Making paint chip
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Re: Making paint chip
These examples don't really follow the thread, but just a couple I saw the other day that I liked...
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- Oxidised silver leaf with gaps between leaves
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- Two dome shaped sections, inner with gesso texture, gilt paint finish
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Re: Making paint chip
And one of mine with mixed bole colours under the leaf, one of my favourite finishes, you can really get some interesting effects playing around...
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Re: Making paint chip
Here's a combed gesso (well ripple paint actually) frame.
It isn't really combed as such. The lines are created by brushing the paint while it's wet.
It's nice to do it on a joined frame as the lines radiate from a centre point. You could just as easily do it with a
hair comb or graining comb. A brush gives a more understated look.
It isn't really combed as such. The lines are created by brushing the paint while it's wet.
It's nice to do it on a joined frame as the lines radiate from a centre point. You could just as easily do it with a
hair comb or graining comb. A brush gives a more understated look.
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Re: Making paint chip
I can't say that the correct name for that frame is an O'Mahoney Frame. It's just that the dealers preferred to call it that.
Now that's interesting that you saw a lot of Bawdens in that frame. I'll enjoy a brief smugness moment in thinking many of them could be mine - unless you thought they looked a bit manky - in that case they were all originals!
The wood is a very lightweight close grained wood, as you have said. I could never really place it but I think I always used obeche as a substitute.
You want a very "dry" finish. Glaze over with dry pigments venetian red, flake white, a little burnt umber, raw umber mixed into some student acrylic raw sienna and a little walnut water stain.
After that's all dry, fill the grain up with some sanding sealer and give a final rub of clear wax.
I did make my own moulding, which is a bit tiresome, but you could get one of the moulding companies make a cutter. That would cost £100 with a min run of 500ft or so. Ask me nicely sometime if you're desperate.
Now that's interesting that you saw a lot of Bawdens in that frame. I'll enjoy a brief smugness moment in thinking many of them could be mine - unless you thought they looked a bit manky - in that case they were all originals!
The wood is a very lightweight close grained wood, as you have said. I could never really place it but I think I always used obeche as a substitute.
You want a very "dry" finish. Glaze over with dry pigments venetian red, flake white, a little burnt umber, raw umber mixed into some student acrylic raw sienna and a little walnut water stain.
After that's all dry, fill the grain up with some sanding sealer and give a final rub of clear wax.
I did make my own moulding, which is a bit tiresome, but you could get one of the moulding companies make a cutter. That would cost £100 with a min run of 500ft or so. Ask me nicely sometime if you're desperate.
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Re: Making paint chip
Prospero, thought you might like to see where I reached in emulating this one, thanks for the help! The picture illustrated is very like a frame I had seen at Sotheby's last year:
This is the frame as I bought the picture in, which was nasty unfinished pine with the cheapest and nastiest gilt slip you could imagine. So for about a pound I:
Stripped the gilt off the slip. That wasn't easy; it completely resisted acetone, meths, white spirit, but sandpaper sorted it. Pinned it and filled it and then red, black and distress a bit. First time I've used recycled factory gesso and it won't be the last. (I'm still uncertain as to whether a creamy slip would have been better.)
Gave the pine a good clean with solvents and then a coat of shellac. Then three layers of zinc white/raw umber - pale; not pale; emphasised the brush strokes and then used a not very thick coat of raw umber on top. I used wax with dry zinc white pigment in it and came up with a pretty good looking frame.
Indeed, so good was the effect that I had the following conversation with another dealer.
"Oh, good frame; I think I know who made it. Did you see the sale at Sotheby's? He'd made most of the frames there, and this is one of his too, isn't it?"
"Thank you, but actually it's a copy of one of his frames, as I made it with my own bare hands!"
This is the frame as I bought the picture in, which was nasty unfinished pine with the cheapest and nastiest gilt slip you could imagine. So for about a pound I:
Stripped the gilt off the slip. That wasn't easy; it completely resisted acetone, meths, white spirit, but sandpaper sorted it. Pinned it and filled it and then red, black and distress a bit. First time I've used recycled factory gesso and it won't be the last. (I'm still uncertain as to whether a creamy slip would have been better.)
Gave the pine a good clean with solvents and then a coat of shellac. Then three layers of zinc white/raw umber - pale; not pale; emphasised the brush strokes and then used a not very thick coat of raw umber on top. I used wax with dry zinc white pigment in it and came up with a pretty good looking frame.
Indeed, so good was the effect that I had the following conversation with another dealer.
"Oh, good frame; I think I know who made it. Did you see the sale at Sotheby's? He'd made most of the frames there, and this is one of his too, isn't it?"
"Thank you, but actually it's a copy of one of his frames, as I made it with my own bare hands!"
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Re: Making paint chip
Lovely job there James. I like all those early 20th cent. British artist frames. Funny to remember that they were made in a time of austerity and made as cheaply as possible. Then with the effect of years of ageing, the finishes have mellowed and become desirable again to our modern tastes.
I could make just one small tip. Part of the beauty of these frames is in the dry but polished finish.
You can achieve that, a bit, by binning the commercial tins of finishing wax. They are all bulked up with cheaper parafin waxes, and these can contribute to an oily, greasy finish. Best is to make your own pure wax with Beeswax pellets and turpentine.
You can add a bit of carnuba wax but if you get the colours right, the bees wax alone will give provide an authentic enough finish.
And before I forget, many of them used Jelutong wood - a close cousin to obeche.
I could make just one small tip. Part of the beauty of these frames is in the dry but polished finish.
You can achieve that, a bit, by binning the commercial tins of finishing wax. They are all bulked up with cheaper parafin waxes, and these can contribute to an oily, greasy finish. Best is to make your own pure wax with Beeswax pellets and turpentine.
