Karyatid Facade

I meant to post the facade I created for my new portfolio page on MySpace. This piece is all about texture, from the concrete textures I used to build the facade, to the parchment and spray paint. I wanted my home page to look like the side of an old building in NY, so I needed some high relief designs. I pieced those together using various elements, such as a fleur de lis motif from an old Art Nouveau tile. I started out with a small fragment of blank cement about two inches square and I just built up layers of texture and stains and relief until I felt like I had built something with a presence.

(click the image to view at full size, as it's much larger.)

Lastly, I stumbled across this great source of images and wanted to share it, in case there's like me who relies a lot on found images to create their work. Check it out!

www.3D.sk: source of human photo references for 3D modeling and texturing

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New Artwork

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Ghosts of Wonderland

Cornish Witch
(This piece was done for a themed Photoshop contest.
I did not enter this piece, I just did it to see if I could
do something on the subject.)




(This was the original source of the above collage piece.)




Christmas Wedding
(This was entered in a Photoshop contest.
I believe I placed 9th, which was a bit insulting,
considering I put a lot more work into this than
those that were ahead of me.)


Now for some recent paintings!





Lemon Honeybee Cake




Angel Bunny




Balloon Bunny

That's all I have for you right now, but there will hopefully be some more in the near future!

Daddy's Little Darling

Daddy's Little Darling by Chris Plastic The theme of this painting is domestic violence. It's about how children are forced into the middle of their parent's disputes and there is no safety zone for them. (this close-up is approximately actual size.) This painting is 11 x 14". It is painted on the inner side of the front of a grocery bag. Due to the nature of the paper, it is heavily wrinkled and there are some strong creases in it. The paper has also been roughed up in a few places. (I thought you might like to see the sketch.) I will be donating a percentage from this sale to R.A.I.N.N. Having witnessed the work they do for women at risk, I can attest that the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network truly have a heart for women and go out of their way to help. So the least I can do is donate some of the proceeds from the sale of my Art to their cause. (Click the banner to learn how you can help R.A.I.N.N. help women.) THANK YOU for stopping by! (the title of this post is linked to the eBay auction for this painting.)

Ode to La Fee Verte

Ode to La Fee Verte

Altered Art Painting
by Chris Plastic



The Green Fairy is a subtle temptress.
She’ll lure you in with her mystique and charm
and, before you know it, you’re under her spell.

This paint chip has not been altered, other than by my painting,
in other words it has not been cut and the hole at the
bottom left was there originally.





Due to the nature of the piece, there could be no corrections,
so this was all very carefully sketched on here
and then delicately painted.
The piece is 3 x 5 3/8" and is initialed and dated
at the bottom left hand corner.
It will have a clear coating applied so that painting doesn’t rub off.



~ THANK YOU for stopping by! ~

If you’d like to view the eBay auction for this painting
you can see it by clicking the top picture.
Be sure to check out my other listings.

Gateau Tour de Summer

Gateau Tour de Summer

Altered Art Painting

by Chris Plastic







This fantastical cake is painted in acrylics

on a piece of moderately distressed paper.

(If you think that’s heavily distressed,

you haven’t seen some of my other work.)



This prelude to summer is loaded with strawberries

and orange and lemon

slices.

The lowest tiers are layered with lady fingers,

the bottom row of which are dipped in chocolate.

To complete the effect, this magnificent culinary delight

sits proudly atop a vintage blue milk glass pedestal with a scalloped rim.



The overall size of this piece is 6 x 12",

so it will definitely command attention wherever you put it.

The colours have been meticulously blended

to create vibrant tones that jump off the paper.

Keep in mind this has several sharp creases,

as well as other rough spots, including a tear on the left side.

All this has been done to add to the character of the piece.

As you can also see from the above image,

the painting is initialed and dated at the lower left corner.





~ THANK YOU for stopping by! ~



Be sure to check out my other listings.



This design and many others are featured

on a wide range of merchandise in

My Cafe Press Shop!

Summer Fantasy Cake

Summer Fantasy Cake
Altered Art Painting
by Chris Plastic



This is a fantastical cake painted in watercolours on a paint chip.
It is loaded with strawberries and orange and lemon slices.
The lowest tiers are layered with lady fingers,
the bottom row of which are dipped in chocolate.

The paint chip has not been altered, other than by my painting,
in other words it has not been cut and the hole at the
bottom left was there originally.
Also note that the above image has been formatted
with the frame and title
to personalize the setting here.
Below is how the painting actually appears,
although a bit smaller and the colours
not quite so saturated.
Also the flowers are more pink,
as opposed to the mauve they appear here.



