Here's my latest picture, entitled "Toy Universe - No. 3". The third piece of the series.
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE…
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It's available as a print in a variety of formats.
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here are some perspective views and close-ups…
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"Her courtiers could not decide which of the two was more dangerous."
More from my new Etsy shop. "The Queen Regards the Cobra". A print of an original pen and ink illustration which was then painted digitally.
Heres the link: - http://mattbrown.etsy.com
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE…
More from my new Etsy shop. "The Thinking Man". A print of an original pen and ink illustration which was then painted digitally.
"Don't disturb the thinking man - he wrestles problems that would destroy a lesser intellect."
Heres the link: - http://mattbrown.etsy.com
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE…
So here it is - the complete set of Star Wars Russian dolls I made for my brother's Christmas present…
I bought a set of blank Matryoshka dolls online and painted them with acrylic. It took several evenings to finish, whilst watching the original trilogy. There was quite a bit of cursing here and there, and the hair-drier came in very handy, but I think it turned out fairly well.
I tried to choose characters that lent themselves to the shape and size of the dolls, whilst trying to think which ones my brother would like best. Darth is roughly six inches tall, Yoda's about an inch.
One of the tricker elements was painting on a rounded surface. I wanted the light-sabers to look as straight as possible to the eye, which meant painting them in a curve. Not very intuitive, but it seems to work okay.
The worst bit, though, was the varnishing. It was the day before Christmas eve, and the nozzle on my spray-on varnish snapped off, which meant I had to direct the spray with my fingertip. And because the varnish was under pressure, it was freezing my hand. Just when I thought I'd got it sorted, the varnish dried pink!
Christmas Eve was spent scraping off the varnish with my fingernails, thinking I'd ruined the lot. When you're an artist, the risk of messing up a perfectly good piece of work is always at the back of your mind. It just happens from time to time, but it always feels heartbreaking. And so I was imagining the look on my brother's face as he opened his present, only to find a sticky, flaking mess of pink.
I had to repaint some patches here and there to bring out the colours again, and then apply a paint-on varnish I had knocking around.
Thankfully, the second varnish was clear, but unfortunately it was also slow-dry stuff. After more hair-drying and central heating it finished drying on Christmas morning.
I wrapped them just in time for giving - each one wrapped individually and nested inside it's parent. And to my relief, it was a hit with my brother and the rest of the family.
Maybe, if I get chance, I can buy an even bigger set and paint some more characters sometime, though whether I could cope with the stress is another matter.
If you want to see some close-ups and different angles of each character, here are the links to their individual posts:
Today's Star Wars themed Matryoshka doll is Yoda. The pictures are a little blurry as he's so tiny!
It's the smallest-sized Russian doll after yesterday's R2D2, roughly an inch high.
This little guy wasn't actually too much trouble, though I did keep putting my thumb over wet paint as held it.
In my final installment tomorrow, I'll show you the dolls as a set…
Today's Star Wars themed Matryoshka doll is an R2D2.
It's the second smallest-sized Russian doll after yesterday's Obi Wan Kenobi.
Again, more fiddly than I anticipated, but I think it works okay…
Today's Star Wars themed Matryoshka doll is a Obi Wan Kenobi.
It's the middle-sized Russian doll after yesterday's Stormtrooper and Darth Vader the day before.
Though I thought the smaller figures would be quicker to do, they just ended up being more fiddly…
Today's Star Wars themed Matryoshka doll is a Stormtrooper.
It's the second largest Russian doll after yesterday's Darth Vader.
With Darth I had the problem of painting an all-black figure, and the Stormtrooper, being all white, turned out to be just as tricky…
For my younger brother's Christmas present, I made a set of five Star Wars themed Matryoshka dolls.
I bought a set of blank wooden Russian dolls online and then painted them with acrylic, followed by a nice thick layer of shiny varnish.
Here is the first, and largest - a Darth Vader Matrioshka doll. I hope you like it. I'll post up one a day for the next few days, so keep watching.
Well done A Elezaj from Harrow, you're this week's canvas print winner! A lovely little copy of "Green Man and the Artist" will be reaching you shortly.
My next piece is almost ready to show, so keep your eyes pealed!
