Big Fun With Foam
This little page is dedicated to my little fun foray into BIG goofy pieces created in foam, it's something I am hoping to do a lot more of, and I find it a most enjoyable and hilarious process and final product!
CardBoard Fishie
It all started with this little guy (12 inches), during covid we had a lot of down time, and a lot of delivery boxes... (AND I HAD PAINT, GLUE AND EXACTO BLADES)I had a little bit of fun taking a old doodle out of my sketch book and creating a piece of impromptu wall art. I've never really thought of cardboard as a final product, so I never considered selling these. This fish still is with me in my studio today, his cheesy smile brightens my day.
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
FSH!
CardBoard Shell Game
I saw something inspiring on facebook regarding making faces from relatively random shapes of cardboard, which as I've said, I had an abundance of, so I decided to give that a try. I made a nice BIG HEAD of about 2.5 feet and had a lovely time jazzing up each piece individually. The materials were all very easily accessible (Cardboard, Glue, Exacto blades, Paint etc). Again I never really thought of cardboard being a final product, so this fellow also grimaces at me in my studio, brightening my day in his own unique way.
Fun with Foam
When I was in high school we had a lot of fun with this foam, it seemed like the perfect answer to the question of the next step! Although I weeded out the random nature of the exercise I created another head inspired by the decor of the house I was in! One room being almost entirely beach design seemed like a great escape from the claustrophobia of covid shut down! The foam (8 foot sheets cheap at Home Depot at the time) lended itself beautifully to what I had in mind. This piece also is housed to this day in my studio. people seem to love the fake wooden teeth! This merry fella is so light weight I can just find a single nail and "press him into place." He obediently stays put, delighted to watch the goings on in my studio!
Fun & Fishy Foam
BACK TO THE SKETCH PAD!
Oh boy! I sure loved that last one, with a new zeal for creating I couldn't wait to try another (and I had so much left over foam! I took another old fishy doodle and blew it up to about 3 feet wide.
I had a little fun learning about different ways to cut (more blades, and some heated tools- left me with both joy and blisters) and found my favorite methods quickly. When I was finished I wanted to try a gloss coating I had used on some paintings I'd made, to make this relativity fragile swordfish into something more long lasting. I made two pretty monumental mistakes- condemning this piece to (like the previous) become a resident at studiowillich.
Many Years Later..
I always thought I'd go back and make MORE but I really just am a butterfly, other things distracted me until AL came along and saw my swordfish!
"I want that" he says to me pointing at my chalkboard doodle in my studio, "done like that." he then points to my old swordfish.
LOL
And thus the Sunny Fish was created, it really is just a fun project and I'd do it all the time - there are a lot of ifs there.. BUT IF!!
Materials are Foam (pink stuff- home depot), gesso, acrylic paint, paint pens and my resin coating to basically make it TOUGH! LOL
this piece was over 3 feet at his widest.
One More Time (with feeling)!
There was also a request for a turtle, you see these pieces were going to be for a place called "Turtle Cove" I believe, so there HAD to be a turtle! Flipping through my trusty sketchbook AL found what he was wanting and we shook on it. The grinning mischievous turtle was another fun project and I had the pleasure of bouncing back and forth between the two pieces making just there was a balance of "related" with out "repetitive." The final tweaks in my process are nailed down, the customer was delighted, and if things go according to plan I have a new partnership in the works to see if we can expand this idea even further... stay tuned for details!
Thanks for reading!
