Let it Be Encaustic Process

My buddy Randy curates some awesome shows around town. This time it was "Album of the Year," which opened Friday at Studio Le Beau in Tremont (an adorable suburb of Cleveland, Ohio). For this show, we all created 12x12 tributes of our favorite album covers. We of the Rust Belt Monster Collective also used this for our Week 18 challenge topic.

Awesome Poster by Ms. Ashley Ribblet

  I chose to illustrate the Beatles' "Let it Be". 

To create my album cover, I first rendered the image in charcoal on Arches Hot Press 300gsm Watercolor Paper (right now, this is the only paper I use on for charcoal works).

The paper is attached to a drawing using drafting tape. I don't like this tape as much as my usual artist tape (which the store was out of) for 2 reasons: 1) It is lighter and not as sticky, which makes maintaining clean lines more difficult and 2) it is yellow instead of white, which makes you view the color of your work differently.

I spray fixed the drawing, cut it out of the sheet of paper with an x-acto knife, and grabbed a watercolor-paper covered 12x12 hardboard panel I had prepped earlier. This panel had to have an absorbent sheet of paper attached to it since it had come pre-gessoed and encaustic wax does not stick to acrylic gesso.

I then heated up some encastic medium (beeswax mixed with damar resin) on the ole' George Foreman and poured a layer of wax on to the panel. My assistant (boyfriend) and I then used a heat gun to keep the wax liquid long enough to let it soak through the drawing. This basically glues the paper to the wood and "fuses" the wax, making it stronger, smoother, and harder. It also is the most difficult part since the wax cools very quickly. Definitely a 2 person job.

George Foreman commandeered from the Boyfriend... Sorry Ron

Here is the drawing covered in Wax. I love all the cool textures we got! Notice how I accidentally cut it a little too small for the panel... whoops...

Waxy!

And then I painted over the wax in oils! Hmm... I bet you want to see that part. Head over to the Rust Belt Monster Collective site to check it out!

Here is a preview:

Goings On This Week

Suddenly May is here and my life got very busy again!

Here is where you can see me this week:

Ingenuity Festival's Ingenuity’s Bal Ingenieux • Friday May 4th, 6pm to 1am
We of the Rust Belt Monster Collective will draw a live comic strip over the course of this 7 hour event. This is not to be missed!

Artwork by RMBC's own Craig Worrell

Free Comic Book Day at Carol and John's Comics! • Saturday May 5th, 12am to 2am and 10am to 7pm. This event is a blast! The RMBC and many other local artists all submitted their own versions of Marvel comic book covers. Here is mine:

 See you out on the town!

Panels and Kitties

I got a visit from the art supply fairies today...

10 beautiful birch panels, ready to turn into some small good things.
Can't wait to get started.

Mika the Ragdoll was really excited too - new BOX!

 
Here is what I used my last wood panel on..

John Singer Sargent / Klimt mash up for a Rust Belt Monster Collective Challenge

This is the rough:

GO check out some other re-imagined masterpieces at the RBMC blog!

Super Spring!

Spring is in the air! It is bright and warm outside (though still freezing in my cubical) and everyone is in a better mood because of it. We product designers work a year ahead of time at Darice and I've been happily drawing spring things all week. This is a much easier task when I can look out my window at blue skies anytime my eyes need an LED break.

At home this weekend I drew this piece of Ralph McQuarrie (RIP) fanart for the RBMC:

I've been in cute-mode lately, what can I say?

This week I plan to:

• Work on a few more charcoal drawings
• Finalize my curriculum for my Costume Cabaret figure drawing class (Space is still available, so sign up now!)
• Do a Moebius tribute illo for the RBMC
• Get back in the pottery studio on Saturday (for the first time in months - hooray!)
• Art Club / Group Therapy on Sunday - YES!
• RELAX

What do you have on your plate?

Rust Belt Monster Collective

So... you know how I go on and on about how important it is to have a commnuity? Well... this is MY support network:

5 of the most talented artists and kindest people I've had the pleasure to have known. And yes... that's me in the middle...

We ARE:

• Ben Hale
• Craig Worell
• James Giar
• Randolph Crider
• Tim Switalski
• And...er... Erin Schechtman (you are already at my blog)

Together we form the Rust Belt Monster Collective: a group of 6 artists who, on the constant quest to get BETTER, do weekly art challenges based on randomly chosen topics. This week, we are on Topic 9... a tribute to late concept art powerhouse Ralph McQuarrie ... though we normally draw muppets, superheros, and silly stuff like that. Check us out!

Blog URL: http://rustbeltmonster.blogspot.com/