Due to the nature of the piece, there could be no corrections,
so this was all very carefully sketched on here
and then delicately painted.
The piece is 3 x 5 3/8" and is initialed and dated
at the bottom left hand corner.
It will have a clear coating applied so that painting doesn't rub off.

The original of this item is listed on eBay
and there is also a section in my Cafe Press shop
with a number of items featuring this design.



~ THANK YOU for stopping by! ~

Be sure to check out my other listings.

Passiflora Caerulea

Passiflora Caerulea
Original Miniature Watercolour
Altered Art
by Chris Plastic



I have this great vintage anatomy volume
and I was flipping through it one night
when I came across this illustration
of a dissected eyeball.
Only what I saw was a Passion Flower.
So I thought I'd just help other people see that too!



Apparently I'm not the only one who saw the flower,
as this bee appears to have fallen in love with it.



This delightful little piece of mock Victoriana is done in watercolours
and it comes in its own darling little frame.
It is crypically initialed on the front,
as well as dated.
The painting itself is a three inch circle.
The frame is solid brass, so it's a little heavy,
and it has a stand on the back so it can sit
pretty on your shelf or you can remove the stand
and have yourself a lovely wallflower.

As much as this piece feels substantial,
it should be handled with care,
as the bee was not part of the frame and is glued in place,
as is the painting.


THANK YOU for stopping by!

*the first picture is linked to the eBay auction for this piece.

Happy Bunny Goes to the Candy Store

Happy Bunny Goes to the Candy Store
Original Watercolour On Paper Bag
by Chris Plastic

(Click pic to see eBay auction)

Happy Bunny went to the candy store
to get you some Easter candy!
Only problem is he ate it all.
He apologizes sincerely
and hopes you’ll take him in.

This charming little painting is done in watercolours
on the front of a paper bag
and is approximately 4 x 6".

I say approximately because I can’t
cut a straight line to save my life.
Mainly it’s just the 4" that strays a bit here and there,
but I’ll mount it on a 4 x 6" piece of card if you like.
It is initialed on the front,
in the lower left-hand corner,
and dated on the lower right-hand corner.
(Yes, I meant to do that!)

THANK YOU for stopping by!

Damasked Bunny

Damasked Bunny

Damasked Bunny has taken it upon himself to bring some sophistication to urban camouflage. By day he's a secret shopper - by night he's fashion police. So you never really know where he might be lurking. Just know that he sees you and your bad fashion and he's got your number.


Because he's so fabulous, Damasked Bunny has his own line of products, which can be viewed by clicking the above image.

lapin masqué se cachant dans un jardin de damassé

The Cherry Tree

This is the second piece, though the first to be released, in a series of paintings I’ll be working on that incorporate found objects and frames, in addition to the usual paint trickery. These pieces take a little longer to put together, not only because there’s extra work involved, but also because, as is the case with the first one, I might come to a point when I realize that there’s something missing. So while that something’s still missing I just get to work on another one.

Why Things We Lost In The Fire? Partly because of the imagery it evokes, but also because I’ll be using a lot of vintage bits and pieces and I’ll also be painting them to appear aged, in addition to beating them up, rusting them, or doing whatever it takes to get the desired effect. I guess this series is also about things we miss or a sense of loss. So on that note, here’s the first (though actually second) piece in this series.

The Cherry Tree

To give you some idea of the transformation this frame underwent, it started of as a kind of flat, faux gold leaf finish. That just wasn’t gonna work. Aside from my general disdain for gold, it just wouldn’t fit the theme. So I refinished it very prettily with a deep mahogany finish and then I carefully painted the little flowers and vines on it.

Then I decided it needed to look like it had been through a fire. So I proceeded to rub black paint all over it in several layers of wash. Once that had dried it was time to get out the acetone and give it a nice rubdown. Ohh yah, it liked that! It was just the trick.

I was thinkin about showing a sneak peek of the first painting here, but I’d hate to ruin the surprise. Hmmm...

THANKS for stopping by!

*The first image in this post is linked to the eBay auction for this piece.

Does Your Momma Know You Got Such A Dirty Mouth?

I was chatting with a good friend earlier this afternoon when the subject of my highschool reunion next year came up. I'd said that at this point it seemed impossible that I'd be able to make the trip to Australia for it, given all that I have going on. Well, my friend's fast working mind produced what I thought was a brilliant idea. She may have been kidding, sort of, but I immediately thought it was great and set about trying to figure out how to do it.

