The Rising Tide 2 art show Rotofugi Gallery Kaiju Eyezon custom

The Rising Tide 2 New Works by Japanese & Japanese-American Artists is curated by LiLJAPAN (Hiro Hayashi) opens at the Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago on December 9, 2011 thru January 8, 2012.

To be honest I don't really think about my heritage too much ;-) .. yes you may say how can i not since I'm obsessed with Ultraman, my toy company is influenced by Japanese toy makers ... but you know I'm just Me ;-P

While I thought about making something that had nothing to do with Kaiju and maybe was something more inline with the Japanese heritage theme .. well in the end I have to be true to the artist in me .. and haha .. decided to make a paper mache Kaiju Eyezon ! Yes big surprise ;-P

Since most of the time my hands were soaked with paste .. I could not really take in progress pictures .. but did manage a few ... started by crunching newspaper into the basic shape i wanted .. and used masking tape to hold the forms in place.
Also used foil for the fingers ...

Once the over all shape was ready, the task of layering in the paper mache begins ...
two things i learned ... one make it smaller next time, this one was 22 inches wide by 19 inches tall by 9 inches deep .. and two, doing this during winter takes way too long ... each layer has to completely dry.. and even with a hair dryer to help .. took way too long ...Finally the painting begins below .. I used acrylics and started with a simple base coat of yellow with some gesso mixed in to help with coverage.
I washed in a dark sienna mix and wiped away the excess to allwo the texture to emerge.
Using a lighter yellow paint i dry brushed over the texture to provide highlights and to soften the darker shading.
Eyes, horns and cracks hand painted and finally done ! I had fun towards the end .. but it's was touch and go in the middle .. as I thought will these layers ever dry ??



About the Exhibit:

The next exhibit in our gallery is a wonderful group exhibit of new works by Japanese and Japanese-American artists curated by our friend LiLJAPAN (Hiro Hiyashi).

The Rising Tide 2 will open December 9, 2011 and run through January 8, 2012. The featured artists for this exhibit are LiLJAPAN, Skulltoys, Mark Nagata, Shun Nakatsuru, Chanmen, Mike Oshite, Uamou, Aya (Refreshment), Ilanena and Nao & Shin Tanaka.