Monday, June 1, 2009

Steampunk

Steampunk according to wikipedia.

I like steampunk and it pleases my eyes, but I don't think I could get dressed like some people do. I haven't *tried* it, because there aren't those type of things here yet, but I think maybe I'd get really frustrated pretending to be in such an awesome place and then just walk out of it and remember that it doesn't exist. I mean, yeah, halloween is probably my favorite holiday and it's about pretending and putting on a disguise and playing, but I seem to have no problem with that.
I mean, for me looking at a good image of fantasy art or whatever, steampunk, futuristic, science fiction type of thing, totally hypnotizes me and I look at the details and imagine what it would be like to live in that world, but I think trying to bring that world out of the image would frustrate the shit out of me. Like me just being in denial of the world I'm in.

BUT ANYWAY, I found a steampunk group in facebook, with nice pictures and whatever and I only had to look at some of them to make me want to do something and I came up with two images. I don't know just how steampunk they are, but they were definitely inspired by it.
1. This first one is called "Steampunk Light" and it's 11 x 14 inches, I used watercolors, acrylic paints, pencil and colored pencils. It's USD 80.00. She's meant to have really long arms, hands and fingers and a really long neck; she's holding what was meant to be a monocle in her right hand, but it looks more like a little magnifying glass; her corset and neck piece are meant to be brown leather and her skirts: the red, burgundy and black, are meant to be velvet and the white parts just like.. white fabric. I don't know the names of all fabrics. Her skirts are meant to be super heavy and warm; her hair is supposed to be kind of messy and I was inspired by a picture of Milla that I saw that she has pretty much the same hairdo. It's supposed to be messy 'cuz she's like a studious type and she does her hair, but it gets messy during the day. The hair band has peacock feather types there.
I don't know exactly why I wanted her arms and neck to be so long, but I'm glad I did it and I like how it looks. The neck brace thing is meant to bring some support to her super long neck, with some help from the bit that sticks out from the back of her corset.
I think at first she was meant to have been subject to some sort of modification, so her body would end up how it is now with the elongated arms and neck and super small waist, but now I'm not sure what the shit I wanted it to mean.
The background is meant to look like rust. Not necessarily rusted, but like.. worn out, I guess, worn out and humid and old. Yet some MORE shit that I'd like to imitate from Luis Royo's work >=/


2. This second one is called "Vox". I don't know if it means "voice" in some other language, maybe Latin or something, but in Spanish, "voice" is translated to "voz", so the title has something to do with that. Vox, I'm not sure if she's a modified human or entirely a machine that looks like a human or a cyborg or whatever, but she definitely has speakers instead of a wind pipe and vocal chords and that is pretty much her trip. The two silver arms are coming out of the sides and opening up the incision on her neck to expose the speakers and the copper cylinder they're attached to. She's also wearing a corset and has kind of the same hairdo as "Steampunk Light", but not as messy and without the little peacock feathers. Same thing as "Steampunk Light" with the background, except I achieved it a little bit better in this one.
This piece is actually a really old drawing that I'd started back in university and I've kind of been recycling them and finishing them (cue recycle mode - don't throw anything out).
For this one I also used acrylic, watercolor, pencil and colored pencils, it's also 11 x 14 inches and it's USD 70.00.

I think the steampunk trip has stopped for now, though. All those cranks and trinkets and shit, I don't know if I have patience for them.
By the way, if you have facebook, I made a group where you can see much more, MUCH more than you can see here of my work. Please feel free to join and maybe even add me to your friends list, I'd love to have a bigger crowd, even if they will only be viewers and not necessarily buyers. Also feel free to leave me comments on the wall and on the images and any kind of feedback, suggestions, ideas, thoughts, opinions you'd like
I put all the information of the group in English AND in Spanish and all the pieces have their respective information in their legend.
Gabriela Handal Arte

ALSO, there's this thing called condron.us where you can put up your own blog in order to get a bigger crowd AND you can see other people's blogs. Whoever else has submitted their blog. Pretty spiffy shit.

3 comments:

  1. So, you can draw, you can paint, you can make faces come out of pieces of stone; you can write down your thoughts, emotions and significance. I hear you can sing.

    Shows you can do anything you set your mind to. Cool.

    Nice drawings too.

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  2. I love those drawings!

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  3. Thank you, dad! ^__^


    I'm glad you like them, Lynz! ^___^

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