Showing posts with label scarecrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scarecrow. Show all posts

Friday, 15 August 2014

As the Crow Flies


That last magazine feature is wrapped up and submitted, so now I have only to finish two others and start on some new commissions which came up whilst I was back in Blighty for my sister's stunning wedding. (I just got back on Monday). When that's died down I'll show some Myrtle artwork...

For those that saw my last post here about the scarecrow / crow king project, here's just a couple of photos from the final scene. I've included a scan of my initial sketch as well.
Everything in the scene was created by me in 1:12 scale. The scarecrow has a pumpkin head which is polymer clay, whilst his body is raffia, horsehair and craft straw over a wire armature. I dyed and stitched his clothing to him and used hairspray to set it. The crows are clay, wire and real feather. The field and hay ricks were made using raffia and twisted tree stumps from wire, paper clay and other mixed media.

On a less related note, some people have asked me the meaning of the title of the last post. A 'murder of crows' is simply the collective noun for a group of crows. Other examples are; a parliament of owls, a gaggle of geese, a flamboyance of flamingos, a colony of penguins and a clamour of rooks. Interesting isn't it? Stop and think before you next utter the words 'bunch of birds'...!

Don't forget to find updates by liking the Tall Tales Productions Facebook page.

As usual I'll update my 'publicity' section with the magazine feature when it's out.






Sunday, 20 July 2014

A Murder of Crows


Recently I've been working on a commissioned feature for a magazine - a miniature scene in which the central focus is a scarecrow. A relatively quick job I thought, as I unpacked a tidy selection of materials including armature wire, raffia and air dry clay... of course it's 10 days later and I'm now wading through a mass of black feathers, gauze and superglue.

I managed to take a break from this project to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds perform live at the brilliant Ace Theater (an evening of Black Crow King didn't hurt in terms of inspiration), and ironically enough I just discovered a great bar in my area (Los Feliz / Silverlake) called 'The Thirsty Crow'...!

Here are some pictures of this project in progress. The un-finished scarecrow photos were just taken quickly today whilst glue was drying. You can see the final scene soon as I will blog about it here and upload images to my Tall Tales Facebook page here.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...