Weeks One to Four
Hello again, long time no write! This time - as you might have guessed - I am knee deep in the seasonal Illustration Projects. The Fasnacht in Basle is near again and hence I have secluded myself away from the online world in an industrial estate or alternatively a basement underneath a police station together with nearly 20 square metres of canvas, my colour dies and a lot of loud music and films.
I would have loved to give you some insights a wee bit earlier, however this year, my work on the Lanterns has been riddled with problems. First off, you need to know, that I am solely responsible for the Illustrations and the application of the illustrations on the prepared canvas. The frame, transportation, logistics, electronics are the client's responsibility - has to be their responsibility! Face it, I don't have the necessary tools to build a 2,8 by 2 metre wood frame! This also includes the preparation of the canvas for me to paint on, so any delay on the client's side sets me back. And that dependency is the main problem this year! Fasnacht is very early; Ash wednesday is forthcoming and so are my deadlines, all in all I have approximately six weeks from Christmas to Deadline mid February to complete the work on two lanterns (the "Big One" and the "Small One" again :D). You might realise, if preparation is delayed, the squeeze time till the deadlines becomes shorter... The dates of carnival are universal and you have to get things ready in time, or else face a lot of stress to achieve the same result.
The workload was planned to be distributed better than last year! The preparation started very early last year. I actually had high hopes, I would be able to start work on both projects before Christmas! However, it was Early December, when Murphy decided to start playing his trumps. The firs problem I encountered were with the locations... The place where I was meant to paint on "The Big One" was cancelled on short notice (the client there is still in dispute over that cancellation) and a replacement was found between Christmas and New Year. This meant of course, delaying all of the preparation work on the client's side: Transporting and setting up of the Lantern, applying the canvas, gelatinising the canvas and so on and so fourth. At the time, I remember thinking, "Oh well, two weeks of delay will be tough, but as long as I can work on the other project, I should get by". Alas, the second Lantern, though smaller was also delayed in delivery (there the guy responsible simply had a very nasty gout of the flu going round at the time), so I started work on both of them around Christmas, nearly three weeks behind my initial, optimistic schedule.
The «Big One» at the new home in the industrial estate
Ever since then, I have been working my fingers to the bone to get the work done, continuing to work at the theatre at the same time and up-keeping some digital projects, which have sadly not had the attention I would have loved to give them. Now, with the "Big One" safely returned to the client, and the "Little One" near completion, I can actually step back a bit and catch a breath or two. Time to upload Photos!
But enough moaning, let's get down to the nitty gritty: The "Big One" this year is themed as a political newspaper strip. The topic is local, remembering the big break at the municipal prison earlier last year, when three prisoners were able to dig through the double wall into a kitchen of the neighbouring house. The "Little One" is equally themed to a local incident: During the national celebrations on the First of August, members of the city fire-brigade lit some self-made fireworks, which then went horribly wrong!
The transferred illustration on the canvas with fine liner
If you have been following my painting projects the past few years, then you know exactly how and what is going on here. Due to the capped time regime, I have been falling back on some safeguard methods during the painting process. Steps I would usually try and solve differently given I had more time! Frequently, I was covering up parts of the canvas as not to have any undesired colours in the wrong places. Also, I ditched the notion of writing out text by hand in favour of having it industrially foil cut.
safeguarding with dustcovers and applying the typeset
first die on canvas (interior view)
The photos of the progress here are mainly from the "Big One" in the new, bright empty warehouse on the town's outskirts. It was a lot of fun working there, big windows allowed for a lot of daylight and the refurbished heating actually worked this year. Despite siberian cold and ghastly wintery blasts of snow, I was snug as a rug! The "Little One" is at the same place as always, down in the basement of a police station where there is an underground maze of little work- and storage rooms as well as function space for both the police and the society of retired firefighters.
Adding colours to the canvas
I had some very touching moments whilst working: Evening sunset on the industrial estate
The processes are of course the same for both lanterns, save for the size and the scale of the individual pieces. My photo documentation of the "Little One" is fairly short, mainly as I was strongly focussing on the other lantern at the time and only taking photos there! However, on both lanterns, I have tried to keep up with Time Lapse documentation again, fully utilising my new GoPro Systems, which I specifically bought to take photos and videos of my work.
Further progress was made, as the deadlines drew near...
... during which time I started work on the «Litte One».
Also, no experimenting this year: Straight forward, traditional step by step progress and processes: Design the Illustration, Touch up on Computer, Transfer to Lantern with beamer and fine liner, fill in base colours and then touch up with stronger colouring, Ink Outlines with India Ink. Repeat four times! If you add, that each motif needs to be retraced and repainted on the inside of the lantern, then I actually repeat the work eight times XD. Also it means working far more precise and cleaner so as not to loose a lot of time with corrections. Taping and masking vast parts and segments of the designs helps keeping parts of the designs clean from spillage and droplets.
various stages of work on «Litte One».
last days of work on «Big One» with india ink
This year, I think it is time to try some higher resolution on the photo documentation. I have noticed, that my schemes of documenting the work is nearly as old as this Blog. Hence they used to stem from a time, when bandwidth per pixel was quite expensive or time-consuming. So I have decided to give larder scales a try, keeping the thumbnails approximately the same size, but increasing the size of the photo itself. So let me know in the comment section if you aproove XD! I leave you with some shots of the finalised first Fasnachts Lantern of the year 2013.
