More papercrete busts!

Hi everyone!

As much as one works full time and barely has time to do whatever during the days off, I decided to try and make a new papercrete bust (yes, whilst still working on the "older" one).

Some days ago I was placed to work on the so called "Countess Edla's chalet" and that prompted me to regain an old project of making her bust.

Today was the day!

One day I'll post extensively about the process but let me just tell you that once upon a time I made a papercrete bust sketch and left it to dry. From then on I place a plastic bag over that sketch and covered the front with papercrete. Once dried, I take that off and make the same for the back.
After having both sides dried, I join both together with fresh papercrete clay and whilst doing so, I start already sketching the face. That's what you're seeing on the photo above.

Regarding the "old bust", I've been repairing some areas and adding some curls on the wig. The shoulder area still needs lots of work though. Each roll is made out of newspaper that was glued on the figure and covered with papercrete.
The whole bust is papercete but on the smooth areas like on the cuirasse and face I've applied a thin layer of dasclay, it creates a nice texture contrast, don't you think?

Thanks for visiting and do comment ! ;)

TDYM (to do it myself)?!

Hi everyone!

Suddenly after finishing school I wrote again to the enterprise that manages all the historical spots here in Sintra and within some days I was finally accepted to work for / with them!
Entered on the 15 of May and became a full time visitor assistant at the National Palace !

Meanwhile and because I had an exhibition planned for July in Lisbon, wrote an email to the guy whom had arranged and planned everything with. He answers that had quit his job and for me to write to the place or the owner... I tried but up until now didn't got word from it back. So I decided to put some of the paintings on my etsy shop instead.

As ordoeuvre I'll post only one which means that if you have any interested you can visit the shop here !
The motto for the painting series was collecting images of guys from social media and transform them into early 18th century gentlemen !

Thanks !

En route toward... novelty?

Hi everyone!

My agenda for May suddenly became interesting!

On the 1st weekend I'm to participate on a art / flea market in a very trendy art / flea market (lol) in Lisbon and on the 9th there'll be the final signatures "grande cérémonie" at school and thus I'll be finishing high school (almost 20 years later ... ). Because of such status its supposed to mean that I'll be able to find "better" jobs, but its just... bollocks... ! Why? There are no jobs apart from bar tender as Portugal became this huge bar for tourists and my hands shake too much for such tasks (lol) ...
Soon Sintra's city hall will launch the art prize contest "D. Fernando II" for which I've been planning a sculpture but haven't finished yet (oups!)

On the other hand I've really been thinking on myself, what I want and can want and what to do. NO IDEA! Artistic wise for sure, but the rest?

Eventual possibilities :

1. Something will happen from / after my participation on the art flea market.
2.  If I earn some € on the flea market I can try to apply for an artist residence somewhere within the country in order to "get away" for a while and work on a specific thing whilst meeting new art driven people. No idea of prices but I've already been inquiring.
3. Stay where I am, with no space neither for me nor for whomever I'm with whilst striving striving striving for a job.
4.  Go back to my parents (which would be disastrous ...
5. Going back to Lisbon? No money to rent nothing UNLESS (again) in the art flea market I get to make some money and know someone who's looking for housemates and then start from there.
6. Cut the wrists.

Which one do I prefer? None! None because they are all forced decisions!

1.  Whenever I or we visit Lisbon I tend to feel utterly tired with its mess, people, noise, pollution, etc and all is utterly expensive although, yes, has free culture everywhere (and even if that "culture" doesn't fit me or sounds way too nonsense or "fast food" in order to sell it either dummies or tourists, there are always the museums), so... not all that that bad overall!
2.  Going somewhere in the country side where rents are indeed cheap but nothing happens and  neighbors tend to see others as aliens. I've experienced that already and... no thanks! 
3. Even going deeper in the middle of nothing I have no license drive nor car for shopping making + have no goals of living like Buddha (although some fasting wouldn't be that bad!
4.  Doing a residence in an artist "place" sounds good BUT its a bit like voluntary work on some farm: one has to gather the money for the trip, doesn't earn nothing along that time, has to pay just like on any other hotel service and in the end, one did had the possibility to construct some work but... how to carry it on the train back home (wherever or if there is still a "home" to go afterwards ... !)?

