12 Stone Art Is Launching on Tuesday, January 16.
12 Stone Art commissions unique Christian artwork from top artists and makes giclée prints available from our online store. Each month a new piece will be commissioned and made available to our customers. Each giclée is individually printed to the customer’s specifications and is available on a variety of museum-quality printing materials and in several popular sizes.
A Big Thank You to All of Our Beta Testers!
Thanks to all those who participated in the beta over the weekend. It went very well and it appears the site is a hit. We are working on a few remaining items that we want to get into the initial release, but plan to allow everyone to access the site first thing Tuesday morning. We hope to see you then!
New Artwork Available from Portland Studios
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 14, 2007
For those of you who have followed the work of Justin Gerard or Portland Studios, you may recognize two new pieces that we'll be adding to the store before launch. Portland Studios has graciously allowed us to make “To Chain the Beast” and “Christian and Apollyon” available through our store.
“To Chain the Beast” was featured in Spectrum 11, a collection of the best fantasty-themed artwork of the year. Justin painted the piece to illustrate the epic moment from Scripture when the angel binds the dragon — symbolizing Christ’s defeat of evil demonic forces. “Christian and Apollyon” illustrates the battle between the Christian and Apollyon in John Bunyan’s classic allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Nehemiah and the Wall: Pass 7
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 12, 2007
Justin sent me the latest version of his Nehemiah piece this morning. It’s almost there - we’ll be adding it to the gallery for sale next week.
Nehemiah and the Wall: Pass 6
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 12, 2007
Nehemiah and the Wall: Pass 5
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 12, 2007
Nehemiah and the Wall: Pass 4
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 12, 2007
Nehemiah and the Wall: Digital Sketching
Posted by Justin Gerard on January 12, 2007
In this piece I knew immediately, as i read the passage, that I wanted to do something with a low horizon and with a massive skyscape. There is something so awesome about ruins at twilight. In 2002 I wandered around the middle of England and got to see dozens of ruined abbeys, castles and cathedrals. One night I even slept on the grass in the chapel of one called Llanthony Priory. There was no ceiling or floor to the old church anymore. I sat there staring up at the moon and watched bats flying out from the arches above until morning. I have always loved ruins.
The Good Samaritan: Assembled
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 9, 2007
Chris’ Good Samaritan is beginning to take shape. I’m very excited to see how this one will be finished. Nice work Chris!
The Good Samaritan: Pieces for Collage
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 7, 2007
Chris sent me this photo of some of the pieces for the Good Samaritan artwork. Each will be individually painted and assembled in a collage then finished digitally. This is going to be a powerful piece.
The Good Samaritan: Composition
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 6, 2007
Nehemiah and the Wall: Final Sketch
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 4, 2007
Justin sent me a sketch of his next piece tonight. It’s going to be epic. The ruins and the sky will be accentuated by the 2:1 wider landscape format. He is painting some of it tomorrow, so there should be more to see early next week.
Nehemiah and the Wall: Initial Sketch
Posted by Timothy Gray on January 4, 2007
February’s Theme Selected
Posted by Timothy Gray on December 26, 2006
While I was in Greenville for Christmas, I met up with Justin at Barnes & Noble to show him some of the latest test prints I had been making. We were both very excited about the quality of the prints and can't wait to see what everything will look like once the artwork is complete.
We also took the time to discuss the theme for our next commission. Justin is going to begin developing the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. The big moody sky and the ruins of Jerusalem had Justin a little giddy, and I can see why. This piece has a lot of potential and I know he’ll do it justice. I’ll be posting some sketches shortly.
Testing, Testing, Testing
Posted by Timothy Gray on December 24, 2006
I’ve been getting our printing process and workflow perfected and am pretty excited with what I’ve done so far. This new printer really is amazing. I ordered all the highest-quality printing substrates I could get my hands on and have been whittling it down to the ones I feel comfortable backing with our 100% satisfaction guarantee. We have two options that we are very happy about — the Hahnemühle Smooth Fine Art Paper and the HP Professional Matte Canvas. Both are outstanding! We're currently looking for a high-quality textured fine art paper and a satin canvas. If you know of any that are particularly good, drop me a line.
Update
I’ve located some materials that I think will work very well indeed. The Mercedes of paper, Hahnemühle, has some beautiful papers in their premier FineArt line that we’re going to test. I’ve ordered their FineArt canvas, Torchon 285, Photo Rag® Bright White 308 and German Etching 310. I’ll post my findings as soon as I’ve tested them thoroughly.
Red Sea: Pass 4
Posted by Justin Gerard on December 23, 2006
Red Sea: Oil
Posted by Justin Gerard on December 19, 2006
Red Sea: Final Sketch
Posted by Justin Gerard on December 16, 2006
The Good Samaritan: Composition
Posted by Timothy Gray on December 14, 2006
Red Sea: Sketch
Posted by Justin Gerard on December 14, 2006
This is the rough sketch. I am going to be doing the final sketch at 11×15.5. My plan is to transfer that from sketch paper to a printout at 100% size and then glue this down to a board with gel medium. Then I intend on working through the piece in oils and then finishing it digitally.
Red Sea: Color Comp
Posted by Justin Gerard on December 14, 2006
This is the initial color comp for the crossing the red sea piece. Overall this will probably look pretty surreal. I’ve always absolutely loved the underwater exhibits at sea world and Ripley’s aquariums. There is something amazing about them, you feel like you are in a place that humans were simply never meant to go. You can see it in the Parrotfishes faces. They also know you shouldn’t be there and if they could get through that glass they would eat you. The sharks on the other hand, are all too well fed to care.
Anyway, unless a horde of angry zealots storm the studio within the next day or so I am going to be painting the background much like you see here. The astute viewer will notice the whales in the background, which is a nod to the Prince of Egypt film, which did a fantastic job with this story.
The main focus of this scene will be the peoples faces though. I really want to explore the attitudes and expressions of the Isrealites. On the left you see people who are worried and nervous looking. People in doubt, but then in the middle you have a child silhouetted in front of the whales and ocean. He is in awe at God’s power. On the far right there is a hopeful and joyous mother and her child. beyond that though we have one guy who is looking distraught and pointing backward. Maybe he sees the Egyptian army approaching, or maybe he thinks they should all go back. I want to stress in the image that these aren’t perfect people. That most of these people are complaining, bickering and skeptical. The point is that God saved us in spite of ourselves.