Now i know you’ve all heard of a king’s ransom but have you ever heard of a clown’s ransom? Probably not and that’s because no one’s ever paid one. Who would?
That said no is quite sure where the term came about. Was it when a clown got kidnapped and a ransom demand was given but instead of paying they just let the clown get it? Or as some others postulate a clown once kidnapped a poor soul but when the clown asked everyone for a ransom they thought it was a joke and carried on with their day. Neither story ends well so i’m not really sure what the moral is. I’ll let you work it out for yourself.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: A clown’s ransom
Materials: Paint pen, acrylic, and charcoal
Size: A4
Who’d a thunk it? Before he donated it to a Texas museum back in 2014 Phil Collins had the largest collection of Alamo memorabilia in private hands including Davy Crockett’s fringed bullet pouch and Jim Bowie’s legendary knife. Apparently he’d been obsessed with the Battle of the Alamo since watching something about Davy Crockett on TV when he was a kid and then indulged himself once he’d made some moolah as an adult. Today’s out of context quote is Collins’ reply to reports belittling him for his supposed belief that he was at the Alamo in another life.
Anyway, I’ve juxtaposed his quote with a wide eyed young lady who looks a bit like a clown. Once you’ve liberally sprinkled a few pilfered logos in and adorned it with a green & yellow background then you’re good to go with another successful ‘No context required’ piece. It’s laser engraved on wood then hand painted and stands proud at 39 x 26cm. Drop us a line if you’re interested…
Can you name a female clown? You have 5 seconds. I didn’t think so. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to the you Splat the Clown . Here we have Splat’s serene clown face in profile. In yet another male dominated profession she has risen to the top by the sheer force of her tomfoolery and pratfalls. Her aim with a custard pie is nothing short of exceptional but, like everyone, she occasionally needs a little down time to recharge and here she is in a rare moment of repose before her trademark toothy grin comes back into play.
Does this make any sense? Have I been drinking again? Who knows. Tune in tomorrow for more of the same…
I’ve said before that i don’t like clowns. It’s difficult for me to say why I’ve drawn a few of them. Maybe i’m trying to face my demons. This one seems cheerier than most but don’t be fooled…
He’s a generous A2 in size and is made using the magic of acrylic paint, chalk, watercolour, and paint pen. Signed on reverse.
So it is about that time of year when we grab our gear, jump in the id-iomobile and head to Bristol to take part in UPfest. Despite not having a design until Wednesday we managed to pull our collective finger out and get everything ready in time for an early morning departure on Saturday. After registering we found our spot in grounds of the Tobacco Factory and set to work.
As ever we like to take our time and building up the background took up most of the afternoon. Then, finally, it was time to get the big stencil up to be coloured in and to affix the lettering to the wall. Which is when we had a small crisis due to my complete incompetence at carpentry but after crying for help we eventually managed to get hold of a electric drill/screwdriver and get the lettering fixed to the wall.
This year’s design was based on a picture of a friend (original picture below). She doesn’t know it yet and I hope she likes it as we’ve gone for a looser, sketch style stencil.
So here’s the picture i was talking about in the last post which i’ve now managed to finish with no thanks to those pesky zombie drums…
As you can tell this picture has a clown in it. I think this might be my fourth picture with a clown in it and despite the fact I think i’ve been doing them as some form of therapy I still don’t like them, not one stinking bit. Have you seen the film ‘It’? OK, ignore the last bit in the film where it turns into a big useless spider that gets defeated by an earring but all the bits before that are scary as hell. This clown is only a juvenile though so isn’t as scary as he could possibly be but i’m sure he could still give you quite a fright if he popped out at a surprise birthday party. That said he looks a little depressed which means he would probably be sat by the bar getting drunk anyway and i’m sure as you walk passed to go to the toilet all you would hear him mutter is ‘And so you call me happy…’
Cheers
id-iom
FOR SALE
Title: And so you call me happy
Media: Spraypaint and acrylic
Size: 1m x 1m canvas
After an excellent (but somewhat tiring) Glastonbury it’s back down to earth with a bump. No better way to get the juices flowing again than finding a wall and applying some paint. For ‘Ol blue eyes’ we thought we’d go for a slightly different style of stencil and see what comes of it. I’m quite pleased with the end result and the fact that despite that he’s smiling there is a certain menace to it. This all seems to add up to me as i’m sure i have a slight case of coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and the picture is based on a photograph of a statue of a clown’s head. It turns out they are pretty evil after all…
Well, it’s true! Nobody does like a sad clown. Clowns are contradictory enough as it is with their fake smiles and cheery alcoholics’ red noses. You don’t need one crying (even if it is a little girl) just to sour the milk further. I, for one, have never really liked clowns. Lion tamers – yes! Contortionists – yes! Trapeze artist – yes! Clowns – NO! But maybe that’s just me.
Anyway we had found a spare wall so thought we’d give some freehand a little go. Now whilst i’m not entirely happy with the outcome i’m not totally dismayed either. Hopefully we’ll be moving onto bigger and better things. Eagle eyed readers will spot my attempted freehand bit of lettering in the girls hair – which looked a lot worse before we went over it! It looks kind of neat there…
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