Year’s End, 2015

Happy Holidays, see you in 2016 (click for full size)

As you can probably tell from the now year-old previous post, I have not updated the page here in a long time.  This year was among the busiest ever, and between March and Late October, I did not have a day off, …a day without work in some form or another.

Sounds like a lot, but the job doesn’t require a lot of heavy lifting, and of course I work from home, so even the longest day still allows me to see the family and have dinner with them every night.  I’m never ‘stuck in the office’ or on the road away from home.   And that of course makes the workload much easier to bear.

But it kept me from keeping up with the recent work posts here, which I regret.  I also haven’t been able to find time to update my acquisitions on the book-collecting side of things, re: Stikeman&Co, binders.  But there has been much advancement there as well. …and as many of you noticed, and emailed about, there was no pumpkin this year.  Given that they take some forty hours (from design, painting the concept, carving, photographing, etc.), I just could not find the time.

Perhaps as we move through the holidays, which tend to ease my schedule, I’ll be able to find time to post updates and images from the year.  I’m thankful for the work, and appreciate my clients and their trust in me to illustrate their projects.

 

Thank you for a busy 2015…

 

 

“Kong’s Demise” 2014 Jack-O’-Lantern

“Kong’s Demise” (-click for full size-)

It wasn’t “beauty that killed the beast”, it was the damned men in planes shooting bullets at him that did it.

I always saw Kong as a sympathetic character, not some giant wild beast that needed to be taught a lesson. And frankly the whole “falling in love with a tiny human woman” thing wasn’t merely a bit of a stretch, it’s downright inter-species weirdness. Fay Wray is simply a maguffin, a plot device.  I felt comfortable ignoring her role in all this and focusing on the big guy, and the city of Manhattan.

Here’s an appropriately cheesy video, which shows the effect far better than the stitched-together photo above.

Kong is a peaceable gorilla, completely unaware that he’s a hundred feet tall, just hanging out on his own island, not a care in the world, King of the Jungle. …but along comes Man in a giant metal smoke-belching floating thing, dragging him to another world, and chasing him to the top of stone and steel tree, where he’s attacked and shot by men in metal birds.

Sure, “King Kong” is just a story. But it isn’t one of a gorilla that falls in love with a human woman and who dies trying to protect her. It’s just an amplified telling of the same age-old tale: Man (capital ‘M’) sees something that scares or amazes or transfixes him, something he doesn’t understand, and so he decides it needs to be hunted and destroyed. Whales, tigers, elephants… All the great beasts under siege and threatened with extinction. News last week that one Northern White Rhinoceros is left in the wild.

Perhaps over the top. But for the past five years or so, all of these pumpkins have an underlying theme: the primal fear that arises when a living thing is confronted by an unknowable otherworldly phenomenon, beyond their control, helpless against it, and overwhelmed.

Kong has no idea why he is there, or what is happening to him. That’s some primal fear, in my book.

Some Details…  everything that is bright has been carved deep into the pumpkin,  and the dark areas are untouched skin.  All shading is everything in between.

Freedom Tower at the tip of Manhattan. A bit of an anachronism, the bi-planes and the Freedom Tower. Call it artistic license… This detail is about two inches square “in real life”

East River to the left, with Kong;s arm grasping at one of the attacking bi-planes. (…and yeah, that other biplane should maybe have a propeller too. oops)

A squadron of biplanes circles around the Empire State Building from the West, with the Hudson in the Background. Kong’s Right Arm hanging onto the base of the mast.

Thankfully, Kong’s left arm and hand, grasping desperately at a firing biplane, conveniently hides the Brooklyn and East River bridges. It was a bad enough idea to carve the mast of the Empire State Building front and center, in the foreground.

Obligatory “Room Lights On” photo.

I painted the mock-up in photoshop very quickly, by collaging together some reference photos of the city, a model shot I had made from a model of the Empire State Building (in Cinema4d, with a fish-eye Lens rig), and from some shots of a few airplane models I had found in Google’s 3d-Warehouse, which I posed and lit as I needed them.  Then overpainted everything to semi-meld it together for use as a reference.

Here’s a Screen Capture of the Empire State Building Model in Cinema 4D. I used a fish-eye lens to get Kong’s Point of View

I positioned a few planes around in 3D space, and rendered them for reference.

…then pasted them together and did a very quick overpaint

I put a few tick marks on the reference drawing, at half-way and quarter points, top middle, and bottom. And then put matching ones on the pumpkin in order to transfer the sketch by eye, with a water soluble sign pen.

And after that, it’s time to get out the tools…

99% of this was done with a small Wusthof paring knife, sharpened like crazy, and held by the blade like a pencil, but I’ll go to some of these when I need to. The large serrated knife in the photo was just for cutting the hole to gut the pumpkin.

This year’s Pumpkin-of-Choice was a 76-pounder, home grown ‘Atlantic Giant’.

Hope you enjoyed it, Happy Halloween.

Jeff

Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield MA

Back almost twenty years ago, I worked as the designer on a renovation of The Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, in Wakefield Massachusetts.  At the time, I was working for CBT Architects of Boston.

The Library had a fund raiser the other night, and I donated a sketch of the original entrance, on Main Street, for the silent auction.  thankfully, it sold.  …nothing worse than donating something and seeing a blank clipboard at the end of the evening.  Come on people, the FRAME is worth something, isn’t it?!?!

