Art-Faux.com

Posts Tagged ‘tromp l oeil’

After getting side tracked once again I was still able to get quite a bit accomplished in such a short period.

With the install of the vinyl lettering silhouetting the Art-Faux Designs Studio Mural, the front view is starting to take shape.

A special thank you goes out to

Dave Horton of Dave Horton Advertising

for his contribution of the vinyl signage and all his help to see that my dream of an open studio for all artists young and old comes true and anyone wishing to help can also contact us at 239 417 1888.

Go here to read about my dream

We are located at Bonita Commons 25987  Ste.99 South Tamiami Tr. Bonita Springs Fl 34134

and are expecting to officially open by March 31st, 2010

Creating depth was needed for this limited reception area which was purposely designed this way to allow for the larger working studio/classroom area I am resorting to mural and trompe l’oeil techniques to give the illusion of space and openness  which will welcome all who come through these doors

Repainting and cleaning up the edges of the future landscape areas have already started to make a difference. The facade of Art-Faux Designs Studio Mural is nearing completion except for some final detailing and distressing which will be done after the blocking in of the mural area

The air return vent was the biggest issue from this view and with the facade nearly complete and after adding another feature I have planned it should pull the eye away from the vent for the most part…..what’s that you say? ….what feature? ….lol…I guess you will have to sign up for my newsletter to stay informed when my next post comes out so you don’t miss it , It will be very cool though ….trust me!  Remember… not only have I been painting a long time, I have also learned many things from the best in the business and have been known to pull a few things of my own out of my dusty hat of “tricks of the trade” or should I say “trompe l’oeil” of the trade

Finalizing the trompe l’oeil molding will be one of the last steps I’ll do once the mural is in place. I may bring more molding onto the columns but wont make that decision until the mural is nearly complete. Working a design on the “fly” is not something I would recommend for anyone because the study is actually where you work out the details and make changes, but being this is on short notice……

….. lets just say I have no fear and leave it at that…..

As you can see I have a few mural problems to challenge me here and as always “trompe l’oeil to the rescue” is my motto. I actually have 4 issues here,  obviously the duct work is one, the 2nd one is the door, the third is the cast shadow ON the door, and the fourth obviously, is the hardware which is an easy fix, but there is one other that is bothering me and I am going to have to break a rule and whip out my artistic license in this case, can you guess what it is? I know you pro’s out there can spot it right away from this view and from the actual viewing point you don’t even see it. Remember a 20 ft mural is to be viewed from 35 ft and this space is only 12 ft deep

The mural itself is designed to attract viewers from outside the studio…..

This is a work in progress and I hope to have Art-Faux Studio Mural close to being completed by the end of March for a soft opening for which I originally had scheduled for January in time for season. Due to the delays that were beyond my control I have now missed most of the seasonal residents and

I will resume my monthly seminars at

The Miromar Design Center

formerly known as

The International Design Center (IDC) in Estero Fl.

Saturday, April 3rd 2010

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

I will also be holding seminars at

Art-Faux Designs

new studio location at

Bonita Commons

25987 Ste. 99  South Tamiami Tr.

Bonita Springs Fl. 34134

on a monthly basis and will announce the dates in my monthly newsletter

which you may sign up for below

We are finally in and are now getting ready for the opening!

Yes I know, the construction delays have been horrendous to say the least, but as of a couple of weeks ago they gave me the “O.K.”

So now I will work as hard as I can to regain some of the lost time.

This weekend was very productive for me because I was able to get the basis of the new studio mural project started, and I must say for an old guy I even impressed myself and was able to get all of the trompe loeil architecture features laid out on this 20′ x 14′ wall and the first coat of base paint applied. I am going to blog this with progress posts to document the procedure for my current and future clients so they can get familiar with some of the steps involved

Being that I limited the space on the reception area to only a small area in order to have as much working studio space as possible, I had already planned to create the illusion of  space through the use of trompe loeil and landscape murals. The east and west walls will adorn more trompe loeil in the form of marble and wood panels with some ornamental designs.

As you can see there are a few problem areas that have to be worked into the concept which is really no problem at all once you have a plan of attack, but in this case I am working on the fly with this because I have no time to spend on renderings if I plan to be open by the end of March.

