As promised, here’s a photo of my first painting. Click on it for a bigger view. I made this piece in response to the cafe manager, Alli, declaring that the only art on display in the cafe during the month of March would be created by the staff. As I couldn’t rig up a projector or a plasma screen I couldn’t contribute a piece of video art, so I had to think of another way of getting at least one image onto the wall.
My piece was just one among many created by my comrades in Mishka’s.
Stage One:
> The original image was shot on a Canon XL2 digital video camera in 16:9 aspect ratio.
> This footage was captured onto computer.
> A single frame was chosen from the footage and converted into a still image.
Stage Two:
> The still image was fed through a process called “rasterbation.”
> This rasterbated image was printed onto a sheet of transparent plastic.
> The transparency was projected onto canvas and painted.
17/03/2006
I had a go at rasterbation last year but I used an image of Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan in Sin City. Trouble is that I was too ambitious and the resulting picture is now too large to put anywhere other than a huge gallery space! This is a shame as it would look soo good.
17/03/2006
I feel you’ve left out an important part of the process; the “painting” bit. I’m not entirely clear on how you put the image onto canvas. You’re not printing directly, as I’m told is more common in rasterbation, so what do you mean by “transparency was projected”? Did you sit in front of an OHP with a brush in hand?
17/03/2006
Yes.
18/03/2006
Really?
18/03/2006
Yes. It took bloody ages.
18/03/2006
I’m not sure it counts as rasterbation then. Perhaps rasterochism.
18/03/2006
Next time I do one I’m going to look at silkscreening. I’ll be able to make more than one then, and vary the colours. But first and foremost I need to make sure I take good pictures to process.
I should have noted above that the girl in the picture is my friend Katrina, who works with me in the cafe. She’s moving to Calgary soon, and we’ll all miss her, so I decided to make her the subject of my piece.
19/03/2006
Lovely!
Gidget
20/03/2006
Liam, I’m sure in your pre-Courtney days you heard this a lot (she’s probably bored of saying it by now): your’s may well be just one among many, but it’s definately the biggest!
R xxxx
20/03/2006
Snarf
21/03/2006
So basically, you’re a tracer…? :)
23/03/2006
I feel like I just have to respond:
“Your mother’s a tracer!”
21/04/2006
I work in an art library, but I still think rasterbation sounds like a top shelf book ;)
maz