S247

Every year there is an annual building challenge in November. Originated by the great nnenn (RIP) at Flickr it’s always a joy to build a Vic Viper-styles spaceship. Although I had this challenge as well as nnenn in mind when building this spaceship, it does not fit the criteria since it has no tail fin. No matter I am happy with the outcome and didn’t want to force a tail fin, it just didn’t feel right. This is probably also due to the inspirational blueprint, the Sketch247 by Gary Sanchez.

Image property of Gary Sanchez (published here with permission)

I loved that design for ages and now I finally got back to it. It was a real pleasure to build the spaceship at the actual scale.

Here’s the full gallery:

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While shooting the model I also played around with lights.

80’s retro 8-bit edit

Graffiti Corner

In the summer holidays I hosted a workshop with a bunch of kids in a suburb town of Monchengladbach, Germany.

Although the kids had no spraypainting experience before, they worked hard and by the end of the project we had a massive mural painted on the corner of the youth center! Big up to everybody involved and especially the kids!

It was a challenge to work a two-story wall with two sides on a corner, and I think the result is great.

Before
After

The full progress:

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And the final wall with straigtened perspective lines.

>>> If you are interested have a look here at my portfolio for further information or send me a mail for any requests. <<<

Dots Parts Fest

A few months ago, Elspeth from New Elementary asked me to play around with a few new Lego Sets from the dots series, namely the bracelets.

There are a bunch of results, which will be showcased time by time where this post will be constantly updated.


The Virus edition

>>> The post over at New Elementary

For starters there are the interwoving bracelets which give a nice irregular and organic base.

Some applications of this technique – the viruses are here!

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Here are three connected bracelets forming an endless stream. This never went beyond WIP.


Where evolution took place

>>> The post over at New Elementary

Three colourful fellas from the sea.

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Some sketches.

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And finally some sketches inspired by and with the (mostly printed) tiles from those sets.

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Build me a Longboard – from scratch do design

Last week I made my first complete longboard. It was a long term wish on my to-do list as I consider skateboarding as an integral facet of urban culture and the decks being an artistic medium of it’s own kind. An object, a canvas, something useful being further modified by the marks of the urban playground.

My starting point was a blank uncut deck. The designs were spontaneous ideas. I wanted to use the griptape in a designful way. Therefore I cut it out partially and made an underlying colour fading first. The second element is the triangle with the rounded corners. This icon is a reminiscence of the ‘play’-button on tape decks.

The bottom design was a result of a few thoughts coming together: I wanted to honour the material of the deck and leave part of the deck free so one can see the structure of the fabric – wood. I also wanted to paint a picture and include the message of sustainability. Therefore the idea of a cosmic tree was born.

Here are some shots of the progress and the final design.

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On a sidenote, the sharkwheels are awesome!

DIY Longboards 2020 in Kamp-Lintfort (Workshop)

From blank uncuts to self-designed finished boards.

Additionally this workshop was done under the star of sustainability, which was a guiding aspect alongside being an integrative workshop where refugees and established kids came together for this successful project.

With almost 40 degrees we had a seriously hot time. The kids were very keen and worked hard to achieve their own board, including shaping, cutting, grinding, coating, developing own designs and applying them, the final coating, attaching griptape and the final assemble of the trucks, bearings and wheels.

Without further ado, here are some impressions:

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>>> If you are interested have a look here at my portfolio for further information or send me a mail for any requests. <<<

Skarabaeus HJF-43

Back to space-ics

You know, sometimes you build something to a certain extent and that you cannot finish it somehow. Then it lays around for some time, you look at it several times and eventually the final direction comes to shape so you manage to finish it off – this is exactly one of those creations! If there is an existing design or a synopsis of a few designs there is a clear path to follow, but creating a new original design is just different.

BTW there are a whole load of this kind of projects spread across my creative lab.

 

Building notes

I fiddled around with the large flat curvy panels and my limited parts available in dark tan. It happened that this insect-shell like design came out. My love for the small flags urged me to look how I could add them and the overall design was born.

The build is based upon the traditional Vic Viper wing-layout – two prongs, two rear-sided wings and a tailfin.

It has space for a small minifigure, being positioned up side down – as this matters in space LOL

Therefore the the underside become also a legit upperside.

A friend pointed out the view from the top and bottom being nice stand alone images, so the masks had a spin-off.

 

Long talk, here’s the full show, enjoy!

Gallery

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El Groupo [the gathering]

Presenting a small series of spray can characters I built over the last few months.

They’re all in midi scale compared to the 1:1 Inside the Spraycan series. Further down you can find the single interpretations.

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To celebrate the series and to share my art work as a hard copy I have released an edition of 20 of the Ethereal Being. Each piece comes with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.  One piece will be available for 100€. Your support will help me and my family in this uncertain lockdown situation. All planned creative workshops have been cancelled.

If you are interested shoot me a mail.

There is also a chance to get a piece for free, check my instagram account for details.

Ethereal Being

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 Tales from the Crypt

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Top Gear

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Deity

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Metatrain

Meta is one of the rare Street Artists in my city who’s work is absolutely original. He inittiated a spontaneous project, after finding a book with pictures of trains in a pile of rubbish on the streets. He forwarded all of the countless fantastic images of real and model trains to many of his Graffiti and Street Art colleagues. I was lucky to be able to pick a train from the book and the SNCF Jouef BB 26000 locomotive immediately caught my attention with the vision of a brick-ified version. The project sat on my desk for about two years before recently I managed to make my version.

I concentrated on the basic shape, the color scheme and some distinct details. As just copying something in existence does not attract me, I decided to implement two twists. First of all I wanted to break the train while keeping the shape. Secondary I included my alias into the sides of the trains, referring to Graffiti and the expression bombing a train.

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The blueprint (Original image courtesy to Bernard Canet / Jouef)

And a WIP shot of the sketch and the forged side wall.