The sketch is in warm grey pencil, on vellum, with white highlights, about 8×10 in size.

The Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Main Street Entry  -(click for full size)-  © Jeff Stikeman 2014

Been busy here, and per usual, neglecting updates. Had a week off in March, but other than that, it’s been straight through since Christmas and New Year’s.

Typically slows in July and August (which is fine with me!), so I’m looking forward to getting out of the studio and into some sun.

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Year End Review

This year I executed just under a hundred images, in levels of detail varying from sketchy to formal.  There were a large number of pencil images, split about evenly with fully digital pieces, and one simple watercolor sketch done as a gift for an architect’s client.  …a pretty busy year, in all.

Following are some details from a little fewer than half the images.  There’s no real text here, as I’ll just let the work speak for itself.  I cannot thank my clients enough, and thank you too for your interest in my work.

 

Happy New Year.  See you in 2014…

– Jeff Stikeman

“One Day in Pompeii” , the 2013 Panoramic Pumpkin Lantern Carving

– (click for full size) –

This year’s pumpkin lantern is a five foot long panoramic view of the Last Day of Pompeii, carved on a 75 pound ‘Atlantic Giant’ pumpkin from our garden.

Pliny the elder was a man of science, and an historian.  He lived in Pompeii, and being a man of letters, kept a thorough diary.  When he woke, August 25th, 79AD, it was a day like any other in Pompeii.  He had a cold bath, and breakfasted on the balcony.

The panorama starts at left, in the morning, as Pompeii wakes and comes to life on its last day.

Morning in Pompeii, August 25th, 79AD. No sign of danger, a perfectly beautiful day by all accounts. At top here in the carving is a quote from Pliny the Elder’s Diary, from later in the day.

Very quickly the world began to fall apart.  Earthquakes shook the region, twenty miles in all directions.  A strange Cloud appeared above Vesuvius (no one was aware that it was in fact a volcano).  Pliny writes:

“A cloud made of ash and dirt appears to be coming from Mount Vesuvius”. -Pliny the Elder

After the Earthquakes came the falling boulders, some the size of houses, and many of which were on fire as they came. This is a detail of a flaming chunk of pumice crashing through the roof of the Forum’s left market building, sending roof tiles flying, structure exploding, and people scattering.

Pliny, However, didn’t flee.  He investigated:

“The scientist in me wants to get a closer look. Having my boat made ready”. -Pliny the Elder

Same View, with the Room Lights On

Fleeing Residents of Pompeii (Enlarged Detail)

At the center of the Pompeii Forum stood the Temple of Jupiter, anchoring the space, and standing literally under and in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The Quote on the Pumpkin, from Pliny’s Diary later in the day, reads:

“Buildings have come loose from their foundations.

…sheets of flame engulf Vesuvius,

and rocks consumed by fire are falling everywhere around us”

The Temple of Jupiter, anchoring the center of the Forum of Pompeii, and with Mount Vesuvius Looming in the Background

In the center, an abandoned merchant’s cart, a statue falling from the tri-part archway beyond, and people crawling to shelter in the Temple,  suffocating from the fumes and ash.  At right is another market building, with fallen columns in the foreground, the building itself collapsing from an aftershock, columns caught mid-collapse, and the roof coming down.

“Walking through town. We can see broad sheets of flames rising from Pompeii.”  -Pliny the Elder

A View of the Temple of Jupiter and Vesuvius, with the Room Lights On

A Closer View of the Market Building’s Collapsing Structure and Columns, which are Becoming Buried Under Ash as the Day (and Pompeii) Comes to a Close

Pliny the Elder had no exit strategy.  In fact, instead of escaping, he went back.  He even went to bed, rising again in the middle of the night in a belated attempt to flee.  He and his group tying pillows over their heads and heading to the shore.

“Tying pillows to our heads with cloth and heading for the shore.    Rocks are falling everywhere around us. Our only possible escape is by boat.” -Pliny the Elder

End of the Day, and of Pompeii

The last detail here is of a buried Pompeii, the ash burying a portico remnant to its waist, with burnt tree trunks smoking ruins at left in the distance, and a cooling rivulet of lava coming toward us.

The Same Detail, with Room Lights On

Pliny did not survive.  His last entries to the diary:

“The air is thick with ash.” and ” Breathing now impossible” -Pliny the Elder

Before doing the actual carving, I mocked-up a cartoon from a bunch of collaged elements and overpaint.  I use it as a rough guide, and rather than try to meticulously transfer it, I instead freehand the rough outline onto the pumpkin in water soluble ink.  It washes off later, and the freehanding allows me to change and shift things in the composition to suit the defects of the pumpkin.

Half-Size Mock-Up of the Concept Art for the Carving (click for enlarged view)

As has become obvious, the stitching together of the panorama is clunky at best, and it’s very difficult to capture what it really feels to move around the pumpkin viewing the entire scene.  In “real-life”, the coloration is less contrasty, and has a great deal more depth.  Here’s a link to a movie, which approximates the experience as best it can…  “One Day in Pompeii”, on youtube

Thanks for playing along, and Happy Halloween!  -Jeff (and Pliny)