Sketched Out Monday....With a guest artist too

Another installment of sketched out Monday.  I actually had a model for this sketch...sort of.   A dude came into Bernice's Bakery with crazy hair.    I exaggerated a bit...artistic license don't you know.

Ok...so if you don't know this iconic figure then you are in big trouble.  

Nosferatu - of course, the best-est vampire movie ever.  That form occurs again and again and again in my assemblage compositions.   It was only recently that I realized what an influence that image had on my work.  Of course I had seen it as a child...but it still lurks and haunts what I do.

The other sketch I did this week was for a piece I'm working on currently.  

Its sort of based on a sideshow fortune teller theme.  I'll do a special post on the finished assemblage later.

Now...a new feature

I've decided to periodically have a guest artist sneak in and show a sketch or two to mix things up a bit  This Week

Guest Artist: Serena Barton

This is a study she did for a larger piece to promote literacy....I love it.  Plus I'm a sucker for those honkin' collars.  Very nice indeed.

Serena Barton 

(chalk pastel on cardboard)

You can check out more of Serena's work here:

http://www.serenabarton.com

http://serenabartonsblog.blogspot.com

that's it for now...until next week...

M

Sketched Out After Thanksgiving

Hey everyone,

Hope y'all had a great TG.  Only have a few minutes but wanted to show you a few sketches from last week:

cheers

M

Email Down for now...so try this in the meantime

For those who have been trying to get to me via assemblage@michaeldemeng...its been down...so in the meantime you can reach me at my alternate email account:
for now 
assemblage@michaeldemeng.com = bad
mdmuerto@gmail.com = Good

Sketched Out Monday Returns - even if it is Tuesday

Well, it's been a long time since the last Sketched Out Monday...but here...a day late but what the heck.  The above sketch, by the way was done in Oaxaca during Day of the Dead this year.  I actually had a few nice sketches of calaveras but I ended up giving a bunch away to curious children watching me sketch...you can't just give one kid a drawing...everyone gets one.  So this is the sole skeleton sketch of Oaxaca.

This one turned out a bit differently than I expected.

The lines ended up looking like hair.  Sort of a Bigfoot angel.

Here's a small, quick sketch.

A spermy angel in a shrine.

It was cold the day I did this one.  First day I had to wear a scarf for the season.  By the way it is currently 5 degrees Fahrenheit .

This sketch is actually a clue to how I work.  I  start with a skeletal-ish form and and build from that.  This one was one that never made it past the early stages.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...save those turkey bones....you might be able to make something out of them.

Ghostly Glow

So I've been working on some smaller pieces lately, though, I've also been busy getting my Strange Angels series moving along as well.  I have a show of those coming up in February.  I find however that I need to work on smaller pieces in between the large one's to reduce the stress that I often experience after I've completed a piece that has taken a bit more time.  I find I need to work on something that is a bit more immediated...then I can head back and conquer the large scale stuff again.

So I started playing with old photos, and modifying them with paint and pen.  There is absolutely NO collage....not that there is anything wrong with that...I just wanted to be clear on the process.  It all starts with a vintage photo and I get at it with paint, white ink, and black India ink.  (I use ink so I can use a pen tip to get really detailed lines.)

Okay here's how a couple were done.  In this case I found a postcard of Frida.  I decided to modify it.  by the way, I'm finding that old photos and postcards tend to work better....though they cost more.  They work better because if you start doing washes on cheaper postcards the colors might totally fade away.  I did this on what was essentially a inkjet postcard and everything faded on the first wash except for the color red.   

I used a very high quality postcard of the image below.

In this case I actually cut the image down to make more than one piece.  I had a third (far right folks) but that piece didn't turn out.

And this is what became of those photos:

Here's one from a different photo where I left some of the frame:

And this next one was interesting because this photo started as a large group sitting.  There were a total of 6 people in the photo originally.  Now you can see some of there ghostly images lurking behind. 

For instance, If you look to the left of the image you can see the remnants of one of the picnickers:

And then if you look closely...look between the boy and the girl and you can see that once upon a time a girl sat between them.  

So that's what I've been doing...thought you might be interested in my ghostly photos.

p.s.

Thanks for everyone whose signed up for the OnLine Class so far.  There is still plenty of time so see everyone there.  Click here for more info

deMeng's OnLine Art Laboratory. coming soon

SnowBirds Take Flight and Unite

You know......Winter is coming.

And it's supposed to be a doozie of one.

So why not head south in January?  Where?  Well, what about Arizona?

I'm doing a 3 day workshop down in the Tucson area at Expressive Arts Studios located at the Amado Territory Ranch.  This place is cool...

Studios...galleries

Restaraunts and an Inn

and from January 19-21 I'll be there! 

I'm offering a 3 day intensive workshop called Trashy Novels for all levels...beginners to advanced.  You'll learn lots of assemblage plus my various antiquing effects using paints and some other surprises.

Here's the class description:

"A book is simply the container of an idea-like a bottle; what is inside the book is what matters" - Angela Carter  

Well, not always..

In this 3 day class we will challenge the above quote by using the entire book form as a piece of art, both interior and exterior. Using hardback books that have been modified to form boxes, students will create mixed media shrines. This class will incorporate a variety of techniques including collage, drawing, painting and, most importantly, assemblage.  Anything and everything will be used to create this found object digest, (saw blades, gears, you name it).  So, time to curl up with a good book, but be careful, some found objects can be pointy.

Interested?  well just click here for more info

see you there