The Plan pt 1: Gridlocked

Gridlocked:

                                                               

                                                                                      Image A

           As much as the word itself has a completely different meaning to what I mean (Image A), what I mean by Gridlocked I mean the picture below.

Yep, Gridlocked. A drawing locked behind a grid. In truth its merely taking a final image/drawing and adding a grid to it to ensure proportion and layout of the drawing is accurate. As you will be using measured grid blocks, you can work on a scale/ratio to make the drawing bigger or smaller all according to the ratio. This means you can take a drawing on a normal sheet of paper and transfer it exactly and proportionally onto a wall for instance. A great technique I think and one which I will be using to transfer the Noah's ark drawing onto the nursery wall.

Here are examples of how grids help with proportion:

Awesome for still life images

Great for photo to paper

Also great for paintings

                                                                             

Really looking forward to working on this wall mural! I know my partner on this project is also excited! 

Procrastination Humour

Nothing like a bit of humour to lighten up one's day:

Procrastinate I must not!

Colour Crime

In progress:

Been a while since I posted stuff here which would mean one of two things; Either I am very busy and can't post or there is nothing to post....and I would like to assure you it is NOT the latter. I actually have been busy and am in the final stages of this project which is setting up the Paper-to-Wall grid work. Since all this pencil work will need to be transfered from A4 piece of paper to a large wall space, there needs to be accuracy in order to make sure what is on paper is on the wall with no proportion mistakes.

Next on the list, once grid work is done, will be the colour issue. Most interesting about my artwork (which you will see immediately once all image posts are uploaded) is that I work well in shades of black and white. In short, I don't use colour....at all. BIG Problem. Big problem especially since this final Noah's Ark image will be in a children's nursery and therefore colour is Imperative. Imperative. I have three solutions for this:

1. I Google "Tips for colouring in for kids" and get all the basics. Then attempt to apply what I learned (which may take multiple draft works) until I have a somewhat decent colour scheme for the final work and then rely on my Partner-In-Crime from Germany to fill in the gaps :)
2. or I rely fully on my Partner-In-Crime from Germany to do the colour work and I assist where I can
3. or I actually take up a colour study course (not detailed but similar to first option) and apply that as well as rely on my Partner-In-Crime from Germany to help me out so that its a joint effort and we both get to learn from this.

Well actually the only option I was going to take was option 3 but I thought you might like to know how option 3 came about in the first place and what the backups would be haha. Either way, I've been looking to do a colour study for a while now and this is really a great opportunity to stop procrastinating and do it. No more just pencil/black+white/shades of grey work but time to add some colour into my work.

What will be most interesting is me working with paint. I can handle pencil crayons as I work well with pencil. I can handle pastel since I worked with pastels during school years studying art. Paint, however, has been a medium I've been completely avoiding as I am not good at it. This will be a real test, but one I look forward to. 

Either way, I look to the LORD, my LORD for strength.

Proverbs 16:3 - Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established

Baby Animals

The Ark:

Progress on the Noah's Ark project is steadily moving along. I will be sure to upload the sketches of the ark soon, all in different views as the scene could vary between the animals IN the ark already or the animals walking towards the ark. This is critical to the final composition of the work (as well as another factor I realized as I was brainstorming but I'll that'll be a separate post).

The Animals:

Two separate sources have spoken of the animals on the ark being baby animals, which is how they could all fit into the ark. I'm still looking into it to make sure all this is correct but I think it is.

Any suggestions, comments, ideas, please feel free to comment. Thanks!

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Project Noah's Ark

A painting by the American Edward Hicks (1780—1849), showing the animals boarding Noah's Ark in pairs

I was speaking with a good friend of mine, who was telling me rather excitedly of a new project she had been given at her church. The church's nursery walls were bare (after rearranging the room to be a nursery) and the church had asked her to design/decorate the walls. She approached me with the idea of Noah's Ark and already in my mind I started getting an idea as to what the nursery would look like in the end. The question however that I faced immediately was...what animals would one find on the ark? So of course the first place to look was the Bible.

Genesis 6: 19-22
19 )And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. 21 As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” 22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Genesis 7: 1-3
1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. 2 You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; 3 also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth

With that info I know now that there are male and female animals of which there are birds after their kind, animals after their kind and every creeping thing after their kind. Some clean animals and some that are not clean which isn't very detailed haha but looking at those there is a way to know which animals were seen as clean and unclean. That's one thing I have now.

I spoke to a friend of mine from work, sort of to see if he would know what animals one would expect to find in the ark back thousands of years back, and the answer he gave me was not necessarily what I was looking for, but it was sufficient to guide me.

That's my current project and I do pray that all goes well but I guess for now only time will tell.

Proverbs 16:3 - Commit your works to the LORD
And your plans will be established.

Gt Works website DOWN (Upgrade)

Gt Works Studios, which is my website, has been up for like a year now and I am still not happy with it. I haven't even announced it to a lot of people (YET) because I'm always looking for ways to change/upgrade it someway somehow so this blog will be my website until I am happy with the actual website.

If you are wondering about my website, you can find it on www.gtworksstudios.co.za but it's down right now so all you will get is a "Front" just telling you of the State of the website.

Why Gt Works Studios? In my initial brainstorming, the website was to showcase my (GT) Works (art works, photo works etc) on a website (Studio, gallery etc) so I came up with GT Works Studios. In the beginning it worked well and I considered keeping it as it is but after an awesome and drastic change, brought on by a Gracious and Merciful God, the website too needed a change, in that it shouldn't be about me or MY works but the works which shall glorify God.

The name GT is actually a nickname I was given back in highschool and it sort of stuck but after highschool that nickname died out and gave birth to new and rather interesting nicknames (which I shall not mention haha) but the name GT has itself changed and bears a new meaning. With the new website content and outlook/mentallity/approach, instead of having GT standing for my old nickname, a new name reflecting that change has come from it: God Transformed Works (Studios). In that I mean my Works (art works, photo works etc) which I have done, and still do, after God Transformed me, all still shown in a gallery/Studio. God honouring works in other words, where I use talents (which God gave me) to glorify God. (Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD. And your plans will be established.)

I cannot promise an everyday update but let me promise a weekly update which will force me to not neglect the Blog or the Website (as I've been doing for a year now).

Finally. Welcome to my BLOG!! Visit often!!...please! :)