Bad and Good

Lots to talk about that has kept me generally away from the internet: there was a stroke in the family, things are not looking good. The car I had for two months blew something in the engine, and apparently the same engine is used in some little racecar, so used parts are in high demand and hard to come by. My roadside assistance left me sitting on the side of a highway for a little over five hours--naturally this caused me to miss a whole day of work--because the first vendor they sent couldn't find me and didn't bother to call to clarify my location, and another one had a shift change of some kind and never even entered my order into their system, so I didn't know that nobody was coming for me until the hour and half timeframe they were supposed to show up in had passed. It was nothing short of magical. I then got to spend my two days off from the day job in which I should have been working on art kicking tires.

On the plus side, I now own the nicest car I've ever had, and got a good deal on it. It's a bit of a mom-mobile, and a bit more boatlike than I am used to driving, but everything in it actually works and the body's in good condition, which is something I've never had before.

I have an interview with the Curious Crow in a couple of weeks! I have a series of six stamps to plant, with one left to carve! I also now have my own YouTube channel. After screwing around with Windows Movie Maker for a bit, I cobbled together some brief footage of our trip to Indian Run back in June. Some constructive criticism would be much appreciated. (PS, there's links hidden in there.)

In Which a Lesson is Learned

So, I finished carving the melon heads yesterday, and I went to do a test stamp. I pulled up the carving, and there was only a very faint ghost of ink on the paper, and the stamp itself was still black. So, the regular, super-tough battleship grey lineoleum? Not great for stamp carving, as it turns out. I should have done it on a medium with more "squish," but the other linoblocks I have are soft to the point where I didn't feel comfortable leaving it out to be stamped with over and over again, afraid that it would break down or tear pretty quickly. On top of that, the lineoleum seemed to suck up the oil-based ink. I tried cleaning it afterwards and it doesn't want to budge. Rather than go to my linocutting supplies or the admittedly small circular plastic-y stamp blanks I have, I'm going to get a hold of some of Speedball's SpeedyCarve material, which comes highly recommended by other stamp carvers.

You can take a look at the (mostly) finished product after the jump. I may yet do some fiddling and clean out some of the undercutting.

The Melonheads Sketch

Seeing as how horror won out on my poll, I took in a lot of suggestions, but I ended up going with Red Wolf's idea of doing something cryptid related. We're both big into cryptozoological phenomenon and UFOs and all that fun stuff--we may even be going to the Mothman festival in West Virginia this September. It's just across the Ohio river, so it's not too long a drive for a goofy weekend getaway. Thanks to all the ideas everyone submitted though, I have a stack of stamps to carve!

Anyway, I got to reading about some creepy tales of Ohio and I came across the melonheads, the Loveland Frog, Hilltop Asylum (which I've driven past but haven't explored, Hilltop has become not a great neighborhood to hang out in), the tiny town outside of Cincinnati, the gates to Hell in Columbus which I've actually been to, and all kinds of weird stuff. Now, I think the story about the melonheads is complete bunk, but it's interesting, and it seems to be an Eastern U.S. regional thing as there's very similar stories that supposedly take place in Michigan and Connecticut, probably brought over as a retelling of an English story.

I based my sketch off of a photo of a hydrocephalic child's skull. Image, story and links after the jump! Actually you know what? I'll just put the image after the jump, that way it won't be spoiled for anyone that actually wants to track this thing down once it's planted. I forgot about my AtlasQuest traffic!
 
 Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia on the Ohio version of the story:

The melon head stories of Ohio are primarily associated with the Cleveland suburb of Kirtland. According to local lore, the melon heads were originally orphans under the watch of a mysterious figure known as Dr. Crow (sometimes spelled Crowe, Trubaino, Krohe or Kroh or known as Dr. Melonhead[3]). Crow is said to have performed unusual experiments on the children, who developed large, hairless heads and malformed bodies.[4] Some accounts claim that the children were already suffering from hydrocephalus, and that Crow injected even more fluid into their brains.[3]

Eventually, the legend continues, the children killed Crow, burned the orphanage, and retreated to the surrounding forests and many believe they feed on babies. Today, some believe that the melon heads may be sighted along Wisner Road in Kirtland, and Chardon Township.[4][5] The legend has been popularized on the Internet, particularly on the websites Creepy Cleveland and DeadOhio, where users have offered their own versions of the story.[6] A movie, "Legend of the Melonheads"[1] was released in 2011 (and available on DVD), which is based on the Ohio legend and various other legends in the Kirtland area. This is to be followed by another movie "Dr. Crow" scheduled for production in 2012. 'Dr. Crow' is a period piece showing how Crow created the melonheads. Both feature films are written and directed by Brian C. Lawlor and produced by ShockStar Studios[2]. www.laugh-at-the-law.com Another feature film simply entitled "The Melon Heads" [3] is based on the same urban legend (in name only) and is slated for release in late 2011. Directed by Eddie Lengyel and produced by Fright Teck Pictures, the movie stars Joe Zamora, Roger Conners, Shawn C. Phillips, Kelsey Zukowski, and a hand-full of up and coming b-movie actors and actresses.

However, some people debate it, and there are accounts of Dr. Crowe being an actual person in the area, though supposedly a dentist in the 1940s, which doesn't really follow with the rest of the story. There are more anecdotes and a more flavorful telling of the melonheads story at Weird Ohio. I'm going to have to look up the movies and see if they're any good. 


SPOILER for letterboxers after the jump!

In a carvin' mood!

Hey, I'm busy working my day job(s) for the rest of the week, but with the weather getting warmer (albeit yesterday's sudden snowstorm) I really want to make up my own letterbox and get it planted. I've tossed a poll up at the top of the blog. I figure I'll do that for a while, and then I'll make a new poll to narrow it down from these three broad categories. Honestly, I have no idea what direction to go in. Vote as many times as you want!

What I'm thinking is that I will do what's referred to as an "LTC" box--not only will I carve a stamp, but I'll make a limited number of ATCs to store with it, so the first few people that find it will have something a little extra-special to have. Don't know what an ATC is? Artist Trading Cards-the Wikipedia article covers it fairly well!

Stamp Carving 101, Part Two: Carving

I didn't talk about carving materials in the last post, since I was just going over the image transfer process, but there's a lot of different products out there, suited to different purposes. Soft materials will cut much more easily and quickly, but you'll find it hard to make hard, crisp shapes, and it can be easy to cut too much. Likewise, you can get really tight detail out of a stiffer material, but you'll have a harder time working with it. I've seen Speedball's Speedy Carve (also known as "pink stuff") recommended quite a bit, but I haven't used it myself. Really, anything that you can carve and has a little spring to it can be made into a stamp--rubber or vinyl erasers, cork, craft foam. It all depends on the sort of look that you want; experiment!

As for what to actually do your cutting with, I use the same old linoleum cutting tools I've had for years. Speedball makes a nice set; you get several different tips that conveniently store in the handle; you can pick this up online or in a lot of different craft or art supply stores for less than twenty bucks. If you want to go even cheaper though, a plain old hobby knife or Exacto would work, too.

So. You've got this really shitty image transfer from Part One, possibly touched up with a permanent marker to clear up your edges before carving:

Mine's just a little chunk of plasticy stamp carving material I picked up for cheap, but it has a nice consistency. I find it helpful to use the knife edge and go around the outline of my design before I do any real removal of the block. This will help keep your lines cleaner and smoother in the final product.

There's not really an particular way you should cut, unless you're going for a particular look. I really like rough cuts with a little undercutting, so I use the broadest tooltip that I have and clear out big chunks at a time, working around the image and avoiding going "inward" into it for the time being. In this case, inward being the wolf's mouth, where I wouldn't have room to maneuver that wider bit around.

