Apple Jack Chess board

[CitizenKate]

Here are some photos of my latest custom job, a Chess board design based on a movie theme.

The person who ordered it is an art director in the film industry. He created and directed a short movie titled Apple Jack, which won some film festival awards. You can see the IMDb profile on Apple Jack here.

The ominous little guy in the corners is a rendering of a mask made out of tree bark that is worn by the main character, a little boy named Jack. And I do mean little - I had to carve the corners almost under a microscope, and had to create a couple of my own custom stamps from nails to get into places my regular stamps were too big for, like the spaces around the eyes. I also had to create a crude custom stamp to do the film sprocket holes all around the border.

Clay - it may interest you to know that I ended up having to trace the corner artwork the "proper" way (with the artwork facing up and impressing the lines through the film with a pointed stylus), since I was unable to produce a clean line art version of the mask and transfer it my preferred way. I probably wouldn't have thought to try that if we hadn't had that discussion about transferring patterns awhile back. All these years, and I never caught onto that method! But it's handy to have it in this kind of situation.

Kate

[Billsotx]

What we got on our hands here is a toe to toe... with Mars! - Col. Helmut Jitters

You're quite the artist Kate! Real cool!

Edited February 18, 2007 by Billsotx

[Patrice]

As usual, your board is a piece of art!

[Regis]

Kate,

Very nice and particularly neat peice of artwork. Do you use dye or paint for the black? If dye, you've done extremely well to get the edges so consistantly straight.

Regis

[CitizenKate]

Regis,

Yes, that is black dye I used for the squares. I spray it on with an airbrush, with the squares masked off with painter's tape. The dye goes on gradually, in layers. I spray it on a little at a time for each pass until the area is fully saturated with color. The painter's tape really does a good job of keeping the dye just where I want it; the dye does not bleed under the tape. ...Not as long as you make sure the leather is nice and dry, that is. (School of Hard Knocks, lesson #322.)

Also, I buff the residue off before removing the mask. That helps keep it from smearing over the lines. (School of Hard Knocks, lesson #74.)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Hope to have more to post soon.

Kate

Do you use dye or paint for the black? If dye, you've done extremely well to get the edges so consistantly straight.

Edited February 21, 2007 by CitizenKate