philinthecircle.com Blog

Here is the video
We can all draw stick figures right? That was the idea with this piece. I was determined to make a piece with only chalk stick figures. Well either I had to draw them really small or kinda large. My hand being what it is I decided to make them larger, which meant the piece had to be pretty darn big. I found this great sidewalk that is kinda isolated and very straight and long.

I did a bunch of measurements at the site and with my camera and determined that the piece could be no more than four feet high. The reason being is I built a contraption to hold my video camera above me while I worked and it could only get about a 5×7foot area, so I knew I had to be a little bit smaller than that.

The first idea I had for a picture to create is the one I stuck with, it’s a self portrait by Chuck Close. An absolutely amazing painting and I wanted to use the image. I found the picture and did my planning. I originally wanted to make the whole piece (and for some reason thought I would have time) so I determined that I would need to make it in sections that were four feet high by 36 feet wide (1.2meters by 11meters). Again, I don’t know why I thought I could get it done.

One thing I planned to do this time around was to record a bit more of the prepping for the piece. So I recorded when I ran around buying chalk and when I was doing a bit more of the behind the scenes stuff. I hope to begin doing more of that and putting up two videos, one being just the creation of the piece, and the other being a bit longer and showing more of the process. When I go part time hopefully I will be able to do that. I just don’t have the time now. But I hope sometime to put together a more informative version of this piece. Not sure when it will happen because I have a lot of stuff coming up.

The final product of this piece I am pretty happy with, considering the size and time I had to work on it I am pleased with the quality. If I was really going to put the time into it I would definitly make it better. I don’t like the slant of the glasses, there is a little in the original but not this much, and the eye’s aren’t very good. it’s just a little rough, but again considering time and size I’m happy.

you can see just how big this is because in the second row on the right you can see my foot in the image. And you’ll get a sense of size in the later pictures.

I bought so much chalk because I was making sure I wouldn’t run out. Well I didn’t get all of the picture done so I have a paper grocery bag full of white chalk. It makes me laugh every time I walk past it.

Your seeing about a twenty foot section here. I had to climb up on top of the van to get this photo, and still couldn’t fit the whole piece in the frame. In the next picture you really get a sense of the size I was dealing with. I could have gone larger but quite frankly it was fun to drive past the piece and see each segment and trying to piece them together in my head.

Alright, I’m a week behind because of my trip to New York and it’s my birthday tomorrow so I don’t think I will make up that drawing. I will do one this weekend and then get started with next month. I think you will all enjoy the next month as you will get to take part in a variety of ways. When I start up next month if you could tell folks about the idea it would be awesome because it will make the pieces much more interesting. That’s all for now, I hope I piqued your interest.

Here is Ichiro going away, I actually like it, a much softer image.

posted 9-29

here is the final wash out of the Ichiro piece.  still just a hint of him left in the pic.

quite a while ago I really wanted to make a picture of Ichiro on baseballs.  I went down to the Mariners team store because I knew if I was going to put in the work that I didn’t want to use $3 balls from walmart because if people liked the picture I could only imagine that some would say “why didn’t you use official balls”  so anyway, I was checking out MLB official balls and they were like 7 bucks….. that’s what…  1,800 bucks.  eeesh.  So the only way the piece will be made is if it commissioned.  So I abandoned the idea for a long time and just thought about it last week.  I figured, chalk, baseball field, cloudy day, why not.

So I worked on my prelim drawing for a bit and fought about how big the circles should be.  I had no idea how long the piece would take and decided on a 6 inch round.  I got over to the field and knew I needed to get a cam shot from above.  I started climbing up the fence behind home plate and found I had to be much higher than I thought.

Now my fingers aren’t climbing fingers so I was getting a little worried about falling, but that didn’t happen.  When I climbed down I couldn’t even see the screen so I wasn’t sure where the middle of the frame was.  Because when I was up by the camera the fence was leaning so it was a different angle than when I was not on the fence.  So I stared at the 2inch LCD screen from …. however far away that is.  Anyway, I got super lucky and was dead center.

I worked on the piece for a bit and then started to get sprinkles so I kept jumping up taking pictures from time to time thinking I would lose the whole thing at any moment.

then the sprinkles stopped and I had perfect overcast weather to work on the whole thing.  I kept plugging away and really pushed to get different camera angles.  It’s awkward and tough to record and work at the same time, but I know it makes for a more interesting video.

I got home after working only for about 5 hours (much quicker than I planned on) and I started editing the video.  One thing I never thought about much in regards to the art, is how powerful video is.  I have a handful of people on YouTube that don’t critique the art but do critique my video production.  It’s interesting and opened my mind to another place to apply myself.  So after my first edit I woke up this morning and checked out the video and knew I needed some speed changes because it was too abrupt at first.  So I put in the extra hour and made it flow a lot better.

Since I have little time for pushing my work once it is done, because I’m already prepping for the next piece.  if anyone knows people at the Mariners please send them the pics and video link.  It would be a kick to think Ichiro might hear about this piece one day.

The next piece will be fun because it uses something everyone can do.  I think it will be entertaining.  I just hope the weather cooperates because the slightest wind knocks me out of commission.

Hope everyone is great!