Timberloaf

"on a low note" group show

2008-02-23T10:05:00.020-05:00

the monsters of metal are finished, photographed and will be dropped off this afternoon...one week
'till the show opening!

show details are
on the flyer...
click for a
larger version.

here's a sneak peek
at one of the finished
monsters...more
photos to come!

monsters of metal

2008-02-10T13:24:00.000-05:00

here's an early look at my entries for the upcoming "on a low note" music-themed group show put on by the philadelphia cartoonist society. the show opens on saturday, march 1st at lucky star art gallery in gloucester city, nj and will feature the usual "eclectic body of work form a wide variety of artists" that the pcs shows always deliver... more info to follow shortly...

i'm creating 3 one-of-a-kind timberloaf monsters who are having an impromptu jam session with instruments fashioned from the wreckage of the city that they've just destroyed.

with sketch, template, cutting and sanding phases having just been completed, painting commences... stay tuned...

skull experiments

2008-01-20T13:02:00.001-05:00

still inspired by the wide array of art styles my wife and i saw during our miami trip in december, i wanted to take a few stabs at some different decoration styles. i used the skull that i sketched on that trip (see "vacation sketchin'" post below) as a base and focused more on trying new techniques rather than producing polished final pieces.

With the first skull, i layered a basecoat of teal, a midcoat of dark brown and a topcoat of white. Then i sanded down through the colors for a weathered look.

On the second, i appliedd a basecoat of bright yellow, masked off 3 varying-size X eyes and toothbrush-spritzed with greens and teals.

For the final skull, i painted the flat planes of the skull orange and the
sides a mid-gray. Then i covered the front with hand-painted
letterforms and punctuation.

I'll post more pictures of each experiment in the gallery as i take them.

nine point space fox + traveling partner

2008-01-01T19:37:00.000-05:00

happy new year 2008!

i used my day off (the last holiday vacation time until memorial day...ugh)
to finish up the space fox i've been working on. i like the way the bird in his antlers turned out. i plan on making a few simlilar, slightly larger birds in
the near future.

scope out more pics of the fox and his little buddy in the gallery to the left.

merry christmas 2007!

2007-12-30T12:17:00.000-05:00

now that just about all of the 2007 holiday timberloaves have been gifted, i can finally post a few pictures of them!

this year's design is called the timberelf. i cut and sanded 42 of them, painted white pants and orange skin tones on all of them, then painted each with either a rust, teal or olive hat. turned out the olive paint was kind of thin and required multiple coats. time constraints being what they were, only 5 timberelves wound up with olive hats.

check out the pictures to the left and in the gallery for a few different angles on the production line in santa's workshop (a.k.a. my basement.)

merry christmas.
happy holidays.
see you in 2008!

vacation sketchin'

2007-12-12T18:41:00.000-05:00

i always keep a sketchbook handy while traveling...you never know when inspiration will strike...or when your return flight will be delayed for over 3.5 hours and you'll be bored out of your gourd in terminal E5...rassumfrassum...

anyway, these guys hatched on a recent trip to miami beach with my wife.
i hope to work up the templates soon after the holidays and then start
fabricating a few of each.

winged martian pinecat

2007-11-28T19:55:00.000-05:00

i made this guy well over a year ago and just added him to the picture gallery.
i may go back and make a few more in a different color scheme.

2007-11-16T18:14:00.000-05:00

make sure to stop in to the ever-eclectic and always fresh
art star boutique and gallery (located in the northern liberties section of philadelphia) to see a gaggle of timberloaves on display and ready for adoption!

more new 'loaves

2007-11-09T17:57:00.000-05:00

well, not exactly new timberloaves, but new pictures of some old ones...
check 'em out in the gallery section.

voltron: the o.t. (original timberloaf)

2007-11-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

i recently found this nifty wooden voltron in a box of nostalgia that my mom had neatly packed away for me. i think i made it around 1985 or 1986, which would put me at 11 or 12 years old. in retrospect, i guess it's the first timberloaf.

photos galore!

2007-11-02T16:43:00.000-04:00

check out the brand spankin' new portfolio to the left for all kinds of new photos of your favorite timberloaves!

pee wee martini: the finale

2007-10-28T22:48:00.000-04:00

and here he is...painted collar, mohawk, wire whiskers and all...
the completed pee wee martini timberloaf!

pee wee martini: the gluing

2007-10-20T19:44:00.000-04:00

c-clamps hold the pieces in place as the glue sets...

pee wee martini: the painting (part 2)

2007-09-29T18:44:00.000-04:00

pee wee painting continues...

pee wee martini: the painting (part 1)

2007-09-28T17:15:00.000-04:00

once the surfaces were sanded, i started to apply the paint. i usually paint these sculptures in layers and glue them together at the end. it's a whole lot easier to get all the hard to reach spots while they're still disassembled.

pee wee martini: the sanding

2007-09-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

next, i stripped all of the paper templates off of the wood and sanded the exposed surfaces. this is the boringest step in the whole process.

pee wee martini: the rough cut

2007-09-25T16:34:00.000-04:00

once the color scheme was set, i was off to the scroll saw. i printed out the 3 copies of the template and lightly spray mounted one to each layer of pee wee (front body, rear body and cape). i cut each layer's unique parts (eg. hind legs) separately and then taped them together for the common cuts (eg. the head) so that the curves match exactly. shown here is a taped together version just after i finished all of the cutting. the mohawk, dogtag and snout will be cut out and added later.

pee wee martini: the color scheme

2007-09-19T17:13:00.000-04:00

with the template finalized, i did a quick color version to get an idea how it'll look when it's all painted. it's also good to have something in mind before you hit the paint aisle...there are like, a million shades of blue.

pee wee martini: the template

2007-09-16T19:22:00.000-04:00

once i finished the sketch, i scanned it and traced it in adobe illustrator, cleaning up curves and figuring out the exact dimensions that pee wee's going to be. below is the outline version of the template including the 3 main layers (front body, rear body, and cape, all overlapping on the template), his crest of hair, his collar tag and collar tag loop.

pee wee martini: the sketch

2007-09-12T17:33:00.000-04:00

world's ugliest dog?
you be the judge.
i say yes.

at any rate, mr. pee wee martini here is not only a participant in the yearly "world's ugliest dog" competition, he's also the subject of honor (everyone's going to do their unique artistic take on him) in the upcoming philadelphia cartoonist society group show at the soon-to-be-opened amble gallery in fishtown. (check it out: pee wee martini show at amble gallery)

for my entry in the show, i'm going to create a one-of-a-kind-pee-wee-as-batman timberloaf. here's the sketch:

for more on pee wee:
peeweemartini.com

eastern plutonian woodchuck

2007-09-08T10:00:00.000-04:00

a natural ally of the jupiterian wood weevil, this creature is known for its baying howl and love of all things wooden. peg-leg pirates be warned.

jupiterian wood weevil

2007-09-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

the scourge of space corn farmers galaxy-wide, these nettlesome creatures can infest and devour a field in no time flat. where there's one jupiterian wood weevil, there are a million.

yeah, yeah, i know...

2007-09-02T20:12:00.001-04:00

...that you've already seen this timberclown if you've been checking out strongstufftom.blogspot.com, but it's the only picture i've taken of any of these wooden sculptures...so hold yer horses and i'll get some new ones up soon...sheesh.