I painted the whole background a very dark brown. I chose brown so that any spots would look slightly stressed and add richness to the gold, otherwise it might have looked flat and opulent. When it was dry I painted a layer of Roberson's gold size. This size is brilliant for large flat areas of transfer gilding. Transfer gold can be bought as hard-pressed and it's impossible to get it off the backing paper (although maybe it works for varnishes in frame gilding). Mine is 23.5carat gold; … [Read more...]
Graphite Cartouches
The orchid paintings have all been scanned. However, whereas the cartouche looked okay as a small pencil title, it really does not enlarge well because:a) The cartouche was about 2-3cm in size on rough paper – so there was unacceptableclumsiness and wobbly lines.b) The light pencil marks were lost in translationc) An enlargement of the original size called for more spohisticated design workd) Designing a cartouche sitting on the beach is not my best! So each cartouche was redesigned at a larger … [Read more...]