Ninja June 29th, 2009
Good morning!
Long story short, I royally messed up the original painting. So I stripped off all the varnish and gave the guitar a through sanding and started over again. It’s the same concept, just a different, softer pose.
Happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja June 22nd, 2009
I hope you had a great Father’s day over the weekend! I had fun hanging out with my Grandpa and dear Dad. ^______^ I did manage to squeeze some painting in too.
Payne’s Grey stain.
Sketch using HB and 6B pencils.
Blocking in the highlights with white gesso.
Bring on the Payne!
Happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja June 19th, 2009
Good morning! Here’s where I left off at 3am. Oh, insomnia is fun when you’re painting. ~__^
I scored the sides of the guitar with an x-acto knife and snapped them off. Their drippy glued edges were messing with the silhouette.
Back panel: I’ve never painted on plastic before, so this surface was unfamiliar. The paint was beading up when applied, and it flicked off easily when it dried. Incredibly frustrating. So I lightly sanded the back, applied a coat of translucent matte medium, and applied white gesso over the figure. All of this was done in an effort to give the surface slight tooth so the paint will stick to it.
Now for some painting. I’m using Payne’s Grey (one of my favorite colors ever) and white gesso to block out the values.
Front panel: I’m letting the wood putty set overnight and then more sanding and staining. I wasn’t happy with the current walnut stain, so I had a custom stain mixed for the face of the guitar.
Happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja June 17th, 2009
Here’s the ballpoint pen sketch that I completed last night. I hope this better illustrates the placement of the hole (over the heart). My previous sketch had some drawing flaws, especially in the face.
I’m still using this pen that I stole from my hotel room while staying in Australia. It’s my favorite ballpoint pen. It has really even ink flow and produces delicate, thin lines. I’m going to miss it when it finally runs out of ink.
Ninja June 16th, 2009
Oy, I’ve been superbusy prepping for my first group show with Kaki King! Just to give you fair warning, this will be taking most of my time, and my posts will reflect this. Kaki requested process shots, and I don’t like to disappoint. I do hope that you’ll stick around for the ride. ^__^
What I want to do is to meet twelve amazing artists, give them each a blank guitar, and let them go wild, creating anything their heart desires. The theme of each piece would be the title of one of my songs, and my only artistic contribution would be to paint my fingers and play the fretboard (wherever it ends up) as I would during the song so as to create a visual representation of where my hands travel.
Everyone tells me that my playing is best witnessed visually—so this is one interpretation of that statement. At the end of this project we’re going to display all of the guitars in a gallery and throw a party with performances and perhaps the finalization of the last guitar.
– Kaki
When I first heard about the project, I was convinced that I would work around one of my favorite Kaki tunes, Happy as a Dead Pig in the Sunshine. Upon seeing the broken guitar, I opted for I never said I loved you off the record Until We Felt Red
I never said I love you, lipstick
I know I look like dork. Safety first, of course!
After striping the varnish, I sanded the face down to a smooth finish.
Then continued to sand with even finer sand paper (with the grain, naturally).
First coat of stain.
Tracing the body.
At one point, I was deluded into thinking that I could easily put this guitar back together. I had got uberstrong wood glue that wouldn’t swell and lots of clamps. Unfortunately, whenever I pinned one section down, another would pop and bow out. I even enlisted the help of my brother with no success. So there’s massive sloppy globs of glue all the sides of the body and back panel that I had to scrape off. I didn’t get it all off, but eh, I figure it adds character and texture.
Rough sketch.
Pencil sketch for the top of the guitar. I know it’s probably very obvious (or it will be once it’s painted)—I worked the portrait around the guitar’s hole (where her heart would be).
I am incredibly lucky to be working with my favorite Suicide Girl again—the lovely Miss Tanya Dakin. Thanks, Tanya!
Painting the back of the guitar with white gesso to give it some tooth. This back panel is not real wood, but some sort of laminate, which doesn’t accept paint too well.