The idea was to set up a cuss jar on my blog or somewhere, so whenever someone's being a potty mouth they get to put whatever appropriate amount in the jar. Hey, it could be a great tool for those people who have kids or are just trying to stop cussing in general. Certainly anyone who just wanted to add to it out of the kindness of their heart would not be turned away either.

So I put together a basic little image to serve as a link to my PayPal account, so if anyone wants to participate, they have only to click on the picture and they'll be ready to roll. I'm going to post it here so people know what I'm talking about, but I'm also going to post it above my blog, where it will reside until someone blows up the MySpazz mainframe or something.

(click the pic to pay the Cuss Jar!)

Thanks for stopping by, my little sugar plums!

The First Blush of Spring

The First Blush of Spring

Ah, the first sweet flowers of spring!
They are as much a sign of life
as the blood running through
most people's veins.
What does Mona Lisa have to do with it?
Maybe her wry smile is because
she knows the secrets of life.


This is an original 5 1/2 x 7 1/2" mixed media collage painting on mat board. I sacrificed one of my favourite illustrations for this piece! That lovingly detailed anatomical guide of the human neck. I felt it would make an exquisite frame for the Mona Lisa's sphynx-like grin.



In case you can't tell, the lilies are white. Perhaps they represent purity or maybe they're someone's favourite funereal flower. It could just be that their forms are aesthetically pleasing and their sweeping lines reflected those of the veins in the illustration.


This is sure to please the morbid and insult the sentimental so maybe you have a loved one in mind who you'd love to bestow this upon. Maybe that loved one is yourself. I should note that the actual Artwork does not have my moniker across the middle of it, it's just that I hadn't signed the piece when I went to scan it. Additionally, I added a couple of coats of sealer to make sure the flowers that I so carefully sketched didn't get rubbed off on someone's hand or something. Incidentally, should you choose to frame this, I'd recommend that you not put glass on it, partly because it will eventually end up bonding to it, but also so you can position the "doors" as you like. Though don't play with them too much, as the illustration is somewhat delicate. If you're intent of having glass on it, you'll need to make sure that spacers are used to prevent the glass from
touching the painting. As always, THANKS for stopping by and make sure you check back for more visual assaults from the musty mind of
the Plastic One. *You can visit this painting on eBay by clicking the picture at the top!

Devil Dandy's Darling

Devil Dandy's Darling
by Chris Plastic

Love is in the air! The tiny particles that are left of it that is. Yeah, I think this little scene is about love gone south and I don't mean on vacation for the winter, though I'm sure it's quite chilly. Or maybe it's about bad men? It could be about saucy minxes too. Certainly it seems to think love is a ticking time bomb.

This is an original 4 x 6" mixed media collage painting on cardboard. I used a couple of fun illustrations and cut and pasted and painted them together in a kind of Frankenstein-ish way to produce this charming little piece.

The underlying illustration is from an anatomy book from the 40's. Its beautiful striations were just begging to be painted! I've used watercolours, Acrylics, and silver pen to tie everything together. This piece has been given a couple of coats of finish to make sure it all stays put and to bring out the vibrancy of all the colours.

This is sure to please the morbid and insult the sentimental so maybe you have a loved one in mind who you'd love to bestow this upon. Maybe that loved one is yourself. You can view the auction for this painting by clicking on any of the pictures above.

As always, THANKS for stopping by and make sure you check back for more visual assaults from the musty mind of the Plastic One.

In Case Of Emergency

In Case of Emergency

Not too long ago this was a shiny, new Altoid tin. It had those nice chocolate coated peppermint Altoids in it. By golly I loved those Altoids, so much so that I just had to keep the tin! Not too much later it occurred to me that I could probably make this precious tin into a piece of Art. So I figured I'd start by stripping the paint off. That was no simple task, I tell you what. I ended up having to take the Dremel to it. Eventually I won the battle and gave it an interesting brushed appearance in the process. But that just wasn't enough. Then I realized I had a lonely plastic soldier that needed a home. So I decided to get out the Dremel again and I cut out a window in the lid of the tin and put a nice little sign in the window.

Having done all that, I felt that this little tin still needed some texture - something to give it character. What could be better than a nice crusty coating of rust! So I rusted it! Yah, I did. I rusted it good! Now it finally felt like it had a story behind it. And you thought this was the story! No, this is just the foreword.

By the way, this currently does not have a clear coat on it, as I thought I'd let it rust a little more, but I'll give it a little bit of a clear coating before I send it off to it's new owner. I'd love to be able to send it without the coating, but I'd be afraid that all that lovely rust I made might rub off and that just wouldn't do.

THANKS so much for stopping by!

