer and this presence in the room.
This was a good project: it didn't go in the direction I expected -- but it helped me transition to working on a larger canvas, and more expressively. It took forever to complete, and how I got it packaged for mailing is a whole story in itself. But hey -- here's a gift like nothing else you'll ever receive, something with some magic that will live with you (or haunt you, as the case may be) for years to come.
posted by sven | permalink | categories: painting
May 12, 2005
Portrait of Alison Dunfee
by sven at 7:03 pm
Last month I painted a portrait of Michael Hall for his birthday. His wife Alison liked it so much, she asked if she could have one too. How could I say no?
Michael passed two photos on to me, as possible references. The first:
And here's the second:
I liked Alison's expression in this second one -- but I needed to have a full shot of her head, like in the first. I wound up stitching the two images together in PhotoShop. The angles aren't a perfect match -- but I don't think anyone will ever really notice. Here's what the image looked like after posterizing and a lot of tweaking:
Alison and Michael liked the image at this stage. They gave me the go-ahead to do the painting.
...It took longer to do the actual painting of Alison than it did for Michael: 6 hours. This was largely due to the paint itself. I hadn't realized just how much different colors of acrylic can vary in terms of coverage, runniness, etc.!
Phthalo green is my mortal enemy. It's all gloppy -- whereas the white-ish color was pure joy, rolling off my brush. Phthalo also winds up looking like black, except in bright light. I might recommend that this painting be hung in a breakfast nook.
Since I wasn't doing this painting for a birthday, I got more of a chance to sit and look at it...
I think there's maybe a bit too much contrast in this one. If you put lightness/darkness on a five-point scale, then Michael's colors were 2, 3, & 4 -- whereas Alison's colors are 1, 3 & 5. Michael's is the more subtle of the two pieces.
I also sort of wish I'd compared the sizes of Michael's and Alisons faces in the source photographs more carefully -- so that the paintings would be a better match when hung side-by-side.
Oh well. Here's the finished piece framed:
As with Michael's portrait, the side rails are simply hot-glued onto the base. I used a better mitre-box this time... But figuring out how to get the perfect lengths for the sides of the frame is still eluding me.
Bottom line: More time-consuming than I'd expected, and there are minor details I can quibble about -- but all told, I'm pretty darned proud of this one. Half an hour from now I'll be at Michael & Alison's and I'll present it to them...
posted by sven | permalink | categories: painting
April 11, 2005
Portrait of Michael Hall
by sven at 12:31 pm
My friend and personal tech guru Michael Hall asked for "something creative" for his birthday. So I decided to paint a portrait of him. Portraits, I figure, are a very appropriate way to celebrate a person's birth.
I started with this photograph, which Michael uses as a by-line for his on-line columns:
Next, I fiddled with the image in PhotoShop -- mainly using "posterize".
I applied "find edges" to the image, printed it, applied graphite to the back of the paper, and transfered the image to to a 5"x5" piece of hardboard by tracing its lines with a pen. The hardboard was gessoed, and I applied an undercoat of red. The image was painted in acrylic, and I applied two coats of "clear tar gel" to give it a glossy finish. The end product sort of looks like a porcelain tile.
To frame it, I used left-over wood from the flat-files project. The rim is built out of wood from the rails -- and is the first time I've cut a 45 degree angle since I got my new mitre box. I didn't have appropriate nails, so the rim is just hot-glued on. The "tile" sits on a riser made from another piece of hardboard.
Including photo-manipulation (which I didn't time), the project probably took 6 hours. I'm excited -- it's a relatively simple gift to make, and it has a high "impressive" factor. I've been wanting to get into acrylics more; 5"x5" is an approachable scale. I could see myself making similar paintings as gifts in the near future...
In fact, I've already agreed to do a similar piece for Michael's partner, Alison.