Skip to main content

Practice with Paint

My latest effort is based on a painting of Josephine, Crown Princess of Sweden, by Joseph Stieler done sometime between 1781 and 1858.  My work took a few days from start to finish.  

The project is a painting (instead of coloring shapes in with Sharpie markers) using my latest technique while testing a new substrate and new paint.  So it took more time.  The substrate was Bienfang Bristol Drawing paper coated with one layer of Matte Medium. The paint was FolkArt Matte Acrylic Paint. Some embellishments were done with a gold Sakura Pen Touch marker and black Pentel PointLiners (0.3mm and 0.5mm).

Overall, I like the piece though it has less color intensity than the other pieces I've done recently with the markers.  It also looks much less busy (maybe due to the single-color border on the top and sides). 

About the test, I'm not a fan of Bienfang Bristol Drawing paper (see Note below).  The black Sharpie used to draw the initial image and curvy lines on the coated version of the paper--skipped and its marks were inconsistent.  

As for the paints, the FolkArt acrylics do dry matte, but they went on more translucent.  So, a minimum of two coats were needed for most colors to get opaque coverage.  That increased the time the piece took to complete in addition to the drying time needed between layers and color mixing, etc.  In a few areas, I used Golden fluid acrylics in combination with the matte paints for color mainly.  But it caused the paint to be a bit glossy, and I prefer a matte appearance.   


I continue exploring substrates and color media to find the mix that I like best to use regularly.  I've started a spreadsheet to track the various combinations and my observations.  

Note:  I also tried Bienfang Bristol Drawing paper without a coating as a substrate while working with Sharpie markers, and there was visible bleed-through on the back.  The paper will probably work very well for other purposes.  So, if you're interested in it--make sure you test it for yourself to determine if it works for your purposes.  This paper product just doesn't work in the way I want it to.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fabric Basket - Pretty Easy

This basket was made in Jane Hall's half-day course at IQF 2014.  The greatest amount of time involved in making it--was cutting and sewing the strips together.  Otherwise, it went together easily and quickly (3 hours). These baskets are a great holiday gifting idea that you can match to family and friends' home decoration color schemes.  They're fun and useful besides.
Post a Comment
Read more

Highjacked Blog Photo

My profile photo was highjacked ! For those of you who are blogging, be wary. There are some unscrupulous folks out there who may be using or about to use a photo(s) you've uploaded to an online photo-hosting site. At the time I created a blog, having a URL for a photo uploaded online was the only way to insert a photo in your profile or to create a custom header. There had been no problems for a long while. This morning, however, I did a Google image search for my name and found my photo linked to a totally different blog than my own! It is possible I didn't mark my file with the online photo-hosting site as private, but I didn't expect this to happen. I don't know whether marking it private would have actually averted the situation, but I'm not waiting to find out. I eliminated my membership to that online photo-hosting service today and caution anyone to be careful with uploading images to the internet . If you read the terms of agreement at many sites, you'...
Post a Comment
Read more

Zine Selections - Fun with Copy Paper

Creating zines is one of my ways of 'stealing' a great idea...from Austin Kleon, author of the book titled 'Steal Like an Artist'.  As he would say, imitation is flattery, and I certainly got the zine bug from him (that he, in turn, got from someone else)! Those pictured below are examples of the zines I've made from white copy paper...yes, the kind you buy in reams at the office supply store.  Some are theme-related (e.g. 5 Senses, Reconnection), others are book notes (e.g. about Jo Van-Gogh Bonger and her role in Vincent's rise to art fame), still others are inward-looking (The Wintering of Seeds, Goals, etc.).  The sky's the limit.  They can be anything you can imagine!   I really enjoy making zines including the internet research I may do about particular subjects.  But zines don't have to take long to make, and absolutely no research is needed to create one.  Plus they make clever gifts for holidays or as thoughtful messages of 'I'm thinking...
Post a Comment
Read more