I was in Ohio recently and while there I bought a new front suspension for the parade float. The existing suspension is unusable due to rust, however, it will stay in place until the frame is strengthened in the critical areas, which likewise have severe corrosion that have cause the integrity of the chassis to fail. Even so, strengthening of the frame would be required in any event, because the chassis was part of the unibody, which depended upon other body panels for strength. The frame area need to be boxed and other support modification need to be made. Preparations to effect those changes are being made over the winter, with welding to taken place after the weather lets up and becomes warmer.
As it stands now, the priority is to complete the publishing layout, because clean hands are required to keep the original artwork from being damaged while it is being worked with. Truthfully I believe that there are less than twenty pages that require insertion of artwork. However, those illustrations need to be assembled from multiple paintings. Beyond that, there are numerous pages that were “completed” without backgrounds, which in many instances looks just fine and works well. But overall, the entirety of the collection needs to be reviewed in that regard and backgrounds created (or selected from existing paintings) so that there is an appropriate balance across the board. Our objective is to draw the viewer’s attention in with a diversity of imagery.
AG
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As you may well know by now, if you've been following the progress, I've often felt the collection was "almost finished". Some time ago, I decided that Jency should craft the artwork as individual components. That means that, in addition to the prep work I have been doing on the sketches and watercolors, I also need to assemble the illustration panels. This works out for the best, because I can control the size and position of the characters. Have it component paintings done individually puts us in a position to do the character animations, as you can see from the test below.
So now assembling the illustration panels adds a level of complexity to the publishing layout, but puts us in a good position for other uses of the artwork.
While this is going on, the gallery exhibition of the artwork is being completed. We have experimented with the lighting and now I have decided the approach to the aesthetics of the panels and finishing elements of the panels. Further, I have decided to add the model stages and, in all likelihood, animatronics to the exhibition.
In regard to Animatronics, we have advanced with building the parade float.
Here you see the chassis that is being used for the parade float. It will be strengthened and rebuilt. It is the chassis of a Corvair truck the section in the back contains the powerplant and the section in front (center) will contain a cockpit for the operator. The operator will be seated under the stage. We are working on designing an animatronic puppetry presentation for the parade float.
We have a few new ideas regarding the puppetry, the main thing being that we will focus on sculpting the faces, the rest of the puppet components being (for the most part) generic. This will make it easier to advance in this arena. Jency has expressed interest in trying her hand at sculpting the characters, now that she is "mostly" finished with illustrations.
Well, that's all for now. AG
