This could be fun! I should preface this with the statement that you do not need to be coming to the meet to participate. There's a link to a "vector download" above the image below.
As y'all should know by now, we're going to have some hdu panels here at the Sandcastle meet (April 25-27) for our guest's blasting and carving pleasure. Anyone wanting to make a dimensional panel to take home as a souvenir will have the opportunity...hdu panels, sandblast stencil and paint provided by our sponsors, and a pro sandblaster on site to blast the panels for you...how special is that?
I've layed out a design for you to use at the meet, but you can, of course, design your own. (There will be alot goin on at the meet, and we figured that more people might participate in making a blasted panel if we provided a predesigned cuttable layout.)
As I was finishing up this design, I started to add some colors before posting it here. That was when this oddball thought came to me that we could have a pre-meet 'coloring contest". This is just for fun...no trophies...but might be fun. PLEASE...NO WAGERING! Click the link below to download an AI 3.0 file of the artwork, open or import it into your favorite design program, (or you can download and color the jpeg for your painting program) and play around with a color scheme. If you want to convert your colored version to a jpeg and post it here, that might be a nice break from this weekends' BB BS for all of us!
Inlines, outlines, airbrush fades, gilding, carving....go nuts with it!
The black sections are theoretically the blasted areas, but don't have to be. For those that are planning to come to the meet, this will give you an opportunity to think up something cool to do with your hdu panel before you get here. Could be that you want to change some elements around, substitute some cooler fonts, etc., as well as get a head start on your color scheme. If you do decide to change the layout for your meet blasted panel, save it to a floppy or CDR and bring it along. We'll have plenty of sandblast stencil here to cut onsite. (Cheryl has Inspire software, so AI 3 will import fine.)
The HDU panels at the meet will be (edited post--different size from first post--> 12"x24"), in case you want to design something different from the "official" layout. (Don't worry about hurtin my feelings...I'd love to see some more takes on this theme!)
No age limit here....if your kids wanna play with the colors, that's great, too!
If you've ever regretted not drawing the turtle on the back of the matchbooks to see if you "might qualify to be a real art student" , here's your chance at redemption!
[ April 06, 2003, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Purple, lavendar, tan and red???? Surely you guys can do better than this? Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Posted for Stevo Chartrand.....
"My name is Stevo Chartrand. Not sure if you have heard of me(I work for Signdog). I had a few minutes before the hockey game and played with some colors on your logo which I have attached."
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
Sorry Don, but I took an earlier suggestion you gave me, and am already working on a panel to bring down there.
Suggestion....simplify that design and make the small copy bigger. That looks nice and would be fun to color, but those small letters look to be about 3/16' high. Pretty tough for someone tring sandblasted foam for the first time. That foam is brittle when you try to do detail that small..........
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Jeff, I think you're probably right. I'll do that soon, or at least before the meet. As far as different....we're gonna have all those hdu blanks at the meet for people to blast, and I wanted to have something predesigned. Gonna be alot of stuff going on and not everybody likes to design 'on the spot'...so thought it would be good to have something done so anybody who wants to play can, without feelin rushed.
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
I agree with your plan Don, sounds good. I like the way you're always thinkin'. Ya gotta make it easier on the new sandblasters though...if it's too tough they'll never want to do another one. Where is the time going?....this meet is creeping up FAST!!
Let me know if I can bring anything...will be driving my work van.
Posted by Dana Bowers (Member # 780) on :
Ok... someone's gotta help me with this computery stuff...
I did the download and unzipped it. I tried to import it into my VE program... no go. So I tried to import it into Corel and it goes there, but all connected together. I tried ungrouping it, but when I tried to select, say, the outline, it gave me pieces of the outline.
So when I tried deleting the rectangle behind everything, it deleted a piece of the outline.
So I thought I would just try to export it as an .ai and .bmp, then open that in my VE Express.
The .ai wouldn't open at all and the .bmp would open, but most of the design was missing.
Now, remember guys, when you tell me how to do this, ya can't use any of those computereezey words and stuff, ok?
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
OK.....I made some minor changes to the design as Jeff suggested. Smallest letters (on the date) are 3/4", plus I removed a little of the detail. The OFFICIAL size is now 12"x24". The dimensions are now written in stone, as we have to order materials first of the week and have no HDU stretchers at Cher's shop.
If anybody has more ideas on improving the layout, feel free to post them here to give others some ideas and/or change them on your version that you bring to the meet. I won't be making any more changes to it myself, but wanted to make sure I got this chore out of the way.
One thing about a Letterhead meet...there is NO such thing as 'too many cooks ruinin' the stew'. Why is that, ya may ask?.......cause what's gonna happen, customer gonna fire us?! Live meets are our chance to try new things, sometimes with materials and techniques we've never used...without worrying about some fricken customer's budget or his nephews 'art'.
If you do want to change this design for your blasted panel, try to keep the outside shape/format, as we'll be bandsawing (is that a word???) the hdu to shape and there might not be many uncut rectangles when you get there. Or of course, you can bring some hdu with you if you'd like to do something larger.
Hopefully everybody will get involved in this project during the meet, and it should be neat to see so many variations on a theme.
[ April 06, 2003, 04:21 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Hahahahaaa....how about a purple one with gold leaf?
[ April 06, 2003, 08:05 PM: Message edited by: Si Allen ]
Posted by Bob Darnell (Member # 27) on :
Here's my take on it. Wish I could make it to the meet.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Wow! Some cool stuff so far.
Cheryl tells me that she wants to cut all the stencil in advance. Her 4B is only so fast. Unless somebody wants to volunteer a laptop/cutter combo they could haul here for the weekend, designs different from mine should be cut in advance and brought along.
If somebody does volunteer their equipment, I'll let ya know before the meet. If ya don't hear anything, we won't be able to cut 'custom' layouts...or at least not many.
Posted by John Deaton III (Member # 925) on :
Heres ol Johns color scheme. Your design will make cool blasted projects Don. Look forward to seeing them when the meet is over. Be sure and post. Wish I could be there. Posted by Steve Shortreed (Member # 436) on :
Damn Bob....now that's purdy. Amazing what some negative space and a panel can do.
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Judy Pate's version.....
[ April 08, 2003, 11:49 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
Posted by Cheryl Lucas (Member # 1656) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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, here's your chance at redemption! 
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