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 Naked Masquerade: part 4 (finished!)

The Naked Masquerade is finished. Apologies for making you wait! I have been on holiday, and then I had some catching up to do… Here – finally – are a heap of photos. Usually a scan shows off my paintings better, but the scanner, while it’s great for showing detail in the painting, flattens out the gold leaf and does not do it justice. So, I apologise for the lack of sharpness in the details, I shall get this on the scanner and then on my website, one day… in the mean time, isn’t the gold shiny? 🙂 Painting in…

The Naked Masquerade: part 3

Work continues… all in Prussian Blue. There is not much more to say at this point, but I thought you might like to see a couple of photos:

The Naked Masquerade: part 2

Gilding and some extreme stopping out…. I have begun The Naked Masquerade (which may not be its final title) in earnest. I recall saying last time when I showed you the sketch that I had not quite decided how I was going to approach it – whether as a painting or an etching. Well the next day common sense sunk in and the bit of my brain that is in charge of delivering the message ‘You Have Got To Be Joking!’ as regards particularly stupid ideas, pointed out the sheer horror of undertaking All Of That as an etching. It…

Finally February arrives…

The final piece of my 2013 calendar is complete!  Not without slight mishap, I might add. I might have called this post ‘try to make each mistake only once’! First of all here is the drawing: I thought I would give it the same gold-and-silhouette treatment as the September one, partly because two drawings amongst a sea of paintings seemed better than one lonely one on its own, and partly because the drawing for March (coming after this one, as you would expect), has very pale figures with a dark background, so I thought it would be a nice contrast….

Finished Painting: “Vis-à-vis”… a masquerade in gold and orange

So, I finally finished the latest Masquerade painting: This painting is an absolute so-and-so to photograph in order to give you any idea of what it looks like in real life. So I have done my best with a lot of close-ups, but clicking on the images will also bring them up bigger so you can see them better. The colours are very subtle, which is hard to capture, but the main problem is that as you move, or the painting does, or the light source does, the gold leaf springs to life, sometimes much darker than the figures, sometimes…