After laying out the scales I thought it would help me to see if I was going to have the blue/orange color distribution and balance  laid out as  I intended, if I gave the background a light blue wash.

That was a good thing to do because it prompted me to add a few more scales in strategic spots. Here I am touching up.

Here I began the pencil layout of the scales on the snake's head and along its back to the tip of its tail, using a simple paper template.  At times I used two identical templates —one on each side — to assure that I was getting the formal balance I was wanted.

Originally the way I'd laid the paint down under its jaw gave the impression the snake was grinning. It reminded me of The Joker.  So like Batman, I decided to wipe the smile off its face and finish the underside of the jaw this way instead.

Now I can add the sipes that I talked about on Day 39.

A few words about materials.

The fiberglass sculpture was pre-primed by the manufacturer  but I found it necessary to add an additional layer of standard white gesso which accepted pencil layout.

A variety of my stashed acrylics in this compliment of colors are going to be used as base colors. I'll probably use a gel blending medium which allows two colors to blend seamlessly without drying out.  In order to achieve the high metallic sheen that I promised to deliver, Pearl Ex powdered pigments and Pearl Ex Micropearl shown in the pic,  will be mixed with clear varnish and used as a topcoat.  In the above photo to the left of the brush, you can see just how reflective Micropearl is. It'll be dazzling in sunlight!

Not quite so dazzling are the worn rhomboid sponges which I prepared to create the look of tire tread tracks. The grid is in 1" squares for those of you out there who always ask "how big".

I learned more about tread design, its obvious characteristics and upon closer examination, the relationship of its repeating patterns to each other than I'd have imagined possible. Who would have guessed that Tread Study in an Unbalanced Universe could be so interesting?

We name things so we can talk about them and identify each from the other. Can one of the experts at Dealer Tire fill in this anatomical void and tell me what those squiggly slits* in each block of raised tread are named? Do they add traction?  Direct water flow? 

Help! (E-mail me at clevelandartseast@earthlink.net.)

*Thanks and a tip-of-the-hat to all of you who came to my rescue!   Those squiggly slits are sipes and they do indeed direct water flow and add traction on wet pavement.  Thanks to Cindy Finke —the first of many professionals from Dealer Tire who generously made time to supply the info. 

Btw, Wikipedia says that siping was invented and patented by John F. Sipe in 1923. It's unclear whether he was a deckhand or a butcher. (Anybody?) Either way, Sipe stopped slipping by slicing the soles of his shoes. (Say that six times.) Siping tires was not widely adapted into the manufacturing process until the 1950's.

Sssssssss...

If it's going to happen at all, doubt creeps into production in the early stages of a project and I get a little anxious and wonder whether a design is going to work out as planned.

No matter how well executed on paper, applying a two dimensional design to a 3D object offers challenges.

Flexibility is generally the answer.

On Day 32 I turned that corner when a visitor to the studio stopped in his tracks and asked why in heaven's name I was painting tire tracks on a snake. Thanks Ted!

A week later I had sponged hundreds of those little tedious tread shapes all the way up to the snake's chin, and now I'm pleased and convinced that the design works. At this point I used a detail brush to square off the many rounded corners that sponging had left, and top coated the tread with a glossy sealer to protect it from accidental globs of flying paint and spills.

In the next few days I'll address the chin, and begin custom mixing paint for the orange and blue upper body. 

Veritas.

I like it.

For the first three days that the snake occupied my studio table —and I mean it REALLY occupied it— I sneaked around trying to find a way to approach the thing that didn't leave me feeling intimidated.

This piece is about 4 times the usual size I generally work with, and even Bob, the studio cat, sidestepped it with sidelong glances.

And there was that design change issue to deal with.  I decided after some experimentation on paper that the tire marks would look more genuine and be truer to the flavor of the original if I stayed with white on black.

At the end of Day 31, I had sketched in the dark area, cut a bunch of sponges into rhombic shapes (which incidentally, I lifted directly off a tire) and completed the first go 'round.

Submitted with the drawings in the proposal was the design's name and a descriptive paragraph, as follows:




                  BLUE RACER

What do you get when you take the common name of a real snake and see it through the lens of imagination?  With "Blue Racer" you get speed.  A deep metallic paint job.  A line of fiery orange tongues which race along its back. And at the finish line you get exactly what you waited to see: the checkered flag!