Life Needs Art-Top 12 Instructional Posts

After over 430 posts and closing in on three years blogging, I figured it was time for a "best of" recap. Even though I hate most of those year end lists, I thought it might be helpful to new and long time followers alike to be able to revisit a few of my most popular posts. So, in no particular order are the posts that readers have found most helpful and/or have garnered the most hits.

1- Painting With Texture in Photoshop. This post explains how I create hand made textures, scan and then use them to paint digitally. This previous post also deals with the same topic.

2- Wyeth Shape Design Analysis. Here I break down what makes an N.C. Wyeth illustration from his Treasure Island series so successful.

3- 50 Thumbnails.  I explain the value, as Howard Pyle encouraged, of doing more (many more) exploratory thumbnail drawings than you think you might need.

4- Maintaining Tonal Zones. Here I describe how to keep the main masses of a painting distinct by isolating the values in their own zones.

5- Zorn Palette Exercise. Anders Zorn used a very limited palette to great effect. Here I describe how to try it yourself.

6- Master Illustrator Copy. I did a copy of a J.C. Leyendecker painting to explore what he did and why his work was so successful.

7- Eye Path Reverse Analysis.  I break down one of my own pieces based on Andrew Loomis' compositional tips as detailed in Creative Illustration.

8- Sticking to the Thumbnail Sketch. I outline why sticking to your thumbnail sketch is so important to the creation of a successful illustration.

9- George Bellows Limited Palette. I describe why George Bellows' simple color palette is so powerful.

10- Salvador Dali Portrait Demo. A simple portrait demo utilizing unusual color choices.

11- Inventing Color From Black And White Reference. In this demo, I take a black and white photo and paint it in four very different color palettes in a side by side comparison.

12- Using Gold (Metal) Leaf. This is a fun demonstration of how to use metal leaf for interesting decorative effect.

If you missed any of these posts or simply want to have another look, please enjoy!

Using Gold (Metal) Leaf

Detail of my distressed metal leaf frame

I'm starting a new portrait commission for a client/friend of mine Jeff Dinardo. I wanted to do something that looks like an Old World artifact, so that included creating some sort of gold leafed frame and panel to paint on. It will be a portrait reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance painting, so the old look is certainly in order. If you have never used foil leaf or any kind of antiquing, I recommend giving it a try. It's not as hard as you might think once you get the hang of it. I show this process in depth in my painting video "Conquer Your Acrylic Demons, so you can check it out there as well.

These supplies are readily available at craft and art supply stores as well as online. If you can't find these brands I am sure other brands will work equally well. It took me a couple tries to start getting the results I wanted.

Liquitex acrylic color (I chose a Red Oxide and Taupe mixed together, but about any contrasting color will work)
Old World Art- Gold Leafing Kit # 831
Jo Sonja's Decor Crackle
Sandpaper

Here's a sequence of how I applied the gold foil (it's just gold colored metal as real carat gold would be ridiculously expensive).

First, I sanded and prepared the panel. It was a little bit rough to start with so I worked it smoother. This seems sort of counter productive since things only got rougher from there. Step two, was to mix up a brick red acrylic color to coat the frame with.This coat of  serves two two purposes.

First it seals off the wood a little bit and second it gives a contrasting color that peeks through gaps in the metal leafing. Step three was to use the decor crackle to leave a layer that would crack. I put it on under the leafing since I wanted the gold to show the distressing. You brush it on and leave it as it immediately starts to crack and working it just messes with the crackle pattern. You can put it on thick or thin. The thicker the layer, the wider and deeper the crackle pattern.

Once the crackle is completely dry, you can move onto the next step which is to apply the metal leaf. First, apply the gold leaf adhesive with a brush. It goes on like very fluid rubber cement. Be sure to clean the brush thoroughly as the adhesive will gum up a brush when dry. The next step is to apply the metal leaf. The foil is whisper thin, so you need to take care in application. I used a soft 2" brush to aid the application process. I did not want an even application, so I purposely laid it down with gaps and cracks in order to give the appearance of a distressed  and aged surface. If there are spots that are not covered enough, I go back and add a little foil. It took me about 6-7 sheets of the foil to cover the whole frame edge.

The frame is currently too shiny for my taste, so next, I will glaze it down with a brownish acrylic glaze and rub it back, leaving "grime in the cracks and accentuating the crackle texture.. I also plan on sanding areas and adding more distressing. I'll show this in the next post along with the drawing which has been approved by the collector.


Part 1 of this project
Part 2 of this project
Part 3 of this project
Part 4 of this project (finish)