Major Tom, the Cat Happily Lost in Space
- Ground control to Major Tom...
He's taken his fish pills and he's put his helmet on. Boy does he look excited to be floating around in the vast unknown of space! Yet, he'd be even MORE excited to be drifting around on your walls at home. Tom would be right as rain if he were cruising on your nursery wall, kicking it in the kitchen or even bumbling around in your bathroom.Here's a small process of how Major Tom came to be. -
I always start with a small sketch in my trusty sketchbook! -
Sometiimes, that sketch is refined into a digital mockup so I can test colors and whatnot... -
The drawing is then transferred to birch plywood and cut out carefully with a jigsaw. -
After being sanded and primed (in this case with clear primer), the paint begins. I guess I wanted to start with the cutest part first this time! -
More refining and painting. Russian cosmonaut style!!! -
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Pop them peepers!
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Buttons and gadgets because....buttons and gadgets. -
What up gurl...?
Buy Major Tom here!
Pumpkin of the Opera...aka...Phantom of the Pumpkin Patch
Hey work, you made the grave mistake of letting me into your pumpkin painting contest. The rules were simple, take a small sugar pumpkin, and decorate it any way you want as long as you don't carve into it. I think I took the contest a little too seriously.
I probably would've settled for just very simply painting a pumpkin, but I was specifically challenged by a few of my coworkers. They literally came in to my room, and taunted me. What's a guy to do?
Fueled by the incessant workplace taunting, I added more and more detail with each wave of smack-talk. Things like, "Aw bro, I'm going to destroy you." only fed my weird competitive streak.
I knew that I wanted to do a Universal Studios monster from the beginning – even when it was just a lone, painted pumpkin. I chose the 1925 Lon Cheney version of the Phantom of the Opera- because Lon Cheney was the best. However, as time went by, I added cardboard structures cut out with X-Acto knives, papier-mâché, and a blowtorch to the works. Okay, there was no welding…but it was way more time and effort than I should have put into him.
Oh, I failed to mention – this is for a contest at Trader Joe's. This is not some art studio that I'm working at where all my competition are also artists. I literally pouring tons of effort into this pumpkin contest and I really don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm pompous and I JUST HAVE TO WIN ALL THE CONTESTS!! At this point I'm actually expecting to lose because I put so much effort into it.
The organ is made of corrugated cardboard that I cut with an X-Acto knife, taped with blue painters tape and then finished with papier-mâché. I waited overnight till the papier-mâché was dry completely and then I painted directly onto it with acrylic paint. The papier-mâché I went with is simple: little bit of flour, a little bit of water, and strips of newspaper. The "cobblestone" base is 1/8 inch plywood that I cut with a jigsaw and then painted with acrylic paint.
Everything else is painted in grayscale tones of acrylic paint with little cut paper hands and feet and a cape made of heavy duty paper towels that I drenched in ink. Lastly, I finished him off with little yarn strands for hair.