I wanted the figure’s position in the back to mimic the pose in the front, both showing a 3/4 view of the face, hands clutching the body protectively, and expressing a bit of vulnerability/hurt.
I still need to fill up the front face’s cracks with some wood putty, sand it smooth, and add a few more coats of stain before I can begin painting it. Whew.
Thanks for reading!
Happy painting,
Ninja
Ninja June 9th, 2009
Brooklyn-based illustrator, Kiersten Essenpreis, has had her work featured in American Illustration 23 and 24. Her clients include Wired Magazine, L.A. Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Bitch Magazine, Maverick Records, Boston Globe, Nylon Magazine, New York Times Magazine, and GQ Magazine.
In recent months, Kiersten has run into some misfortune. Her drawing hand has been suffering serious poor blood circulation and doctors have not been able to diagnose the problem yet. To offset some of her medical costs for bloodwork and neurological tests, she is selling her artwork at half the normal price! You can browse and purchase her paintings here.
Bloods & Crypts, 2008
Freckle Fever, 2009
Licorice Bear, 2008
Red Rover, Red Rover, 2008
Skull Hammock, 2009
Shy Love, 2006
Sleepy Pie, 2008
Related links
+ Kiersten Essenpreis’ website
+ Kiersten Essenpreis’ illustration blog
Ninja May 20th, 2009
Language comes to life in Ebon Heath’s beautiful, kinetic typographic ballet, Stereo.type.
Heath’s intricately hand-cut mobile sculptures (the more recent pieces are laser-cut) feature Tupac and Rakim lyrics, Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, advertising slogans, and religious texts. His cascading tyvec and bristol letters are strung on fine wire and dance in the air. Heath cites Alexander Calder as a strong influence on his work.
Brooklyn-based Ebon Heath is an artist, graphic designer, and a Professor in graphic design at Lehman College (he holds a bachelor’s degree from RISD). He is also the co-founder and partner of Cell Out.
Ninja January 8th, 2009
Arms is a project I started in 2004 after a year-and-a-half-long bout of pretty awful writer’s block… And once I started writing again, finally, I guess I’d absorbed a good bit of what they’d all taught me about mood, atmosphere, emotion. Slowness in music, literal and figurative.
– Todd Goldstein
Photo via rcrdlbl
Arms is the lo-fi, solo project from indie-rock Harlem Shakes guitarist/half of folk duo, The Sea & The Gulls, Todd Goldstein. Recorded in his bedroom, Goldstein played all the parts and then layered them to form the absolutely charming, romantic album, Kids Aflame
You can download them here:
+ Whirring
+ Shitty Little Disco
Enjoy,
Ninja
Related links
+ Find tour dates and more information on Arms’ website
+ For more tunes, visit Arms’ myspace
Purchasing link
+ Kids Aflame
Ninja December 3rd, 2008
The Blip Festival in Brooklyn will feature 40 artists and musicians remixing music and images from old school Nintendo, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Nintendo Game Boy and other gaming systems from days past.
Tickets for individual nights are available at the door, or for advanced purchase. Four-day festival passes are available at the door on first night only, or for advanced purchase.
Admission
$15 a night, $50 for a festival pass, or $60 for a festival pass and “Blip Festival 2006: The Videos” DVD.
Artists include
Animal Style [US]
Bit Shifter [US]
Ikuma [SG]
Jellica [UK]
Lissajou [US]
m-.-n [BE]
Meneo [ES]
minusbaby [US]
Mr. Spastic [US]
noteNdo [US]
Nullsleep [US]
Sidabitball [FR]
Starscream [US]
Syphus [UK]
Tonylight [IT]
Trash80 [US]
zabutom [SE]
Purchasing link
+ Purchase Blip Festival tickets here
Related links
+ Blip Festival website
+ 8bitpeoples website
+ the tank website
Limited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