Overall needs:

1. Money;
2. Job;
3. Sponsorship program;
4. Sponsor;
5. Contacts;
6. To be seen;
7. Contacts:
8. To be seen;
9. Being within a place, an area or community of artists to generate contacts apart from online social media;
10. Contacts;
11. To be seen;
12. Contacts;
13. To be seen

Up until now I find out that there are indeed groups that took over some buildings and are now renting studios. The "co-working" places are becoming very trendy here but besides all sounding like an estate agencies disguised as "trendy artsy place for you to work and meet friends", they are also expensive!

If I'd like to try to have a studio in, lets say, LxFactory? Yes! Can I afford it? No way! That would mean €€ for studio + place to stay + food = lots.

If I'd like to try to live in an artist community somewhere like those new age ones? Yes! Do they exist though? Google couldn't tell ...

Overall wished results:

1. to be able to have a space to work to...
2. ... be able to gather a body of work and apply for exhibitions, fairs, museums, etc!  

I did thought upon a "baroque community". Sounded a bit funny but... imagine a group devoted to arts in general living on a place with the goal of enjoying life as if in the 17 /18th century and bringing that fun for others? Getting a place specially decorated where couples could visit for their marriage photos? where kids could visit and learn a particular theme or activity within that historical period? A place through where one could sell crafts or teach specific skills!

 I see on instagram so many people dressing up in historical fashions and going to fairs or special events at Versailles that its sad that here there isn't such costume. There are a few medieval / renaissance an even baroque fairs but BY GOD they are utterly DISGUSTING! If you want to get easily depressed visit one of them! But still there are people that get easily amused or satisfied ...

 I'm basically throwing all the possibilities that I can think of out loud. Maybe some make more sense than others or maybe you'll come up with even more? 

If so do leave a comment or send me an email @ myroyaldolls@gmail.com.

In the meantime I'll carry on doing my "Figuras de Convite" for the market event which I'm also preparing a neo baroque kind of frame to paint a selfie on and put on display as well as a box for the upcoming goodies! All papermache ! ;)

THANKS!

MyRoyalDolls project 2018 update

Hi everyone!

We're already in April but it feels as if réveillon was yesterday, right? Well, maybe it was for some ... Anyways, I can't really complain because within these 4 months I've already sold as much as I had sold through the entire 2017, yey!

Because I was dying to make new dolls I had this idea of lowering the price of the remaining ones on my etsy shop (and they were still lots!) and it worked just fine because people that were wanting to have one but couldn't, finally could! Others just found me whilst even others just carried on buying from me like a good friend in Florida that seems to be keen on collecting my works - to all of them my utmost and sincere gratitude!
At the moment there are two or tree that I just found in a box on a bag from the small exhibition I had at the school's library where I finished what I believe to be called high school in the USA (still am actually but only waiting for a final signature meeting in order to request the certificate...). Do have a look in case it interests you (I'll put the link below 😉😉)!

Right, the new dolls! A dear friend last year told me to be aware that anything one might do must have in consideration the time one lives. It didn't resonated by then but it stayed ...
In the meantime I was exhausted from doing dolls because they were sort of too detailed? too intellectualized? too trying to search for visual security in order to be accepted whilst representing some reality from some famous painting? The very last doll I made through the old system (wrapping toilet paper on a wire and work through either with Das clay or papermache) inspired me to quit as the result was boring and after hours around the face it still looked ugly ... !

--------------------------------------doll break-----------------------------------------

During this break I went back to painting! An avid digital photo collector, I made some small oil portraits from guys that I found interesting enough to transform them into XVIII gentleman!
Why XVIII century? Well, its my favorite historical epoch and in the beginning of this year I decided to focus only on that period instead of swirling around history and its many different times and characters... Apparently the works were / are good enough to be accepted as exhibition proposal which will occur in July (when I'll reach 36!) in Fábrica do Braço de Prata, in Lisbon.