I work well under pressure and sometimes I even amaze myself when I have to be creative in situations like these. Two of the problems like the return air vent and the double doors leading into the class room I have already remedied and will hide these within the mural project. The A.C. duct I am still thinking about. The “kick plates” are really an eye sore but I am not allowed to paint these ……but now that I think about it they didnt say anything about removing it though lol

Being that its tight quarters I am forced to do the best I can with the Sony camera I have to get the shots necessary shots to show the progress.

Tomorrow I plant to get the color and over glaze done accomplished so I can move on to the trompe loeil…….

It seems I just cant get away from the trompe loeil work for hand painted furniture, but you know I love this kind of work especially when I have the time available to do my own thing. I was introduced to yet another Interior Designer from one of my vast array of contacts that I have built up over the last couple of years as a result of  my “Gonzo Networking” as I like to call it named so after one of my favorite writers Hunter S. Thompson who was a well known author and a controversial journalist of the 60’s on up until his demise a couple of years back. This type of networking just proves  that you should do this everyday no matter what  shortfalls the economic conditions throw at us, but I will go into these kind of things on my new blog that I am getting ready to launch on marketing for artist as well as some ways to make some additional income during times like these

But for now here’s couple of pics of a hand painted furniture piece with some ornamental trompe loeil in a french country style

The design and layout was all hand painted with an orange gold metalic to compliment the french blue

This is a better shot to get an idea of the kind of depth that can be created with a simple design and a little trompe loeil

I personally like hand painting projects like these because of the authentic look you end up with.  It gives the piece a much higher quality end result than using a stencil design. It’s Not that there’s anything wrong with stencils I just prefer  not to use them on furniture which gives you the freedom of designing your own unique touch

With the opening of the new studio simple techniques such as this one will be taught at the new location in Bonita Springs. I have just received the Certificate of Occupancy and am in the process of getting everything in order to have a nice opening , Sign up for our newsletter to keep updated on all of our events that will be coming very quickly

I thought I would post the final results of the recent cabinet faux finish that I completed last week. As you all know my favorite kind of finish and art is trompe leoil and I will always jump at the chance of painting it no matter how challenging the design. The lay out and design comes pretty easy to me being that I have studied most of this in school during all my drafting and blue print making days. All my perspective education was taught in my younger years in school and was one of the first things we learned in art classes was the importance one point, two point, atmospheric perspective and many more.

At 12 years old I designed and built my very first gun cabinet for my grandfather and at 13 I built a grandfather clock for my mother out of cherry they were both bigger than I was lol

Being that we had no money for college and coming from a hard working blue collar family I soaked up every ounce of education that was offered to me through school until I finally had to go to work at 16, and I am still that way today

Of course I am not 16 any longer but I do crave knowledge and learning and at this point of my life I find myself teaching more and more of what I have learned over the last 30 plus years.

So with that being said I am in the process of opening a new studio in Bonita Springs Fl which is will be an open working studio but I will also be having classes of many different art forms from decorative to fine art and may even have some sculpting and carving classes. At any rate there will be lots of fun and activity at the location with not only Art-Faux Designs but also with other businesses in the building working under a coop situation

Sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop for classes, seminars, demos and also our

New Studio

Opening in February

Oh yeah! I love this combination!

Even though the current trends of today

are on modern and contemporary designs where there doesn’t seem to be a lot of the traditional  or

“Old World Faux”

There is a combination of the two in what seems to be a new trend that I have seen coming into play as of late to where

Interior Designers are combining the two where the old meets the new

So in order to experiment with this combination, a friend of mine Craig Lebeau of Studio West in Naples Fl had a cabinet built to see what we could come up with to reflect this combination where

“Old Meets The New”

Now these are only the progress pictures that I have so far but as you can see the cabinet has straight sharp lines as in the modern/contemporary look, but with some old world embellishments this prototype is really starting to take on a characteristic all its own and actually  has a very unique look.

If this finish looks familiar to most of you, well you are correct. It is my

“Trompe Loeil Foil”

finish which I developed not long ago that keeps on selling and selling and selling…….

As a matter of fact I still have this finish available on DVD in my

“How to Faux” “Amazing Accents”

video series on the upper right of this page or by

this link here

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