July 30

[2 hours]

July 29

By the way, if you want to get a really large view of the piece, click on the image.

[1 hour]

July 28

Went with the millet.

[2 hours]

July 27

Done with the outline of the title. Deciding what seed to use on the inside of the type. Amaranth or millet? Probably do millet because it's bigger and it's a lighter color. Also, fixing the lettering on the corn can. Puzzling over what to use for the rest of the picture.

[1.5 hours]

July 27

[1 hour]

July 25

[0.5 hour]

July 24

Birdsfoot trefoil? Check. Toothpick? Check. Elmer's? Check. Ready? Go!

July 23

[1 hour]

July 21

I have no idea what seeds I'm going to use. I'm thinking about it as I paint the background.

[1 hour]

July 20

Putting on the paint.
I probably should take the seeds out of the freezer.

[4 hours]

Projecting

This machine is an Opaque Projector. You put a page of paper or a book or a photo into it and it projects the image. Usually onto a screen. But I wanted to put an image onto an 11 x 14 inch board.

I got the image transferred, but because I had to draw vertically, it was quite awkward to do.

In previous years I used an "Art-O-Graph" -- at my place of employment -- that projected onto a horizontal surface. That was the way to go! But due to some over-enthusiastic spring cleaning tidying-up of the place of employment, the Art-O-Graph was thrown out! The Art-O-Graph, honestly, wasn't used that often, so it's no great loss to anyone at work. Boo-hoo for me, however.

The opaque projector I used this year was rescued from a school by one of my co-workers. (Wonder if anyone there is bemoaning its disappearance?)

Cool, but probably not what I'll use next time around. I'll probably go back to carbon paper or even the old-fashioned grid system.

In any case, the design is on the board. Time to get painting.

[2 hours]

Pulling together pieces

Took a photo of the TV screen.


Pasted a Festal can into the TV photo.


Drawing over the photos -- simplifying and arranging. Plus adding in a version of the Grand Theft Auto logo.
Now to get this on a board. I'll probably simplify it a little more as I go along. There are lots of details in there. I'll be treading a line between enough detail to make it look right simple enough so I can get this thing done before the deadline.

[4 hours]

Crop art time of year

When the temperature and the humidity are way up, I get that old seed-pasting feeling.

The deadline for the Minnesota State Fair's Crop Art Exhibit/Competition is looming.

I have ideas, but I haven't done anything with them yet. But if I am going to get anything into the Fair this year, now is the time to act.

This blog will be a record of my crop art progress. Stop back between now and the end of August 2008 to see if I have gotten anything done.

If you want to look at finished crop art from years past, click over to the mothership, cropart.com. Lots of finished crop art there to see, plus info on how-to and stuff.

If you are interested in entering in this year's State Fair, there's time. The registration deadline is Friday, August 8 and the art is due to be delivered to the Fairgrounds on Monday, August 18.

Click over to mnstatefair.org to register on line and for rules.