Welcome to 2010 my freind.

HOVERBOARD - NILS GUADAGNIN from nils guadagnin on Vimeo.



The Hoverboard is a project made by Nils guadagnin, a young french artist. This work is born in 2008 for an exhibition named “Back To the future”. It is a copy of the hoverboard from the movie Back to the Future II. Integrated into the board and the plinth is an electromagnetic system which levitates the board. A laser system stabilises the object in the air. In the making of this work, this artist was thinking about different ways of presenting sculpture. In fact it’s a reflexion on the multiple possibilities of how to give a sculpture full spatial autonomy. The project have been realised with levitation technology of crealev company.

The making of a sidewalk sign, aka the Sandwich board

To start off, you need a client. For this project, I am doing a sidewalk board, or sandwich board for my good friend Leland Rowley at the Rowley Press, who has been very kind to me in helping me with many a letterpress project in the last few months, so I figure it is a trade for his kindness to me thus far. Once you have a project, you need a design of course! Thankfully, Leland sent me over some graphics to work with, his logo and front window design to work with, so I could match his business.

After some sketches and working out some kinks, this is the design that came of it:

After making the design, I printed it out, cut some wood, primed it with oil based primer, then painted a background coat with a hand mixed color, One Shot Fire Red and Lettering black to make a solid maroon for this instance. I painted two coats of maroon to give it a good weather proof coat. After letting the base coat dry for a good day or two, I used a printout of the design and projected it on to the panels with an opaque projector. I used a white china marker (because it can wipe off easily, but not too easily) to trace the layout onto the boards.

After sketching it onto the boards, it was time to lay on the paint. Which, is a slow, time consuming process that takes practice. I'm still learning this skill, so sometimes it takes me a little longer than i would perfer...

I started with the Large lettering first, then the lines, then the small lettering, changing brushes throughout the whole process, and making sure to clean out my brushes regularley to keep them from getting clogged up as the paint dries inside the hairs of the brush. Remember that using brushes with real hair is key to painting with oil based paints, it lets the paint fall off the brush easier and more uniformley than a cut or polyester brush. More about this later..

Going back a few steps, we are going to have a small chalkboard on the bottom of the sign, so I cut, sanded, primed, and prepped them. I even added a pinstripe design to match the main boards.

At this point, the design is almost finished, just a few more steps. After this I painted the shadowing on the scrolls, and after looking at the design, I decided that I didn't want to put shadowing on the "Open" at the tops of the boards, so I didn't. There comes a time when you get to make executive decisions like this, and thats one reason to be a self employed artist. Fun stuff!

It helps to wear one glove with fingers cut off, and have a stick with a red ball on the end of it...

 you've got to look legit!

After all the painting is done and the chalkboards are on, its good to take a step back and get a good look at it to see if you missed anything..

Once you see that it is all in order, its time to put the hinges on, attach the chain and shoot some photos, its all ready for delivery.

Straight side.

Diagonal Side.

Part of the design was to have the two sides have different layout.

Partially so I could practice different design techniques, and partially because I get bored of doing the same thing twice, if you have'nt noticed...

All in all, this has been one of the longest posts since my first posts in the bloggin world. Though hopefully sharing my knowlege will make room for some more to come!

Signing off,

P.s. Heres some bonus photos from my trip to Idaho. Loved it!

This one is my favorite from the trip, it was at the entrance to a museum on the Blackfoot reservation in Idaho.

Sign Painting, Typography and Some numbers

When planning out sign painting, its fun to try it out on the computer and save some time on the brush. Today, we are taking a look at the difference in computer colors of black verses CMY grey.
The black is crisp and dark, but not as pleasing to the eye as mixing Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to make a warm black/grey. Its a printing technique that helps things look more pleasing to the eye.
Lately I have also been experimenting with extruding and beveling .

Also, a look at different versions of the typeface Clarendon.
Extruded and beveled at different angles and depths.

Coming September 10th 2010!

Happy Birthday Julian

Remember that one time..

Remember when I got to go to GabbaLand and see my friends? Lance was kind enough to let me take this polaroid of him on set between shots. I put a warm filter on my SX-70 camera. Fun stuff! 

And for those of you who are fans out there, heres a screen saver! 

A little bit of text

Its been a while since I have done a post like this.. I basically just feel like writing some thoughts down, or in this case typing. Things have been quite hectic, but have been straightening out for the most part. Focus, focus on the things that I need to do at hand. I have been finding little to do lists that are completed, and that always puts a smile on my face. Now there is so many other projects to do, I am glad to have a semester or two off! So many things that I want to do this summer, I hope that there will be enough time to do them! It has been a great move forward this last month as we finished up things with school and the Beehive Bazaar. We {me and the wifey} started going to the gym to stay in better shape {this years resolution}. Up to this point  I hadn't been to the gym before... ever... but approaching 27 later this year has made me start thinking about my health and future more.


Til next time,

Yours Truley

BSPJ

Backside Smith Grind up the pole. 

Photo by Weston

Backside Smith Grind up the pole.
Photo by Weston

Sammys Sidewalk Sign

Far away...

Close up...

Beehive Buzz

This weekend, I had the chance to go to a rad Art/Craft Fair called the Beehive Bazaar. 

Its more of a younger fresher generation of artistry. 

Nonetheless, I was very stoked to be a part of it!

And... they gave this cool award called the "Stinger" which is the favorite artist of the show award. (Plus its the first time they have given awards, so I feel very honored!)

This was my booth, I called it "Colt City" and had a lot of fun making the booth... and the art too

This is the back of the booth, the forest outskirts of Colt City, where the townspeople go to relax and where the letterpress was going on..

All in all it was a really fun show to be a part of, and at the end, the vendors trade goods, so it was fun to give and to get some rad rad items!

 Heres some bonus pics for hangin in there!

"The King"

"The Candle Flicker"

"The Lady with the words and the colors"

Beehive Bazaar 2010

Check out my new booth at the Beehive Bazaar.
So if you haven't gone yet, go!
 Last night I won an award called the "Stinger" award, for being the new favorite artist of the show.
Pretty stoked about that!

Plus, thank you to all those of you who have helped me get this together! Couldn't do it without you!
(Mom, Dad, Abi, Riley Pack, Leland Rowley, Rob Buchert, Camille from Zellerbach, Nate & Andrea and anyone else who helped along the way!)

More pictures coming soon!

All in a days work

Getting Started... Construction of a new Sign Painting Wall 

Today I spent about twelve hours putting in a new sign painting wall in the upstairs of my friends Art Studio. Its got great light because the windows are high and on all sides of the building, creating an ambient feel. Didn't have to turn on a light for 12 hours!

Thanks Nate for a little corner to practice a new side of the painterly craft!