Flame shields

It was nice and sunny. I got up early and got outside and in the sun to get to work cutting my flame shields for my upcoming series.

I used a vellum product that was new to me called OPALUX. I bought a 19X 24", 110lb translucent sheet. I needed something that could be easily wiped clean if need be so I selected a type of velum. I also needed something that was stiff enough to stand up on its own to act as a stencil or masking object when airbrushing in my flames.

Above you can see the shapes I made and how they fit together. This material is quite nice to draw on and cut fairly well.  However, I would prefer a thicker material that holds it shape better. I also found the opalux to be too brittle, it chips and cracks too easily, making little imperfections in some of the curves. I do not recommend opalux for this purpose, in future will NOT used for creating stencils or shields. But that is how you figure things out, you try them and see if they work. I still think watercolor paper is much better suited for the task.

I taped the shields back together with some thick masking tape. This worked great to keep them together but also added rigidity to my shields. I  cut out some of the little detailed flame elements. When not in use they will be taped over, so now I have three shields that can be separated into six to make a wide variety of shapes for when I paint my flame backgrounds.

And I did it all in the sun on my stoop while having breakfast in the sunlight, a great way to start some art today ;)

Here are some examples form google of how the finished work is supposed to look!

Then out came the trusty watercolour paper. I found a site online that offered a variety of other examples of templates for more variety of flame shield.  Get them here at : www.chuckbauman.com 

With all these I'll have a huge variety of things I can do, I am so excited to get started. Alas, I have to wait for about two weeks as I am taking a two week, full-time traditional portraits in oils course. In the evenings I have martial arts and salsa class and on the week-end I am doing an animation lock down and lilac fest. Busy bunny =B