I'm always fascinated by time lapse studies. I found that these artists really got me. Wow! 1) I love Chuck Close (above is one of his paintings). In fact, all I used to do in high school was photorealism like Chuck Close. Shall I say... "Like Chuck Close." I tried. It's really good when you're starting out to copy others before you develop your own style. 2) These guys did a Chuck Close work in paper pulp! I used to do some paper pulp projects in my 2D class at RISD and let me tell you, it's a challenge. You have to put paper in a blender and grind it all up with water until you get a mushy consistency. Then you have to mush it back into a paper-like mass. These guys managed to do this and turn it into a photorealism work! Huh?
What I'd like to know is: Has anyone tried it with a children's book art piece from start to finish? I did it with a small B&W piece but never with anything LONG. Perhaps I will try! Oh dear, I've given myself a challenge....
Below is my B&W attempt. When I do my middle grade and teen nonfiction I want to do it more in this style:
I just realized something watching the time lapse stuff... and I know this from painting my own work. Things kind of look bad and then they don't. There's a process: it's a lot of going over the same thing, over and over again. When you watch the people working on the paper pulp it looks like they're almost doing nothing at all. A little squirt here, a little squirt there... and you wonder how on earth anything will come of it. But somehow something emerges. I think that's what keeps me going. It's the surprise of it all. I am surprised by what comes from my own hands, too. Not always, but sometimes. Otherwise, why would I bother?