Yeah, don't be a dumbass like me and choose your work surface carefully, or take some means to protect it, like with a cutting mat. Thankfully my computer desk is a cheap piece of particle board crap that I've had for way too long and I don't care anyway. You should take care with any sharp tool though, and whenever possible, cut away from yourself, not towards. I've got a scar down my left index finger from a linocutting project gone awry.

 Time to move onto smaller tips and hash out some details. You should always start with a light stroke and increase the pressure, especially when moving from a narrow area to a wider one; you can always go over a cut again, but it's kind of hard to fix things if your hand slips and you cut away more than you meant to. The consistency of your carving material really comes into play here. I really like the brushy swipes that the wolf's head ends in, so I'm really trying to preserve that with thinner cuts.

If at any point in your carving you're not sure how close to being done you are, there's a great test: tap that bad boy on some ink and try it out on a piece of scrap paper. The above impression is stamped with Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Fired Brick, next to one of the photocopies I messed up the first go-round. If you're like me and you like undercutting, you can leave all those messy little details, and you can see how some of your shallower cuts that are harder to read when everything's the same color (here I was checking on his eye) are shaping up.

Chances are very likely that your final image won't turn out exactly like your original drawing or print, and that's okay. I personally feel there's a certain beauty in the effects that you get out of the carving process itself. I really like the more angular look that the stamp has, and the dirty grunginess that all the little extra bits that didn't get taken out give it, so this is where I'm stopping at this particular piece.

Here you see my stamp  mounted to an old CD; the brand of carving material that I use has a sticky back for temporary adhesions like this, but you may want to mount your stamp more permanently on a wooden block or something else more comfortable for you to grip.

Stamp Carving 101, Part One: Image Transfers

Well, it would seem that I've acquired myself a letterboxing buddy, who is unfortunately not as artistically bent as I am. To that end, I decided to carve a stamp for him this morning, and share the process here because it's my day off and I've got dick all to do. I was originally going to do an entire tutorial from start to finish, but I'd only gotten through the image transfer stuff when I decided that it was enough and the carving information could be a post for another day.

This one's pretty easy; first of all, pick your design. Everyone has some personal iconography that they relate to. Here, I've made a copy of one of my friend's favorite emblems, the Gangrel clan symbol from Vampire: the Masquerade.

I think this is a great candidate for stamp carving; it has a clear, recognizable shape, with just enough detail to be interesting. Certainly nothing's stopping you from using your own original design, but this is what he decided on. If you want to be brave, you can draw directly on the surface of whatever you're carving, but if you want to use a pre-existing design or to carefully work on your image and play around with it before committing and wasting materials, you can easily do so on paper or in whatever image editing software you have first and transfer it very simply.

The most important thing to remember for preparing an image for transfer is that it has to come from a photocopier or laser printer only--these both use a powdered toner, which behaves in a different way than ink from a regular inkjet printer does. (Not sure if your home printer is inkjet or laser? If your print comes out with a discernible smell and is a little toasty right when it comes out, you probably have a laser jet. If you can hear the ink cartridge carrying back and forth as it prints and the paper feels just as cool coming out as it went in, you probably have an inkjet. Get thee to a Kinko's.) A photocopier is a great resource for any artist--it allows you to resize your work easily, and to easily make transfers using a number of different techniques without damaging your original drawings. Today though, I'm just going to focus on how to make a basic solvent transfer.

Make at least one more copy than you think you actually need, it can sometimes be tricky to get the whole thing to come out the first time, and it can be easy to damage the paper during the process. I made three copies today, just in case. Keep in mind that if you have any text or want your final stamp to face a certain direction, that you need to reverse the image when you photocopy it, otherwise it'll turn out mirrored. I cut my image out to a more manageable size, and then placed the copy face down onto my carving surface. You may want to actually tape your cutout down to keep it from shifting or moving around during the transfer process, especially if you have a large or intricate design. This should also help to keep your paper from curling up, so that the print stays against the carving surface where it belongs. Next, you apply your solvent: I've used xylene, mineral spirits, turpentine and similar harsh solvents before, but for safety and expense purposes, I used plain old non-acetone nail polish remover today. I read somewhere that 100% acetone works really well, but I haven't tried it.

