Archive for the tag 'Kaki King Guitar Project'

Kaki King presents: The Exhibition

Ninja August 6th, 2009

kaki-king-presents-the-exhibition

Guitar goddess/song bird, Kaki King, presents The Exhibition: a one night exhibit of guitars turned into pieces of artwork inspired by a Kaki King song title. The highlight of the evening will occur around 9:00 pm when Kaki puts on a solo performance of several songs, then plays the song Playing With Pink Noise with pink paint covering her hands on her iconic blue guitar. That guitar and several others will be auctioned off to benefit VH1’s Save the Music foundation.

Where
The Littlefield
622 Degraw Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue in the Gowanus
Brooklyn, New York 11217 (map)
718) 855-3388

When
Friday, August 7, 2009
One night only!
Doors open at 7:00 PM

Cost
Free admission
All ages welcome

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the guitars on display:

Sad American_Reni Papananias
Sad American
Reni Papananias

Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music_Vincent Hui
Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be A Bad Person?
Vincent Hui

I Need A Girl Who Knows A Map_Kate Havnevik
I Need A Girl Who Knows A Map
Kate Havnevik

Can the Gwot Save Us_Morgan Grenier
Can the Gwot Save Us
Morgan Grenier

Here’s my contribution:

I Never Said I Love You


Detail

All my process photos and comments can be viewed here.

Come out and say hi! I’ll be the one with the pink streaks. ^___^

Ninja vs Penguin_pink hair

Big smiles,
Ninja

PS. Correction: looks like Magic Hat won’t be there after all, so no free beer. But hey, it’s a free Kaki show with some amazing art—that should be enough reason to come out and join us. ~__^

Related links
+ To see more, become a fan of Kaki King Guitar Art on Facebook
+ Kaki King SPIN interview

Album purchasing links
+Mexican Teenagers, $8.49
+ Dreaming of Revenge, $13.98
+ Until We Felt Red, $14.98
+ Legs to Make Us Longer, $12.98

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Kaki King Guitar Art Project in Brooklyn

Ninja July 21st, 2009

kaki-king-guitar-art-project-in-brooklyn

Wohoo, I’m done!

I Never Said I Love You

Detail

Thanks for giving me much love as I continue to do my art! The past few weeks have been spent burning the midnight oil to prepare for this show (it’s my first group show). I’m so excited, and I would love to see you there.

Where
The Littlefield
622 Degraw Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue in the Gowanus
Brooklyn, New York 11217 (map)
718) 855-3388

When
Friday, August 7, 2009
One night only!
Doors open at 7:00 PM

Cost
Free admission

It’s been such an honor to collaborate with one of my heroes, the talented musician, Kaki King! She invited me and 15 other artists to create visual representations of her music from some busted guitars. Here’s a glimpse into some of the artists’ creative processes:

Ahuvati by Joseph Zacker

Night After Sidewalk by China Morobosa

Open Mouth by Lennie Peterson

Pull Me Out Alive by Andrea Arceneaux

Sad American by Reni Papananias

So Much for So Little by Katherine Guillen

I can’t wait to see them all in person!

Also that night, Kaki will perform a special rendition of Pink Noise with paint on her fingers. Her resulting performance painting piece will then be auctioned off for charity.

Magic Hat Brewery is sponsoring the event so there will be plenty of free swill for those of you inclined.

Big smiles,
Ninja

PS Much thanks and love to my wonderful friend, Tony Bologna Yang, for shooting the finished piece and to my lovely model, Tanya Dakin.

Related links
+ To see more, become a fan of Kaki King Guitar Art on Facebook
+ Kaki King SPIN interview

Album purchasing links
+Mexican Teenagers, $8.49
+ Dreaming of Revenge, $13.98
+ Until We Felt Red, $14.98
+ Legs to Make Us Longer, $12.98

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I never said I love you: Process 10

Ninja July 17th, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-10

Apologies for the long absence! I’m sad to say that my laptop still hasn’t been fixed. T_____T Some of my more techy friends will take a look at it over the weekend, and hopefully I’ll be up and running soon (and posting more regularly). Much thanks for your continued patience and love!

As promised, here’s my latest step in my Kaki King guitar project process. I lost a lot of process photos when my hard drive died, but imagine if you will layers and layers of paint built up into an awful mess, uneven eyebrows, and off-center lips. The (gasp) puffy cheeks and washed out skin tone stage can be seen below.

I have the bad habit of overthinking/overworking a painting, hating it, sanding it all off, and starting fresh. It’s a crazy and nerve-wrecking part that has insidiously crept into my process.

After a bit of sanding and sighing, it became this (above). The guitar is so close to being finished. Just a few more sleepless nights of tweaks and installing hanging hardware, and it’ll be show-ready.

As always, thanks for stopping by and checking in!

Much love and happy painting,
Ninja

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I never said I love you: Process 9

Ninja July 8th, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-9

Hallo again! Thanks for popping in. ^____^

First, let me start off with a small apology. I won’t be able to post as regularly on the interwebs because my Powerbook is ill once more. While trying to shut down, it made 3 piercing screams while the pinwheel of death spun wildly. And today, it just wasn’t having it at all. I turned it on and nothing. Penguin suspects that it may have suffered a head crash.

But my lack of technological comforts has made for some good painting progress. Oh dear, it took me 6 hours to get from here:

to there:

I added more warm tones (to make the shadows richer) and fly-away strands of hair (hair that is too perfect looks fake).

Her lips are looking a little too done up, so I will revert to a paler shade in the next round.

detail

Oh, happy painting,
Ninja

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I never said I love you: Process 8

Ninja July 6th, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-8

Yawn & happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful, restful weekend. And for those of you in the States, a lovely Independence Day.

I did a lot of painting of my weekend—yay! Here’s where I left off on my Kaki King guitar project.


Previously, her neck was too thick. There was more neck on the left than on the right, so I extended her hair to cover that part up.

I have the tendency to obsess and overwork when I paint—apply paint, hate it, sand off, repaint.


Later, I took a break and sketched this giraffe-icorn for Penguin, too.

Happy painting,
Ninja

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I never said I love you: Process 7

Ninja July 2nd, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-7

Hallo, hallo you lovely folks! Thank you so much for all your encouragement and little love notes as I nervously go through prepping for this show. You have no idea how much it means to me.

For her hair, I layered burnt siena, raw siena, and raw umber acrylic paint around thin strips of ochre underpainting.

Here’s where I left off at 3 AM. Seemed like a good stopping point. Stay tuned for more obsessively detailed hair painting. ~__^

Much love back atcha,
Ninja

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I never said I love you: Process 6

Ninja July 1st, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-6

Thanks for joining me as I go about my painting process and prepare for my first group show.


Fixed the crooked jawline and added some tone with light acrylic washes.


Evened out the eye levels. Then I built up and layered the shadows with thin acrylic glazes.

Next step: hair! I can’t wait. ^______^

Happy painting,
Ninja

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I never said I love you: Process 5

Ninja June 29th, 2009

i-never-said-i-love-you-process-5

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

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I never said I loved you: Process 4

Ninja June 22nd, 2009

i-never-said-i-loved-you-process-4

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

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I never said I loved you: Process 3

Ninja June 19th, 2009

i-never-said-i-loved-you-process-3

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

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