You can add a bit of carnuba wax but if you get the colours right, the bees wax alone will give provide an authentic enough finish.
And before I forget, many of them used Jelutong wood - a close cousin to obeche.
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Re: Making paint chip
You didn't tell me that! You said that the white pigment would disperse the light and give a dry finish! Off shopping again.... thanks. I'll give it a try.
I thought this one went well too. Vaguely inspired by the one with the combed gesso.
I thought this one went well too. Vaguely inspired by the one with the combed gesso.
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Re: Making paint chip
Lovely work James. Keep the pictures and techniques coming, I've got a quieter week next week, so going to have a play as well.
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Re: Making paint chip
Zinc white in the waxed finish ... inspired!
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Re: Making paint chip
Zinc white in the waxed finish ... inspired by Vintage Frames!
I thought I'd stuck this one up that I'd made - vaguely inspired by the combed gesso one I photographed up the other day - but clearly not. A bit of stacking certainly can make a frame look a bit more special. Learning point: a thin brown wash over cream just looks dirty; add some raw umber to the white and then brown over dirty cream looks much improved.
I thought I'd stuck this one up that I'd made - vaguely inspired by the combed gesso one I photographed up the other day - but clearly not. A bit of stacking certainly can make a frame look a bit more special. Learning point: a thin brown wash over cream just looks dirty; add some raw umber to the white and then brown over dirty cream looks much improved.
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Re: Making paint chip
I took these photos in a framer's window on Kensington Church Street last evening. I thought I would share them here for entertainment.
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Re: Making paint chip
I really like the mottled effect on the front-most sample in the third picture down. Has he just added a very dilute dark wash over a lighter background and allowed it to pool and dry, or is it more complicated than that?
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Re: Making paint chip
That photo you showed where you've stacked the internal slips looks really effective.
I have my own small theory as to why. If you divide any reasonably complex frame into two main elements, there is the inner section forming the sight edge surround, and the outer section which is everything around the outside.
To make the frame work visually, the inner section should form a unique framing element in itself; ie if you took the outer section away, the artwork would still looked adequately framed.
Then the outer section is created to give the overall frame some degree depth and importance.
The stacked assembly of slips you created gives that very effect.
Dunno how they did that mottled effect, possibly oil medium dripped onto wet water paint - definitely one for the interior design trade.
I have my own small theory as to why. If you divide any reasonably complex frame into two main elements, there is the inner section forming the sight edge surround, and the outer section which is everything around the outside.
To make the frame work visually, the inner section should form a unique framing element in itself; ie if you took the outer section away, the artwork would still looked adequately framed.
Then the outer section is created to give the overall frame some degree depth and importance.
The stacked assembly of slips you created gives that very effect.
Dunno how they did that mottled effect, possibly oil medium dripped onto wet water paint - definitely one for the interior design trade.
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Re: Making paint chip
I suspect that I know how that mottled effect was done, but I'll pop down to my workshop to give a try before I open my mouth and get it wrong.
Hopefully the batteries in the camera have got enough charge in them and I can post some pics if it works.
Hopefully the batteries in the camera have got enough charge in them and I can post some pics if it works.
Mark Lacey
“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
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Re: Making paint chip
I'm back with a picture, which basically proves the principle, but I think that I could have used a better choice of paint for the wash. Sorry that the picture is not a good one, to the eye it looks better, but my choice of paints needs figuring out better to get a proper result anyway.
This is a coat of paines grey, with a wash of acrylic gouache grey number 3 while the gouache was still wet I dropped some meths on top of this using a small paintbrush. This worked quite well, but takes ages for the finish to dry. So I used a hot air gun, which spoilt the effect a bit but looked o.k. to the eye, unfortunately not quite so good to the camera. However I think it gives the idea.
I think that the acrylic gouache was the wrong idea, too strong a mix and still needs some experimenting to get it right. I did try this with both meths and white spirit, but I think there is much scope for improving the technique.
This is a coat of paines grey, with a wash of acrylic gouache grey number 3 while the gouache was still wet I dropped some meths on top of this using a small paintbrush. This worked quite well, but takes ages for the finish to dry. So I used a hot air gun, which spoilt the effect a bit but looked o.k. to the eye, unfortunately not quite so good to the camera. However I think it gives the idea.
I think that the acrylic gouache was the wrong idea, too strong a mix and still needs some experimenting to get it right. I did try this with both meths and white spirit, but I think there is much scope for improving the technique.
Mark Lacey
“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
Re: Making paint chip
Interesting. Can you add driers directly to white spirit? Otherwise it's going to take forever to dry.
Re: Making paint chip
Had a conflab with Mark NYAF earlier about that blue mottley finish. It has now become a quest.
I had a .
OK, paint a blue basecoat. Rub some wax into your fingertip and do random dabs over the blue. Apply a
greyish wash all over and when it's dry polish vigorously. In theory the wash won't have stuck to well to the waxy fingermark
spots and with a bit of luck you should end up with a result not dissimilar to the sample. Maybe. Sounds feasible.
If I get a chance I'll try it but a bit preoccupied ATM. If someone wants to have a stab - feel free.
I had a .
OK, paint a blue basecoat. Rub some wax into your fingertip and do random dabs over the blue. Apply a
greyish wash all over and when it's dry polish vigorously. In theory the wash won't have stuck to well to the waxy fingermark
spots and with a bit of luck you should end up with a result not dissimilar to the sample. Maybe. Sounds feasible.
If I get a chance I'll try it but a bit preoccupied ATM. If someone wants to have a stab - feel free.
Watch Out. There's A Humphrey About
Re: Making paint chip
I wondered if it might be something like your tortoiseshell finish. I wondered whether if you flooded a wash on, then it might dry like that.
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Re: Making paint chip
Or might it also have something to do with bubble-wrap and meths?
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