Happy Year of the Monkey

Hello everyone, it's been a long time since I've posted on my blog!  2016 will be a year full of catch-up and productivity.  I'll start off by wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year.  2016 is the Year of the Monkey and much like the energetic and unpredictable monkey this year will be a wild ride.  I'm looking forward to it.  


This is a detail shot of my newest crayon work.  I'm very excited to incorporate different colors to my carvings.  I started to work on another Zodiac set, this time in technicolor!

These are the Crayola crayons I used for this carving:
Monkey's body and base crayon: Tan
face and ears: Tumbleweed
face features: Black
peach: Salmon
foliage: Olive Green and Green
rocks: Timberwolf





If you're in Seattle, please come out to "Seattle Simplified", it's a showcase of recently acquired artwork by Seattle City Lights. It's on view right now at the Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery. 

Seattle Simplified (Part 2):
December 31, 2015 through April 3, 2016
Opening reception: February 9th, 4 - 6pm
Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery
Level 3 Concourse
700 Fifth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104

And The Rest Of The Story...

I finally got around to editing the rest of the Zodiac crayon images.

Dragon
This Dragon crayon was my first attempt.  Most of the other crayons took at least 2 or 3 trial runs before I was happy with the results.  The texture of the scales turned out very well.  I grew up around a lot of Dragon motifs.  It reminds me of Dragons swirling around a column or post or a Dragon and Phoenix wrapped around a pair of Chinese wedding candles.



Dog
My solution to carving long snout dogs is to have them look down.  Composing within the dimensions of a crayon is challenging.  This fellow is very Kitsune-like.



Ox (see Horse description)


Horse
There's a Chinese saying that ties the horse and the ox together:
牛耕田 马吃谷:  The ox plows the field and the horse eats the grain (and the next line goes)... the father toils for the daughter's prosperity.  The meaning behind that saying is the ox/father works hard and toils away while the horse/daughter gets to enjoy the results of his hard work.

People used to repeat that saying to me all the time when I was little.  They would ask if I wanted to be the ox or the horse.  The underlying question was... do I want to toil and work hard all my life or sit back and enjoy what would be given to me.  I HATED it, even at 5 or 6 years old.  I didn't want to be an ox in the field, but I'd be damned if I sit back and let someone do my work for me.  I was going to be the ox that ate it's own oats or the horse that plowed its own field.  But after my father's death the truth behind this saying really resonated with me.  I worked hard for everything I have in life, but my father did in fact toiled for my sake.  The saying is true.

Big THANKS to Laura for the blogging about my Zodiac crayons and everyone at Boing Boing & Digg for picking it up.

Zoodiac

I've been working on a set of Zodiac crayons for the last 2 weeks. A few more to go.


This is my favorite one so far. It's a classic pose, except without the tongue sticking out. I've seen a lot of sumi paintings of tigers climbing on rocks as a kid.


A bit plain. I thought of adding scales, but it got too visually complicated.


I'm thinking about remaking the pig with a different pose. He's holding a stack of gold over his head. The gold is a common theme among Chinese renditions, but it might be lost in translation. He also looks a bit goofy?


I feel it's a little too elongated, you really don't get a sense that it's a rooster.


The horns really turned out well. I like the texture of his locks, it reminds me a bit of The Winged Lions of Babylon... only without the wings. I'm really itching to work bigger.


I love this little guy! I have to admit some are better than others. I'm experimenting more with different textures and deeper carving.

Monkey Business

A currently project. I've always wanted to make a set of Chinese Zodiac figures. With this series I'm trying to push for more detail, make them cleaner and tighter.


The Monkey