The Hippie-Project

Hey-ya people!

  What is up?! Alright, this weekend I have been busy with a lot of things, but mainly with the fairly new hippie-native project - I really should come up with a sufficient name for it but hey, I got better things to do with my time. I've only finished the background today since it's been a rainy, cold, windy, sunny... Eh, frankly I'm not sure, the weather just cannot make it's mind up today in good old Finland. That's November for ya. However, I have to wait forever for the canvas to dry enough so that I can work on it. Actually, I just finished right now and the piece is sitting outside on the balcony all alone waiting for my magic touch. Maybe, just  maybe in a few hours I'll be able to work on it, but you guys will just have to wait 'till next week, my apologies. Today's key word will be patience, patience, patience... 

   So, today I started early in the afternoon by building my canvas from S-C-R-A-T-C-H, not an easy job for one person. Long story short, I had to get some help for the stretching and stapling. My canvas frames may not be the most beautiful ones you have ever seen but I can say from experience that it is a sensational feeling when you look at your finished canvas knowing that you have made the entire thing with your own two hands. Really. 

Anyways, to refresh your mind, here is my original plan for the canvas:

And to begin with the real deal, I start with my canvas roll, figure out the dimension for my work and add about 8cm to the original dimensions, so that I have enough canvas to wrap around the wood pieces.

 My piece came out to be 55x40cm (63x48 with the extra). Make sure that your canvas piece is squared, wobbly lines will not work. Exact measures and straight lines are key to building a canvas. I may not be the best person to tell you how to build a canvas, frankly I haven't googled it or anything but you are welcome to tell me what I am really supposed to do, I just use the good old common sense.  

Now, I have cut four pieces of wood for myself, all ready to be glued and stapled together. I've got 2 x 55 cm and 2 x 40 cm wood blocks to do the job. After finishing the frame, I usually let it sit for a few hours and keep myself busy with one thing or another. When the glue is dry, I make sure the dimensions work with my canvas before cutting it out from the roll. Then I just stretch the canvas onto the frame and staple it together and ta-da! A finished canvas ready for some serious action. I make my way to the balcony and start working.  

 Here we go, at the balcony and ready to rumble, a piece of cardboard under the canvas so that I don't ruin the floor with some pretty colors. 

My color-scheme is quite simple this time, I don't want to draw too much attention to the background, so it will just be a blue sky with some hazy white clouds, I might throw in some purple or a darker blue to bring out some depth.

   As I said, it is all about simple colors. A background that has a certain calmness to it, the blue color isn't as dark as it is in the picture for it was quite dark outside and the inside light just won't do this time. I did add some purple, but I faded it out just enough to just have a little glimpse of it here and there.
   You can see that the canvas is a bit wrinkled, the stretching doesn't always come out perfect but hey, I'm looking at it right now and honestly, I cannot see a wrinkle and it looks just like the 'better' one you buy from the shop next store. What can I say, I'm satisfied.


Alright, now that we are done with the background, I wanted to let you in on my color-schemes for the actual 'fine' work. I usually change them around during the process, but I can give a vague main idea now.

I've been doodling these totem poles all last week, thinking of the perfect one for my canvas, and I'm down to two. I like the one on the left more, but the one on the right is more traditional to the picture that I showed ya's last week. Oh well, I will figure it out at some point. However, the color scheme will be down to earth, as the whole piece will be. I want to preserve pretty much the same colors as on the original totem pole with, of course, a playful twist so that it will jump out of the canvas as it would against a clear, blue sky on a warm sunny day. Ah, I miss summer. 

As for the eagle, the basic colors will suffice. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what they are. I won't make the eagle as detailed as it is in the picture, so I won't have to go buy a wide range of different browns and yellows etc. I still want to keep the surreal feeling that graffiti has, which is the great beauty of it. 

 

The graffiti itself, "REZ", will be a natural mix of colors, I think I will go for a wood-like texture, that'll mingle with the eagle and the totem pole. The picture above gives a rough idea for what I am going for. 

And to conclude, this will be the all in all color-scheme. Quite a mix, huh. Right now I can't see them working but I guess we will have to see next week what went down. I don't want to speculate too much and ruin the fun of playing around with the colors and finding that golden mix that we all wish for. 

Phew, apparently I do have a lot to say, who'd a thought. Anyways, that is all for now, stay tuned at least 'till next week and you will witness the grand finish of my first-ever hippie canvas. I must say I do have a good feeling about this one.