Back to work full speed ahead on No. 2!
I would have loved to give you some insights a wee bit earlier, however this year, my work on the Lanterns has been riddled with problems. First off, you need to know, that I am solely responsible for the Illustrations and the application of the illustrations on the prepared canvas. The frame, transportation, logistics, electronics are the client's responsibility - has to be their responsibility! Face it, I don't have the necessary tools to build a 2,8 by 2 metre wood frame! This also includes the preparation of the canvas for me to paint on, so any delay on the client's side sets me back. And that dependency is the main problem this year! Fasnacht is very early; Ash wednesday is forthcoming and so are my deadlines, all in all I have approximately six weeks from Christmas to Deadline mid February to complete the work on two lanterns (the "Big One" and the "Small One" again :D). You might realise, if preparation is delayed, the squeeze time till the deadlines becomes shorter... The dates of carnival are universal and you have to get things ready in time, or else face a lot of stress to achieve the same result.
The workload was planned to be distributed better than last year! The preparation started very early last year. I actually had high hopes, I would be able to start work on both projects before Christmas! However, it was Early December, when Murphy decided to start playing his trumps. The firs problem I encountered were with the locations... The place where I was meant to paint on "The Big One" was cancelled on short notice (the client there is still in dispute over that cancellation) and a replacement was found between Christmas and New Year. This meant of course, delaying all of the preparation work on the client's side: Transporting and setting up of the Lantern, applying the canvas, gelatinising the canvas and so on and so fourth. At the time, I remember thinking, "Oh well, two weeks of delay will be tough, but as long as I can work on the other project, I should get by". Alas, the second Lantern, though smaller was also delayed in delivery (there the guy responsible simply had a very nasty gout of the flu going round at the time), so I started work on both of them around Christmas, nearly three weeks behind my initial, optimistic schedule.
The «Big One» at the new home in the industrial estate
Ever since then, I have been working my fingers to the bone to get the work done, continuing to work at the theatre at the same time and up-keeping some digital projects, which have sadly not had the attention I would have loved to give them. Now, with the "Big One" safely returned to the client, and the "Little One" near completion, I can actually step back a bit and catch a breath or two. Time to upload Photos!
But enough moaning, let's get down to the nitty gritty: The "Big One" this year is themed as a political newspaper strip. The topic is local, remembering the big break at the municipal prison earlier last year, when three prisoners were able to dig through the double wall into a kitchen of the neighbouring house. The "Little One" is equally themed to a local incident: During the national celebrations on the First of August, members of the city fire-brigade lit some self-made fireworks, which then went horribly wrong!
The transferred illustration on the canvas with fine liner
If you have been following my painting projects the past few years, then you know exactly how and what is going on here. Due to the capped time regime, I have been falling back on some safeguard methods during the painting process. Steps I would usually try and solve differently given I had more time! Frequently, I was covering up parts of the canvas as not to have any undesired colours in the wrong places. Also, I ditched the notion of writing out text by hand in favour of having it industrially foil cut.
safeguarding with dustcovers and applying the typeset
first die on canvas (interior view)
The photos of the progress here are mainly from the "Big One" in the new, bright empty warehouse on the town's outskirts. It was a lot of fun working there, big windows allowed for a lot of daylight and the refurbished heating actually worked this year. Despite siberian cold and ghastly wintery blasts of snow, I was snug as a rug! The "Little One" is at the same place as always, down in the basement of a police station where there is an underground maze of little work- and storage rooms as well as function space for both the police and the society of retired firefighters.
Adding colours to the canvas
I had some very touching moments whilst working: Evening sunset on the industrial estate
The processes are of course the same for both lanterns, save for the size and the scale of the individual pieces. My photo documentation of the "Little One" is fairly short, mainly as I was strongly focussing on the other lantern at the time and only taking photos there! However, on both lanterns, I have tried to keep up with Time Lapse documentation again, fully utilising my new GoPro Systems, which I specifically bought to take photos and videos of my work.
Further progress was made, as the deadlines drew near...
... during which time I started work on the «Litte One».
Also, no experimenting this year: Straight forward, traditional step by step progress and processes: Design the Illustration, Touch up on Computer, Transfer to Lantern with beamer and fine liner, fill in base colours and then touch up with stronger colouring, Ink Outlines with India Ink. Repeat four times! If you add, that each motif needs to be retraced and repainted on the inside of the lantern, then I actually repeat the work eight times XD. Also it means working far more precise and cleaner so as not to loose a lot of time with corrections. Taping and masking vast parts and segments of the designs helps keeping parts of the designs clean from spillage and droplets.
various stages of work on «Litte One».
last days of work on «Big One» with india ink
This year, I think it is time to try some higher resolution on the photo documentation. I have noticed, that my schemes of documenting the work is nearly as old as this Blog. Hence they used to stem from a time, when bandwidth per pixel was quite expensive or time-consuming. So I have decided to give larder scales a try, keeping the thumbnails approximately the same size, but increasing the size of the photo itself. So let me know in the comment section if you aproove XD! I leave you with some shots of the finalised first Fasnachts Lantern of the year 2013.
Back to work full speed ahead on No. 2!