(this first bit is me venting-- if you are just interested in looking at the legos, i advise you to scroll down.)
a couple of weeks ago, i realized RadCon was coming up. for those who don't know, it's the tri-cities principle science fiction/fantasy convention, held at the pasco red lion every year. i have not yet found employment since graduation, and things have been pretty tight lately, so it occurred to me that this would be a good opportunity to a) promote my card game welfare mother, and b) sell my captain jack lego mosaic.
the con was february 16-18th. i arranged to rent some space in the art show for my work, and volunteered to be a gm (gamemaster) in the gaming room and run a table, where i could demo welfare mother. then on the 9th, it occurred to me that it would be cool if i started another lego mosaic and entered it in the art show in it's unfinished state, kind of to show people my process. it took me only a minute's thought to pick my subject-- heath ledger as the joker. i felt he would make a very compelling portrait subject, plus i knew he still had many fans, perhaps one of whom might have the cash and the inclination to buy my work. i prepared my work surface and work space saturday and began my sketching, and on sunday i began working with the legos. i knew i had limited time, and i honestly never expected to finish the piece in time for the con; the shortest time i think i managed before was nine or ten days. but i drove myself, working 10-12 hours a day, and by 2:30 am thursday morning, i had finished! then i busted my ass on the frame, which is custom made; i bought materials, cut 'em, glued and screwed it all together, distressed the frame and carved a bit on it, then slapped on a deliberately sloppy coat of paint, and he was ready to go. after i hung my work in the art show friday morning, i busted my ass again until late friday night assembling the stuff i would need to advertise welfare mother, gather feedback, and maybe sell a few copies. i was exhausted, but hopeful.
the con was a complete bust. i didn't sell either of my lego mosaics, and i had a grand total of four people altogether come to my table and play my game.
ah, well. back to the job hunt.
i took a couple of pics of piece as i was working at it, then my camera finally went to data heaven, so bob took the picture of the piece completed. this is what i had managed by tuesday morning.
i find it interesting how in photographs, the colors look slightly different than they appear in real life. the flash of the camera makes the blue bricks appear lighter and the red bricks appear darker. regardless, the results are still striking. yeah, i know; i'm not modest. but if i don't appreciate my own work, how can i expect others to?
this next image shows my progress by wednesday morning.
i'm particularly pleased with how the curls in the upper left came out. this piece has very little of the layering i've used in other lego mosaics, partly because i had a lot more 2x bricks than 1x bricks, but also because the image itself needed to be...i don't know...heavier. hard to explain.
this last image was taken in the wee hours thursday morning.
i actually fucked it up temporarily a tiny little bit. if you'll look in the lower left along the bottom, you'll see the black shadowed area below his shirt collar go from black abruptly to green. i blame it on exhaustion. i corrected it the next day before i framed it.
anyway, overall i'm pleased with the finished work...and dumbfounded that i completed it in a little over four days. they usually take much longer. then again, on every piece before, i've had to stop work at least once, usually more than once, because i ran out of a particular color or size of brick. this is the first time my stock was sufficient to meet my needs. and since i inventoried my bricks last year, i know exactly how many i used to complete this piece. yay!
now i just need to find a buyer. any joker fans out there?
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