For the past two weeks, I have given myself some much needed off time from my freelance work and spent that time working on projects that I’ve been wanting to work on.  I’ve been wanting to flesh out my painting skills… but I don’t want to go the traditional route with my paintings.  Traditional paintings are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not for me.  I like texture and contrast and bright colors.  So I sat in my room, took out all of my art supplies and started looking at everything I had.  I found a piece of fabric that triggered an idea and went for it.  I won’t go much into the process work… simply because well, I adjusted the approach depending on what the situation called for.  That, and I needed the supplies to be as cheap as possible.  Ever heard of MacGyver?  Yeah.  That was me while working on this project.

I will say this, however, this project is by far one of my favorite pieces that I’ve created.  The end result?  Well it looks awesome.  But that’s not it.  I’ve spoken with people that say graphic design is basically a visual solution to a problem.  And I fully agree, except usually, I don’t view it in that way.  However, when working with this project, I saw in my head a basic idea of what I wanted this to turn out like.  I actually had the background applied and done before I started on anything else.  However, moving on to the next step created a problem.  It’s very textured.  I want the main focus to be smooth and shiny, a contrast, so it stands out… so, the solution?  Paint on a thick piece of large paper and attach it to the background.  I however, could not find a piece of paper large enough, so there was a blank space between her and the edge of the canvas, which was not good.  So I had to create a border to finish off the piece and frame it right… so, another problem.  That problem actually almost destroyed the painting, but after working around some ideas and turning a catastrophe into well, awesome, it turned out perfectly.  Another problem, the thick piece of paper stood out to far from the board.  I wanted that, however, I also wanted it to sort of transition smoothly so I had to come up with yet another solution to that problem.

Another note.  A lot of things I do involve symbolism and I can promise you that everything in this painting down to even the minor details were put there for a reason or to symbolize something.  I won’t give those away, but I can promise that everything down to the way I attached her to the board was done with a purpose.

Over all, this is by far the most rewarding piece of art I have ever done.  I plan on doing more like this in the future and whenever working on ‘paintings’ again, will ALWAYS use mixed media simply for the challenge of coming up with solutions to the problems that arise.   I plan on focusing a lot more on this type of stuff this year simply because of how relaxing and healing these type of projects are for me.  Expect more soon!  All of these will be posted under ‘Melted Zipper Designs’ as once I get my chops up, I plan on selling this and other bits and pieces of my crafts.  I won’t be selling this one however, but if anyone is in fact interested, I can make a framed print for you.  (For a slight fee )

A thank you is in order for those of you who follow my work.  Although this site is partially a portfolio, it is a place I use more-so than not to post my art happenings and a place that I can use to help me reflect on my progress as a person and as an artist/graphic designer.

Below are the photos of the project this blog entry is referring to (ps. sorry for the bad quality, not a photographer in the least bit!).  There are also close shots of various parts for detail.

Above :: Bride of Frankenstein
Below :: Photographs of Detail — Face, Heart, Bondage, Background, Border [click to enlarge]

 [A Product of Melted Zipper Designs, 2012.]