The back of the paper should be saturated with your poison of choice using a rag or a cotton ball. Most solvents evaporate quickly (which is why you should always work in a well-ventilated area!) so don't skimp. You should let it sit for a moment for the solvent to do its thing and break down the bond between toner and paper, but don't wait so long that it dries up. Finally, agitate the back of your paper. Like, really annoy it. An old spoon works very well for this. All you have to do is press firmly and rub, being careful to move all around your image, with the edges being the most important. I find a circular motion works best. If you look closely, you'll notice that certain parts of your image will start to look lighter, and this means that the toner is being successfully moved from the paper to the surface beneath.

My transfer, as you can see, didn't turn out so great. However, that's because 1) I didn't tape down my paper, so the top area where the wolf's ears are kept curling up, 2) I didn't use a spoon or baren, I used a q-tip. The surface was too small to apply pressure evenly, and too soft to work the wet paper without pilling and tearing, but this was good enough that I could go back and strengthen the edges with a permanent marker. This transfer method can be used on a wide variety of surfaces; wood, rubber, canvas, really anything that the solvent won't eat away at. Always do a spot test. If you mess up and want to try again, you can clean the surface off using the same kind of solvent you used to make the transfer with in the first place and start over with a fresh photocopy.

Next time, PART TWO: THE CARVENING

I couldn't wait!

I wanted to take the time to really design my first stamp to death, make it all nice and pretty before I went out hunting, but I had the materials handy and my hands were itching, so I ended up carving a pretty simple stamp and rushing out to use the last couple hours of real daylight to hunt for two nearby letterbox locations.

I used some round, plastic-y stamp carving stuff I had sitting around. I have several more pieces, but I don't have the original packaging anymore, so for the life of me I can't remember what the brand is. I got it at Hobby Lobby,  pretty inexpensive if I recall. The tool you see to the right is just a basic set of Speedball linocutting blades and handle/storage. Some people apparently carve up red rubber or white vinyl erasers too, but I have plenty of these blank seals that seem to be a convenient size, and some actual printmaking linoleum as well.

It has a sticky back, and mounts temporarily to smooth surfaces, the same way clear polymer stamps you may have seen in craft stores do. In this instance, I've been using a cd jewel case cover because I have managed to misplace the hundred damn acrylic blocks I actually own for this purpose. The inkpad you see in the above photo is an ancient Ranger's Archival in sepia. (I ended up using black instead when I went out.) I like Archival; it's an oil based ink, so it's waterproof and doesn't bleed, has a rich tone when applied correctly and it also dries very quickly.

From there, I grabbed a blank book and the clues to letterboxes located in two different cemeteries, one within a mile of my apartment, and the other just few minutes away. The first one was pretty easy to locate, even if I did get momentarily sidetracked by trash that was left in the shrubs I was hunting through. I'm not exactly proud of my stamp, but I'll have plenty of time to hash out new designs when the weather gets cold and I'm less inclined to go out and explore! I also found a pretty kickin' huge branch that must've fallen from the storm that passed through a couple of days ago. This will now serve as the staff for the necromancer costume I'm working on, hurr.

The second box was easy enough to discover once I found the landmark for it, but the clues that the planter left had me running from one end of the cemetery to the other, and a couple of turns weren't always clear. I found it, though, that's the important part! I forgot to take a photo of my stamped page. I also lost my pen somewhere and had to use a pencil I dug out of my car.

That's it for now! I'll post some pics of my find book up here once I've got a few more of these under my belt and it looks more impressive, but today was definitely in exercise in awesome, and I felt like I was Harry Potter or some crazy shit, running around with a secret name, finding boxes with unknowable surprises in them around every corner.

I saw some really neat hand-carved stamps in the books; my favorites included a skull, a bulldozer, and the Riddler as he was depicted in Batman: the Animated Series. I don't think he was carved out by hand, the linework was very smooth, but still very, very cool.