Vector

Vector #666

Funny thing happened the other day when I did a search on myself and looked at the search results for Images. Vector showed up. Hm, interesting. Turns out Von Simeon wrote a little story inspired by him. If that wasn't surprising, details in the story definitely make it so. Check it out  Writing Prompt: Dirty Bunny

Vector is a plush, peaches-and-cream kind of a kangaroo. We go back all the way to 1990.

However, this is Mr. Bun.  We go back at least to 2005. From time to time I get reminded that he needs a brushing. Mr. Bun does not really get a chance to get dirty and oily, but he does get shaggy and fuzzy.

Read More

It's beginning to look a lot like Hoppy Christmas, again...

Hoppy Christmas, 20 x16, oil on canvas

The Winter Salon at Community Cafe is open. A bit of a rush job, but I managed to drop it off at he Cafe on Friday after Thanksgiving ;-)

Read More

Funny thing happened on the way to a new template...

... decided to change the look and feel of this place, found a very nice responsive template. All good, right? ... wrong. Somehow blogger retained some old custom CSS I've added last year. So when I use one the stock templates from blogger, all's well and no legacy CSS are messing things up. But they return when try the new custom stuff. Go figure. Not enough time to play with it today so this stays for now. Looks like I'll be customizing someone else'es custom stuff :-(

Read More

It will have to be painted - coverup

This strange adventure below started a few years ago and steadily gone nowhere. It drifted from being hopeless to a lost cause. So my last ditch effort to turn it around comes in after taking reference shots during flight last July described here. 

Using very soft pencil (8B), I was able to trace the major forms based on the reference photo. Some of the lines are visible here and should be much clearer on the large image (click to view).

With rough outline in place, the fun started.

During last week or so, the piece moved forward by a parsec ;-), or at least somewhat closer to tolerable.

Read More

Bun Zero - First Coat

Following up on Bunsferatu, this is larger (24 x18 maybe?) exploratory effort. Still an experiment, but more detailed and closer to where a much larger piece will go. Where is it going? There's no way of knowing ;-) Once I started with the blues I just wanted to stay there for the moment. We'll see how well blues work as the under-painting. Next 2 layers will be interesting. I do like the possibilities provided by the larger scale. Bunsferatu and this are based on the same line sketch.

Read More

Bun Zero - First Draft

8 x 10 acrylic on canvas board.

Strange things can happen late at night. First draft for a larger project. Definitely feels more like Bunsferatu ;-) This little guy is on display at Community Cafe as well.

Read More

Community Cafe - Oct. 2014

(Buncifer at very right)

(Vector #666 on very left)

Thanks to Angie I finally 3 pieces on display at Community Cafe  in St. Petersburg, FL! She prodded me and did not let me off the hook :-) Thank you Angie!

I have not done anything like it since early 1990's. Last time Vector was on display was the 3 Birds Bookstore in Ybor City. Time flies.

If you wonder, the cafe has a new show every few months and this time it's Halloween. Hence Vector's name, "Vector #666" is a bit of a play on words. The 666 part will strike a cord with some, but it's also the HEX code for medium gray color in HTML. And since this Vector is in grays, you figure the rest ... ;-)

Read More

It will have to be painted.

Flight

July 24, 2014 was another hot and steamy day in Florida with scattered showers, thunderstorms all around and plane reservation for the evening. If all went N99344 and I would go off toward the beaches to practice slow flight, steep turns and forward slips. I packed the camera, just in case. We took off a little after 8pm. Bottoms of the clouds were at about 2,000 ft., puffy little clouds all over, moving north-east. Thunderstorms to the north and north east. Some cloud buildup to the south.

The sky was our for the most part (me and the Cessna's). The only, distant traffic, we observed was a suspected AligentAir sneaking into St. Pete/Clearwater airport.

I got on with the practice maneuvers at about 2,300 ft. Steep turns went well, better than I expected. It's been a few months since I practiced them. Slow flight went really well.

With few minutes just to enjoy the scenery, I grabbed the camera and tried a little 'point and shoot' routine, expecting very little. It was getting darker by the second. There was some daylight left, but for the camera's eye, it was getting dark. The sky was flowing through its post sunset dance and everything in sight got a chance to turn spectacular, if only for a short while.

After few clicks along the path of a 360 turn over the beach, we turned south and descended with a forward slip. Turning east we called up Albert Whitted tower and a little while later, we were landing. By 9 pm we taxied toward the ramp, all finished for the night. Still baking in the plane, heat and humidity not letting up.

Pixes

Looking at the images that night only briefly, they seemed more disappointing than usual. I knew we had very little light and not the best equipment to work with. Still, it felt like there was  A LOT missing, but what?

What didn’t show was the emotional distance between the two worlds I’ve been in that day. Absence of work hassle, traffic jams, schedules, worries and frustrations is not readily apparent until one give it some thought.

After a few days the pictures began to look a lot better all on their own. Or maybe my appreciation of what happened grew.

Then it started sinking in. One of the images was good enough to be used as a reference for a painting.

(Final reference after some post production)

Read More

Catching up ... hm...

Planning more, sometimes it's tougher than nails though. Oops.

Read More

Catching up ... The Dougster!

At least one of them is Dougal from Disapproving Rabbits. Rather inspiring gentle bun ;-)

Read More

Catching Up...

Time flies regardless. Deciding to catch up on what happened since last post this guy popped up again and demanded some respect. Christmas of 2012 saw a few of these, knocking off snowmen. None were ever caught ;-)

Read More

Catching up ... Get Well!

Dougal playing nurse.

Watercolor

Mr. Bun, 'nough said.

Oil on canvas

Queen Cinnamon

Oil on canvas

Get Well was the theme for a while. 

Friends dropping sick.

Not being able to help much.

