Here is my lastest quickie build…a sign for ice in the desert. Inspired by the drive-by photos from the early 60s by people like Henry Wessel and Ed Ruscha.
May I suggest some roadside debris? Cans, shredded old tire, paper, etc.?
SST
Thanks for the suggestion. The type of image I was working from is this:
I wanted to keep the desolate isolated feel to it, and to highlight the irony of offering, not just water, but ice, in the desert. The debris is a good thought, but not for this particular dio.
Get a grip man[alien]
I have one i plan on doing, very similar, that is a desolate stretch of road with a sign stating "nothing for the next 22 miles’'.
Would be a good canidate for humor or misc. catagory.
David
to get a more desolate mood,the scene should be bigger or the sign smaller. As it is,its too small to convey the vastness of the open desert or the irony of ice being available there. I dont get “thirsty” when I look at it or feel “heat” coming from it. and it is true that one,small piece of dessicated,faded human trash would add to it. After all,the sign is man made. I do like your dios of “still life” and such. They are refreshing and well built. keep up the good work
Normally I think that you excell in your execution of your ideas vespa boy, but here I think you missed the mark.
I would suggest that the impact and irony of the photograph is evident because of the fact that you can see the vastness of space around the sign–something not possible with any realism in a dio.
I think that what I would do to convey this sense would be to make a sun-broiled road surface bisecting the bottom 1/4 of the dio, with dust/sand washing over it and the sign in the sand to the side. YOu might even want to stick in a small piece of desert vegetation or dare I say a small lizard to impute the sense of being in a desert. Otherwise you’re just looking at a sign stuck in a bed of sand that could be anywhere.
Or–and here’s maybe a stretch for you–could you get a skull and work it into the scene? A cow’s skull or, dare say, even human?
BODGE–I’m sure this is the first time you’ve seen vespa’s very unique “Diorama’s”, but look a couple of them up in the “Search” feature; he’s really quite amazingly talented!
I like it…not sure you nailed the texture of the sand quite right, however…I was born in New Mexico and lived in Nevada for awhile so I have seen these things (before I was sent to the Eastern front)…to me, the most satisfying aspect is the shadow of “ICE” on the ground…not your best, but interesting…
Thanks for your comments and feedback. It really is appreciated, and its good to have constructive feedback about ones successes and failures, as well as suggestions about how to overcome them. The only defence I have for this is that it was fun to build something quickly and not too deeply researched, like an out of the box project.
Bodger: I’m entirely sure I understand your comment, so its not too helpful at the moment. Can you please explain it a little more.
Manny: This is the first time I’ve modelled something that I have not seen myself and the shortcoming in texture and colour is apparent. Modelling from a B&W photo is a challenge that many dio builders face in every project, and a very difficult one at that. The shadow was the primary focus for me. Glad you liked that point.
Doog: Thanks for the vote of confidence!
Vespa boy: Great dio! I really like these original ideas that challenge the conventions of diorama building, i.e. a high level of realism and details and historical accuracy (I like thoses dios too).
At first I thought that the gray groundwork was supposed to resemble the surface of the moon, which made the diorama so much more surreal. [:D] Doog’s idea of putting a little lizard on the the dio is good one. Minimalism rules!
/Tony aka bultenibo
My message in a joking way and definately not a negative way was i thought you had lost the plot , or maybe this was a joke post.I do agree with Doogs comments and yes Doog i have seen some earlier work and yes Vespa boy you have got some serious talent i just posted a non serious comment[%-)][swg]
Dude! Another fine and trippy piece. That whole shadow effect is very cinematic.
The previous comments are already very complete. Another addition I’d like to mention regarding the “sand”, maybe a finer grain and in wind blown wave pattern, like your source photo. And with a detail or effect defining dry and hot season in the desert. Here in California, the high desert in fact freezes in winter and looks very similar to this.
Very difficult to achieve the effect of that source photo within your signature diorama base scale sizes.
Your collection is growing rapidly. A gallery show of your work collection is in order for sure.
I agree with the doog, smaller sign or bigger ground [:)]
as for the sign itself, the first thing I thought of was more rust. {ok that was the second, the first was I think I’ve seen that sign before[:-^]
I wish I could find a picture of the old billboard that advertised a paddlewheeler crossing the “lake” of death valley now that is a funny one [swg]
vespa boy: Did you consider using forced perspective? Maybe taper an exaggated and bigger base to a “vantage point”. You could also exaggerate the length of the shadows by painting them elongated, like the photo, on the ground. I think that would add “vastness” to the desert imagery.
I picture the sign haveb been cut out of a piece of stainless steel (perhaps the side of an ice machine) so it didn’t even cross my mind that it needed rust…IMO…
Excuse my ignorance, but why “22 miles”? Nothing for 22 miles doesn’t exactly give a sense of desolation. Perhaps 222 miles???
I have to admit I’ve never been to the USA, so perhaps 22 miles between cultural features is a long way? Here in Australia, it’s not unusual to travel for 500km without seeing a structure or even a tree.
Geo: You’ve just pointed out the importance of location in dioramas. I remember a sign on the way to Broken Hill that said something like “No Petrol for 200km” The use of the word Petrol along with the kms tells me that the dio is in post '76 (metric) Australia. The style of the sign, the positioning of the sign on the LH side of the road, the red dirt etc would all add to that sense.
22 miles of desolation in the US is a very different style of desolation (but still very real) and can be shown in very different and subtle ways and be just as location specific. I like the absurdity of a sign saying that there is nothing…I bet a physicist would say that that a black hole was something, however the local govt that put up that sign doesn’t have a physicist or philosopher on staff!
Also the countries are approx the same size, but the populations very different Aus: around 20 mill, US 300 mill, so the distances between things are naturally larger in Australia.
"Manstein’s revenge"I picture the sign haveb been cut out of a piece of stainless steel (perhaps the side of an ice machine) so it didn’t even cross my mind that it needed rust…IMO…
I picture it like most all the signs in the California High Desert, I guess Vespa boy has done his job well if we all see a different “mental” picture of his work and generate this much positive feedback [#toast]
like I said, I am SURE [:-^] I have seen it before, of course I think I tripped over the curb he modeled a while back [swg]
I said what I did because I know that Vespa is too smart (based on his previous works)to leave plain 'ol metal out w/ no sign of corrossion…if you look close you can even see the torch marks where the letters were cut out of the metal…
Very very perceptive Manny…you are bang on. There is another print from the 70s that I had in the back of my mind when doing this dio. This one is by Robert Cottingham