Here's one of them , oil on homemade papermache canvas (my favorite work actually! )

In the meantime dolls subject was pretty much alive though, so I decided to create an idea of XVIII century Portuguese society once focusing on the reign of D. João V my favorite Portuguese Monarch.
Thus I've envisioned large people, always laughing and being cheerful and for that, mechanics wise, I built one figure, made some casts with silicone+starch paste of the torso and legs, created an idea of genderless face and now its voilá!
So if before I wrapped toilet paper soaked in glue around a wire, now I make the bodies by filling the silicone casts with papermache, join both halves, attach legs to torso and rework the body with Das clay (a bit like a regular porcelain doll maker actually). Feet are created after as well as the face is glued onto the body when it's ready. The rest didn't changed much as I still make the clothes out of used printing paper ...

As I had this idea of going to present my works to a shop here in Sintra, I thought on starting by doing some Invitation Figures (you'll understand what these are if you go to my website).
Within two weeks I made 3 figures. The result, I guess, is fun to watch as now there's a lot more movement within them but... although they are already in the shop and I got really good reviews online through social media, I'm still not satisfied specially because I still feel stuck within the " trying to search for visual security in order to be accepted " thing? But as I was able to change the shapes and making the figures a bit less "natural" I'm already happy though...
Take a look and let my know what you think ;)

Ok, they are not that bad (!) but I want more, I want the ultimate piece where "sculpture" becomes more accurate to describe them than "doll" aaaaand I know exactly what to try out!
Stay stunned guys, thanks for visiting!!

Oh yeah, my links !

etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/chezPedro

doll website: https://myroyaldolls.wixsite.com/myroyaldolls

Papercrete Royal bust !

Hi everyone!

Even before 2017 ended I thought about changing my dolls construction as it felt that they were too serious and way too small for the fun I've always had envisioned whilst making so I did made some changes.
I've started to invest more on paper "skeletons" instead of toilet paper wrapped on wire and adding way more das clay. Mixed media indeed as soon as I started to be interested on adding a few shinny plastic beads here and there. Makes things shinier! Also a bit more cartoonish because people are easily touch by humor thus, I think, its a great way to teach history!
This overall became such a discovery that I felt the necessity to make a pause on doll making due to space limitations in the house.
My plan is to portray the life of Portuguese King D. João V on dolls.

Also recently I started to make papermache based pins to wear!

But this post isn't about dolls or pins, its about my newest papercrete bust!

Maybe since EVER I wanted to make a full size bust but always ended disappointed as I don't have school practice - all looked silly, misshaped, whatever!

Last year I, after visiting some churches in Lisbon thought on trying again - this time with papercrete! Turned out too big, I often felt lost and the face, although accurately human, didn't looked as the person I wanted to portray, so ... No, I didn't threw it to the garbage, but... don't know...

Whilst this one was even drying I thought upon doing another one - this time smaller!

I won't bother you with the whole story because sooner or later either I'll post something about it or make a video. 

Cutting a long story short I will only say that there's nothing going wrong with this one (its smaller and I have a bit more experience and apparently either patience or skill).

My goal is to portray (again)  D. João V of Portugal at the age of 19, 20., exactly when he became King of Portugal. 

I've been going on slowly, taking inspiration from colleagues like Girardon and Coysevox from portraits of Louis XIV of France, Leopold I of Habsburg empire or Felipe V of Spain and this is what I've achieved today

The white bits are also papercrete but have a thin coat of das clay because when it dries all the fibers of the paper comes up, so the das is to smooth the surfaces (specially on the face and cuirasse). As soon as the lumps dry I'll start to carve or model the curls of his wig (after adding the other side too, of course)

It looks great and I couldn't feel happier!!

If you still don't know what papercrete is and would like to know or try, there's a video I posted some time ago:

If you are a doll or art collector you may want to visit my etsy shop @ https://www.etsy.com/shop/chezPedro

Or join me on patreon @ 

https://www.patreon.com/chezPedro (where I honestly am still trying to understand how it works 

Thanks for visiting,

Namasté!