So few got  a "Get Well Bunneh"

Usually the bun disapproved. Seriously.

Read More

Bun Zero - pt. 2

Experimenting a little and trying to decide where Bun Zero will head next. So far watercolour seems to be an easy way of exploring possibilities. The hardest thing in this example was to let things happen fast and not overwork it. Right side definitely shows the overworking. Thinking that it got a little too dark, I tried to lift off some of it. Turns out that liquid masking fluid (dries like rubber cement) will lift some of the colour it's applied over and that's exactly what happened here.

All in all I ended up with a bunch of happy accidents and unintended consequences. Enough of them worked out just fine.

Next up will be a small oil, something like 20 x 16 in. Or such.

Read More

Seasonal Confuzzlement

The Holidays can be a difficult time for any creature. In case of a bunnies, lack of constant attention to their needs can spark swift and severe reprisals. As illustrated, this particular one decided to take on the world starting with the snowman. The only way further disapproval could have been averted was through expeditious serving of carottinis, nutriberries and fresh dandelions.

It is through pure bad luck that this incident was even witnessed. While trying to document it, the camera's sensor burned out and the lens broke. Hence we are left with artist's feeble attempt to convey the horror of that moment.

The character appearing in this work is fictitious although inspirational. Any resemblance to real Dougal from DisapprovingRabbits.com is purely coincidental.

Read More

Bun Zero - pt. 1

I closed my eyes and tapped into some mysterious, milky way of disapproval.

I'm not sure what precipitated this bun at a time when Queen Cinnamon ruled this dimension with fantastic disapproval. It was time for something new, quick and a pen and ink fit.

Right now this little guy (or a girl, not sure to be honest) will go on a small canvas that has his/hers name on it. There will be a helping of oils as well.

Hopefully, progress report will follow next week.

Read More

Disapproval brewing ...

Acrylic, ink, charcoal, watercolor on paper. Pretty old, quality paper none the less.

Ceramic in front of oil on canvas.

Ceramic in front of Tampa terminal chart and oil on canvas.

Acrylic, ink, watercolor, oil on old watercolor paper. Again.

Ceramic in front of oil on canvas

The Disapprovers, 20x16 in. oil on canvas. Still working on it.

... on paper, on canvas, in the air. This is what I found myself navigating toward last summer. Rabbits that disapprove. There was some old watercolor paper, used on one side, oh ... maybe 12 or so years ago. Perfect for experimenting. There were some porcelain rabbits as well. And a little canvas that was never going to get finished, hence it started getting reclaimed.

On top of that there was portrait of her majesty, Queen Cinnamon of Disapproving Rabbits. More TC ;-)

Read More

Resuming own navigation ...

...sounds very simple. At least I thought so few years back. The more I thought about it, the more complex the subject became. Having a single point of destination would make getting back on track easy. Double down and plow through it. What happens if we want to be in a lot of places at the same time though?

As of yet I have no answer.

Lately life started revealing some hints about that, in not so gentle ways. For the past couple of months I've been without current medical certificate. Even though I'm working on regaining it, to be without it is extremely difficult to deal with. It really forces me to contemplate on letting go.

It's been a little over a week since I found out that getting back in the air will not be easy and that just about took my sanity away. First moment of relieve struck when it dawned on me that sooner or later I'd have to let it go eventually. No matter how fortunate I got and no matter what accomplishments I could achieve in flying, there will be a moment of really saying goodbye to it. If nothing else, time tends to have that effect on a lot of stuff.

May as well be grateful for every moment I got to be in a plane. The rest is gravy.

I really have no idea how this leg of the trip will turn out. I'm hoping for the best and enjoying at least some piece of mind.

Read More

Rabbit in a kangaroo body?

Back in 1992 I painted a series of kangaroos. It all started when I spotted a little plush puppet of a kangaroo in a toy store. It went home with me and the rest is history. What followed was a real bender of painting Vector in different sizes (mostly 30' x 40' though), but in the same exact pose.

Everyone always reacted to Vector very positively as in 'OH! I love the bunny!' Sometimes comments were made about how reminiscent he is of the Velveteen Rabbit. So compliments were humbly accepted and gentle reminders were made regarding his species.

When I shared a draft of a painting of a very disgruntled rabbit with my friend Claps, he reminded me about Vector. Once in the early 90's Vector starred in a show at the Three Birds Bookstore in Ybor City (in the good old days before Ybor turned into bar alley).

Now it turns out that maybe Vector is a rabbit stuck in a kangaroo body?

So much for thinking you know your puppet :-)

Read More

Hello World!

The time has come again to get instrument current. Last Friday (Aug. 14) our tropical weather let up just enough to do some approaches into KPIE, holding at LAFAL and navigational aid tracking.

These days, courtesy of flightaware.com we can enjoy a pix of what the plane scribes in the sky while on an instrument flight plan.

Aviating itself was luckily uneventful, except for one guy with a broken radio blaming miscommunication on traffic control. Had to be told twice every single time.

Trying to be precise in the air once every 6 months is difficult on a good day, frustration is waiting to get in and still the show at every moment.

The real surprise came after the plane got parked and tied down. We sat on a bench outside the FBO for a few minutes and talked flying. In the meantime, clouds started rolling in from the east, breeze picked up and the raid drops started taking over. It occurred to me that flying under the hood is quiet a bit a performance art. I wan performance by the number as in 0 deviation from heading and altitude. Zero deviation from glide slope and localizer. It's an art trying to come as close as possible to zero deviation when no two approaches are ever exactly the same. The beauty of it all resides in the moment, being in it at 90 knots an hour. And then it's all gone, except for a memory and a log book entry. There's no way save up the approaches, you can't pickle them in a jar.

It reminds me of a Mandala. Grand and beautiful while in the moment.

Read More