Painting the Ditch Dragons – step by step

It’s been years since I’ve completed a ‘painting’ in this way, so I took a series of photographs as I painted the Ditch Dragons that I showed you in the previous post. I say ‘painting’ in inverted commas because it is part painting part drawing, and this is probably the main reason I stopped using this technique – I find the classification ‘mixed media’ curiously irritating because it could mean anything at all, and seldom is any further information given. And it slightly offends my purist nature. But it works, and it is a technique I invented for myself, though…

How to apply gold leaf to paper – part 1

I took some step-by-step photos of this ‘gold fairy’ as I did her. Couldn’t say I’m an expert gilder, but I have had a bit of practice by now and I’ve learnt one or two things, so I thought I’d write a little explanation for anyone interested. Here (below) is the outline drawing. The circle is to be entirely gilded. To gild on paper you need to stick the gold on with something. ‘Gold size’ is what the proper glue is called that the gold leaf is stuck on with, but the actual sort of gold size you use depends…

The blue underpainting

It’s all paperwork for a few days, so, having no artwork to show you, I thought I could still add to my ‘how to do stuff” series of the painting techniques I use. The techniques I developed for myself, so I don’t know if these all these techniques have a proper name – I am simply showing you how I do it! Feel free to leave a comment if you use a similar technique, if you have anything to add, or just if you feel like it! The Principle This technique of blue underpainting forms the beginning of most of…

How to stretch watercolour paper… properly.

I’m a professional artist, and I often get asked how I do stuff. This post is one of a series I intend to put up, in which I thought I would share some working techniques. I do not claim to be an expert in most things I do, and I am generally self-taught, but I have been doing what I do for some years and I’m happy to share my experience with any who are interested. In this post I will to show you how to stretch paper… properly. And how you can sometimes rescue it if it goes wrong….