Vacancy

Vacancy
Original Watercolour ACEO

I painted this with watercolours to be sure that the underlying sketch shows through. This is another autobiographical piece, but I decided to make it more expressionistic, as I feel it portrays more of the emotions behind it.

The painting is initialed on the front, in the bottom right-hand corner, as well as signed, titled, and dated on the back.

THANK YOU for stopping by!

Fresh Cut Valentine

This one sure was fun! I figured I'd throw together a Valentine themed painting, so for the last two days I've been working on this sweet little number. It's something I've never done before, so once again I didn't know if I might be biting off more than I could chew, but what the hell.

Actually, I have drawn flowers before, just never painted them. But I figured it couldn't be too different than anything else I might paint. And there were lots of nice lines involved, which is always a plus. Once I got started on the actual painting, it occurred to me that maybe I'm a glutton for punishment. I mean, all those lines sure look pretty, but try painting within them! Gahhh! So when I finally hit call it a "night", I may not be resurfacing for a little while, coz my eyes are gonna need some time to recover from all that strain.

As far as the style of this painting, I'd consider it to be...Gothic Romanticism? Mock Romanticism? Gothic Pastoral? Well, something along those lines. Basically the idea was to take something benign - something pretty and romantic and juxtapose it with something a little macabre. What could be more fun? Especially for Valentine's day! So without further ado, I give you:

Fresh Cut Valentine

Yes, I know, shite photos. What else is new? I'll get the bloody thing scanned later so you can see all the gory details. What you can't see here, aside from accurate colours, is that I have incised the board numerous times to give a sort of distressed/woodgrain effect. I think it kinda goes with the painting alright.

Ok, enough o my drivel. I gotta either crash or puke and I don't care to have that acidic taste in my mouth for the rest of the day, so I think I'll crash. So come and tell me stories of unrequited love or bring me flowers or cupcakes. Or just come and say hi and ignore the painting. Oh yah, it does happen.

Good night!

Oh! By the way, this painting is 5 1/2 x 7 1/2".

And now night must fall...

OilBowl

It's amazing what you can do when you have two bags of plastic soldiers, a heat gun, and way too much time on your hands. I guess it's not unlike chasing ants with a magnifying glass, except in this case the targets are stationary and they're not alive. Actually, you could say I breathed life into them with the help of a heat gun and lots of paint.

Why a heat gun, you ask? Well, it eliminates the need for glue and also allows you to mold the little plastic guys somewhat. You do have to be careful not to singe them though, unless of course you want them singed.

There's a lot more to this project than just melting a bunch of soldiers together, of course. In fact what I've created here is a veritable blood bath of toy soldiers! But it's not just about gore, it's actually more to do with a certain president's oil war.

Oil Bowl

There's not enough oil in the world to cover the blood that's been shed as a result of greed and deceit.

So this isn't just a sculpture. It's a statement.

Height: 4"
Diameter: 7"
Circumference at top: 25"

Additionally, the pedestal is made of five soldiers that are down on one knee, in a slightly off kilter star formation, aiming their rifles outward. The whole piece is melted together, one soldier at a time. I then primed it with gesso and applied numerous layers of paint by letting it run down from the rim via a sponge brush. I started with a few coats of a couple of blood reds, followed by several coats of black. The paints I used have a glossy finish, so that is what you are seeing there. I have not varnished the piece or otherwise finished it.

This sculpture is quite sturdy, but it should be treated as a sculpture and not a receptacle.

*All images can be clicked to be viewed at a larger size.

Damaged

I finished up this painting that's been fighting me for over a week! It has evolved somewhat beyond what I'd originally planned, but then what I'd originally planned didn't work out quite how I wanted it to and got acetone poured on it and was scrubbed off and painted over. So maybe this is better. In some ways it's not, but you don't know the difference. I mean, some of the crucial contours were lost in translation, between the original pencil sketch and the application of many layers of paint.

See! It just looks a bit outta whack to me, which could possibly be due in part to the fact that I spent the good part of a day just to get the flow of the blood just right. And I did have it just right in the original sketch! So hopefully I made up in character and texture for what I lost in form.

(That's before it was quite finished.)

This one's painted on an 8 x 10" piece of mat board, but the image takes up about 5 x 7". I painted the whole board though, so it can be framed in an 8 X 10" frame. It just felt like it needed space.

The finished pic above is a scan, so it doesn't quite capture all the detail. This piece is very textural and there's a lot of contrast between the textures. There are areas of impasto and some areas that are just washes. I'm really quite pleased with the fact that I got the opacity of the blood right the first try! Now why couldn't the rest of it have gone that way...