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…

Mezzotint on aluminium: Percy Cat

I had another play with the mezzotint rocker yesterday, with a proper sketch first and everything. I took some photos as I went along, but I’m not going to explain the ‘rocking’ process in much detail as you can see that on this post of a few weeks ago. A cross-over has occurred between my two blogs – the drawing that this mezzotint is based on is one of my cat-of-the-day sketches. The printing plate is aluminium and is cut to the same size as the prints I have made into coasters. For a while I have thought that the…

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….

Escher’s Crackers: part 3, Escher vs Pollock

So… now I have all the blue under-painting done it’s time to fill in with some actual colour. But what colour? This is not really a scene in involving fairies, more of a geometric arrangement. Hypothetical, Escher-like fairies. With crackers. So I feel that going too far towards painting them in natural colours will be counter-productive. I am thinking more of painting them basically pale like the ‘Nacreous Fairies‘ two paintings ago. The white, however, was a bit overpowering of the blue under-painting, so I’m painting them with ‘Naples Yellow’ a kind of pale yellowy-browny-buff colour that I use a…

More on Ricinus Communis, the Fairy of the Castor Bean Plant

I will have to put this painting aside for a week, and so this is just a quick post to show you as far as I got yesterday… Here was the painting straight after its hosing down in the shower: At this point, a painting always looks a bit harsh, so I have tended to go over part of it with several colour washes with very translucent paints (some of the watercolours can be better than gouache for this, but the opacity of any paint varies from pigment to pigment and some of the gouache paints also work). The way…

Start of a painting: Ricinus Communis, the fairy of the Castor Oil Plant

The third of the Poison Flower Fairies is under way! For the initial sketch and photos of the castor oil plant itself, and all about this slippery character and its deadly toxin, look back at this post: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/sketches-for-the-poison-flower-fairies-ricina-maligned-and-usually-innocent/ Actually this fairy should be called Ricina, not Ricinus, being female, so I’m not quite sure of the proper title of this painting yet. If I call it ‘Ricina Communis…’ I think people and google will assume I don’t know the proper name of the plant. Hmm… Anyway, I have begun the painting. This is the drawing laid out neatly on stretched…

Progress on the Poison Flower Fairies: Monkshood

So… I have managed to begin painting the first of the Poison Flower Fairies. I had this idea back in about August of last year, collected many photographs as the flowers came into season, finally worked up some sketches in January and I have at last begun to put actual paint on actual paper, seven months later… The sketch for this one appeared in this blog entry: https://nancyfarmer.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/sketches-for-the-poison-flower-fairies/ …so, straight into painting. Here is the picture drawn out and the tones put down in Prussian Blue. This is all gouache paint, except for occasionally where it’s watercolour. This is under-painting…