GILDED BACKGROUND FOR A CALLIGRAPHY PROJECT
As part of the Domestika course on English Calligraphy, we are to make an imaginary invitation.
In the course, the teacher recommended some calligraphers she admires, for inspiration and to broaden our knowledge. One of these is the Irish calligrapher Denis Brown, who has completely blown me away with his outstanding and very unusual work.
One of his favoured techniques is to prepare the substrate with gilding and ink spatters and diluted gesso. This is so beautiful, catching the light and adding depth and richness to the work.
Making my background
Gilding
I have some hot foil sheets that are mostly used, but still have enough random gold on them to create interesting backgrounds. I began with this, and then added some silver-coloured leaf. This broke up badly while I was applying it (clearly this form of gilding requires a lot of practice!), and with the patchy gold, there was still quite a bit of white card showing through.
I cut an oval using the template I created for my name in calligraphy, which was part of the Hebrew calligraphy course I did the previous month. I took the negative space and laid it over the card, using it as a mask, and sprayed the oval centre portion with a mixture of white gesso and water in a small spray bottle, to provide a suitable surface to write on.
Touching up with paint
In the above photo, you can see where I have started dabbing on some gold paint to try and cover up at least some of the white card showing through. I used a small sponge dauber with a wooden handle. Throughout this session, I worked on my large silicone mat which is easy to clean up. This came from a cake decorating supplier and it is brilliant for all sorts of messy work like glueing and spreading paint around.
I used Golden iridescent bronze fine fluid acrylic, which is my favourite gold paint. For the silver areas I used Winsor & Newton Galeria silver acrylic paint.
The next photo shows half the piece, with both gold and silver paint applied. It is definitely better than it was.
Stencilling
Departing from Denis Brown’s method, I decided to add some subtle stencilling over the gilded areas. This quite large stencil is an unbranded one that I bought from AliExpress. The scale of the swirls is right for this project.
I used the same gold and silver paints for this stage, applying them with – wait for it – a hoof oil brush from our local farmers’ market!! I bought this on a visit when my hubby was looking for something for the garden. I bought several things there for art. If you keep an open mind and open eyes while out and about, you never know what you will spot, which can be put to good use in the studio! I had intended to trim the bristles of this brush so they were shorter and definitely more flat across the end, but never got around to it. The brush did the job OK, although it did shed a few bristles along the way. It was as cheap as chips – probably a fraction of the cost of a proper stencil brush.
Here is the piece with the stencilling complete. It is very sutble and catches the light at certain angles.
Detail shots of the stencilled areas.
Gilding flakes
This material is alive!! It arrives crammed into a screw-top pot, and when you open it, the flakes expand in desperation to get out. It is impossible to use them from the confines of the small pot, so it is a good idea to decant them into a larger container. I use those plastic Chinese takeaway boxes. You have to be very careful when you do the transfer. Don’t do it with an electric fan running, and for goodness sake don’t sneeze!! You get the picture.
These particular flakes are very large and need to be broken up a bit.
Applying the gilding flakes
Following Denis Brown’s method, I painted the surrounding area with Golden gloss acrylic varnish which comes in a bottle. You can either paint it on with a brush, or spray it on, in each case diluting it with some water. I used a soft fan brush for this. I was careful to avoid the central area where I would be doing the calligraphy – the area sprayed with diluted gesso. I sprinkled on the gilding flakes – silver on the gold areas and vice versa, while the varnish was still wet. I pressed them down gently with my fingertips and then placed a larger piece of paper over the whole thing and pressed them down through this. I speeded up the drying process with my heat tool.
I noticed that the gold flakes seemed to be darkening to an almost greenish brown. I thought it might be the result of the heat, so I sprinkled on a few more, trying to get them to cover the darker ones.
When the varnish was pretty much dry, I applied another coat, going over the gilding flakes carefully so as not to lift them off, but they seemed firmly stuck down.
As the varnish was drying, I noticed that the second layer of gold flakes seemed to be darkening as well, although not quite as much. The silver ones seemed unaffected. I have experienced this kind of thing before, where you get some sort of reaction with acrylic media. Denis Brown used genuine gold leaf cut into small fragments and of course did not experience this problem. There is not a lot I can do about it and it looks more or less OK. I should have preferred a bright gold but once everything is dry, I may be able to apply a little paint over the worst affected areas.
Some detail shots.
I think this has made an intriguing and unusual background. I intend adding a few paint spatters, masking off the central area. For now, the sheet is wrapped in a piece of baking parchment and placed under a pile of large heavy books in an attempt to flatten it out, as it has got pretty warped with the wet media applied.
Plans for the coming month and a bit of a rethink
I am holding off doing the calligraphy on this project for now. The design is done, and just needs to be transferred. I am awaiting the arrival of a calligraphy fountain pen, and shall be writing about that when I post about writing the calligraphy on this piece.
My intention at the beginning of this year was to complete a Domestika course each month. I have managed this with the first three courses, but this particular course has more modules than usual, and it has also involved a lot more practice which takes a considerable amount of time. I am not beating myself up about not yet having completed it, and have decided to change my plans for this month. As I wait for my new pen to arrive, I shall continue to practise my calligraphy skills, and while this project is on hold, I may leapfrog over into the next module and work on that – calligraphy on dark coloured paper, and how to use watercolour and gouache.
It will also be a good opportunity, if I have time, to go back over the previous courses and consolidate what I learnt. It is impossible to perfect any skill in one short month, and moving on rapidly to the next course means leaving much necessary practice undone. All three completed courses have left me with the desire to put them into practice with more projects. Perhaps I have been over-ambitious and a bit unwise in trying to complete a dozen courses in a single year! I have plenty of new skills to learn, but in the meantime I need to allow myself time to enjoy what I have already learnt.
I am also in the process of binding all my DrawAwesome course work into a book. For a couple of weeks now, the pages have been spread out in my studio, and I would like to get that project completed and out of the way. I also have numerous UFOs (UnFinished Objects) hanging around, which I would like to make a dent in, and we have a couple of days out in the next week or two, and various other things going on. I also need to do some studio reorganising and tidying.
So I shan’t be idle!
