Here's a side view of my bas relief plaque....
As you can see it's like a large wafer with some thinly sliced cheese on it...and out of focus, of course!
Can you tell what it is yet?
Things are getting clearer now...
Rather spookily lit!
Yes, it's a chameleon!
I was nuts about them as a kid, and would stand watching them literally for hours (it takes that long for them to do anything) when I was visiting London Zoo with my dad (who no doubt was bored to tears, hoping for a dramatic crocodile escape to happen behind me or something. Hang on, he used to do train spotting when he was a kid. Well I guess that explains it then).
I would make sure to go on a Friday which was feeding day in the reptile house. Any other day and all you might see in the way of reptiles might be obscured patches of scales snoozing beneath logs or behind leaves. Reptiles can sleep for days.
Chameleons have been known to keep their heart rates elevated with an thrilling game of 'watching the paint dry' for as long as they can stand the excitement.
Then they have to calm down and take a rest.
Probably followed by some naps and an early night.
Originally I planned this plaque (which I made on a piece of 5" x 7" masonite) to go in a 5" x 7" frame, but I didn't like how shaded the top got pushed up inside the frame so I stuck it onto a 6" x 8" piece of masonite so the image area would poke forward from behind a bit more when installed in a 6" x 8" frame.
This will be cast in bronze and some will also be made in another more experimental way, which I'll elaborate on when it's been done and I have pics.
For now, I tweeked the photo in photoshop of it in a frame to see how it might look with a green patina just because I'm impatient that way!
Maybe it's a sea-sick chameleon heading around the Cape of Good Hope on Charles Darwin's 'Beagle'.
You can see this plaque finished if you click
HERE.
As for my recent
Kickstarter project, it's off to a flying start having got 94% of the required backing in less than a week!
Thanks backers!
And TX Cupcake, if you're out there, you've got until the end of Jan to claim your mouse prize!
