✍ UPDATE: "Giving Life To The Rain Dog." (The progression of my Tom Waits art piece!) by Hannabal Marie!

 Hello ladies and gentlefish

Thought I'd update on the progress my art is taking.

I went ahead and continued the necessary steps to *almost* complete him by painting him to life.

So let us go straight into it, shall we?

Tom's been WAITing for this moment....how 'bout you?

 Before I just up and started painting the man, I thought he needed a good base. 

You can't build a house without one, the same can be said with art as well. 

Leaking through, breakage, all sorts of odd stuff happens when you don't base things first. yep.

so I did just as I said...gave the man a good o' base. 

 For those of you who are curious as to what things people use...how they use 'em...when they use 'em...what were they wearing upon using 'em....err....ya don't think of those things? Oh. Me neither. Heh.

But anywho, what I used as a base?! Well since I don't have loads of money and I had loads of extra paint handy...I used some of that as a quickie base to help my paints stick onto. 

It's nothing special, just some off-white (eggshell) paint. Slathered it up real good and let it stay drying for a few days.

 Here is the paint after like 4 days of waiting. Hard as a rock and ready for the next step. 

GIVING MY ART...LIFE!!!!

So as what has been mentioned, I waited a few days before I jumped the gun on this piece. 

Why? 

well...I ain't familiar with Acrylics and so...

This is my first time painting with 'em for a hobby. 

(I only ever used tempera in my high school art class!)

So yeah...first time for everyoneeee!

Sooooooo...

I was extremely worried I was gonna funk it all up and hafta remake a whole new paper mache piece again. 

Not that it would have been a problem but....

I already waited THIS long for him to dry...

I wasn't about to wait any longer for another piece....

So yeah...

I took a while to think it through, watch some pros on youtube with Acrylics...Got all educated in the concept of the paints and whatnot. 

When I thought I got the gist of it all...

I went ahead and did my best....

using those cheapy little tubes you find online for like 5 bucks a set.

This is the finished product....

Just wanted to take a bunch of images from different angles. This one happens to be an under shot. So you can see all the wrinkles and details.

(Please note: this is with ONE layer of paint!)

I followed the suit of the paints, how you need to build it up layer by layer. 

after it all set for a while (days) I powdered the face with baby powder to give it a more "fleshly" look, while I kept the eyes glossy.

(This is with a few more layers and much more detailing!)

 Here is the side profile. 

Showing off a bunch of stuff here. 

The hair I glued on his chiny-chin-chin, the details in the ciggy, the wrinkles around the mouth, and the fleshy powder look. 

 Here I want to show the difference between his flesh and eyes. I also did a quick little coat of clear nail polish to make his eyes look even more glossy. You can't see it as much but in person, they come alive.

 There's a stranger around the coffee urn tonight....

and the last image of him in the dark because....he looks so damn good in the dark.

but anywho, that is the recent changes to him. 

I still gotta add his signature hair under his fedora and along his sides/cheekbones. 

I also need to find a way to get him up on my wall...whether that be by nails, a hanging wire, a metal clip, or by mounting him to a piece of wood. (if this is done, imma artsy that up with stuff that inspires me about Tom Waits, of course!) 

so yeah...possibilities are endless....as they say!

xoxo

~The beginning stages can be found HERE!