While there I took a few photographs of the engine. I then decided that a larger image of the Difference Engine would look lovely hanging over the fireplace here (I'd been waiting for the right thing to put in that space...) so I thought I'd take on the challenge of painting a picture based on my photos.
The result (actual size around 15" x 19") is shown below:
(Flickr URL)
I would say it's 98% "done" at this point. I could frame it now and CALL it done but being a perfectionist I KNOW there are going to be things I see within the next few days that annoy me enough to fix. For instance, that one...support pole thing on the right looks crooked to me now, argh! But I am happy enough with how it looks now to post it. It was a REALLY fun painting to do...so many shapes to follow!
Oh, and this was also my first foray into using acrylics. Previously I'd mainly used watercolor, probably because I HAD watercolor paints available for whatever reason. And I still think watercolor is good for some applications, but in this case I am really glad I tried acrylics because (a) it is a lot easier to get BOLD colors that contrast nicely and don't bleed into each other, and (b) if you make a mistake you can fix it by painting over it!
Moreover I found it quite enjoyable to mix the colors. I did not want to replicate the exact colors of the real life Difference Engine OR of any of the photos I took of it, but rather, put things in tones similar to what already existed in my living room. That worked out rather well as the shapes in the image lent themselves well to brown, gold, grey, and olive-green hues.
Anyway, though, that is another project I have been working on, and I look forward to making more art as I come across interesting subjects for it!
9 comments:
I really love this painting! Beautiful work.
Hilary: Thanks!
And I actually have a question, now that I think of it, and was wondering what you thought being an arty sort of person yourself. I am trying to determine whether to frame the painting with or without glass. I plan to mat the thing of course (got a mat cutter yesterday so that will be fun to try out). But I am unsure on the glass because while I know it helps protect the painting, it also introduces a glare factor. And I seem to recall from going to art museums on school trips that a lot of the oils and acrylics were framed WITHOUT glass. And I definitely don't want the paint to STICK to the glass if I do use it.
Um, that is a yummy bevel gear, there.
I suppose you know, Ma'am, that the pointer is not aligned with the mark on the wheel?
I didn't think it was possible but you have out-cooled yourself! Are there any more at home like you?
JTG: Heh, I am relieved that the bevel gear actually came out looking bevely (bevelicious?). And as for the pointer not being aligned with the mark, yep, I'm aware of that -- I was trying to represent the three-dimensionality of the thing with a slight offset but I think I probably overshot a tiny bit. That oughtn't be too difficult to fix, though.
You could cover the painting (nice) with glass that has the image imprinted on it in a way that would make it 3-d when wearing 3-d glasses?
Of all the things I have lost, when I lost most of what I used to own, sometimes I think I miss my copy of "Machinery's Handbook" the most. My Mom bought it for me and signed her name in it, with the date, after having seen me salivating about it at the bookstore.
It had EVERYTHING in it, if one were a gear-head - American threads, metric threads, Whitworth threads, how to pick a good anvil,how to bore a really deep hole in a piece of metal, what various steel and aluminum alloys were actually made of, and so forth, and etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/sets/72157606064638669/
"A wonderful museum of music machines, from grand player pianos to automatons, to coin-operated stereopticons. In Wiscasset, Maine."
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