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.)

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.

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...

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...

AndroidsDreamOfAcidRain

I'm sure you were wondering if that title was inspired by the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, upon which the movie Bladerunner was based. The answer would be yes! In fact it could be an answer to the question of that novel's title. Certainly it is the title of the painting that I finished this evening.

Once again, this painting was done over two days, though this one wasn't quite as time consuming. Last night I built up the washes that make the background. Layers of blue, blue green, blue black, and maybe even a rubbing of some black. When I was happy I'd applied enough washes, I set it aside to dry over night and put my tired eyes to bed.

When I got up this morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I immediately picked up my miniature canvas and proceeded to plot out the subject on it. I knew what it was going to be and how it would be placed, I just didn't know how much of the figure it would involve to achieve what I wanted. So that took some fiddling and I actually ended up allowing the figure to take up more of the space than I'd originally envisioned.

Once I'd finally worked out the placement it was time to lay down the sketch and get out the paint brushes. The paintjob on this one is thankfully a lot simpler than my last painting. Yes, I said I probably wouldn't be attempting to paint metal again any time soon, but that was before I accidentally discovered that when water is applied to the metallic pen I used to outline the figure it turns to a wash! Who knew!? So this opened up all sorts of possibilities.

Now armed with this new secret knowledge, I was prepared for what would've been the daunting task of rendering the metal surfaces of this melancholy being. I was even able to acheive some subtle blending of a couple of metallic inks to add some slight hints of dimension. And now I get to share with you the results of this awesome discovery!

AndroidsDreamOfAcidRain

Unfortunately I had to resort to using a webcam pic for this post, but I will scan the painting in the morning and hope to god it comes out much clearer, as this picture just doesn't quite capture it. Oh and the type at the bottom isn't actually on the painting. Once I'd photographed it and colour matched it as closely as possible, I noticed that I'd not signed the painting yet, so I decided to just add a text layer to it, rather than wrestle the webcam again.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mitt Graffiti

I had this piece formulating in my mind for a while and it all came together the other night. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I won't be sure until I actually make prints of it. I'd previously planned to do some of my prints as murals, but I think this one particularly loans itself to that, so I just might go ahead with it. So if anyone wants a mural of this print or you know somewhere that could use one, just let me know and I'll see what we can work out.

Thanks for looking!