Monday, July 12, 2010

The Scarlet Robe - Oil Paint Patina

I wanted something muted for the sculpture of the woman and vibrant for the robe, so I opted to try glazing with oil paints. The mistake I made was using Liquin to speed up the drying of the cadmium red, which led to a shiny finish that I didn't really envision. My bad. The woman is muted and and more in line with what I was looking for - a subtle finish. Couldn't really say how many thin oil washes I used, probably about 8.

I did find, however, that I probably could have achieved a similar look using acrylics, as the porosity of the fired clay knocks down the sheen that acrylics can leave. I would probably opt to try another patina using many thin layers of acrylics to compare.


Forton Metal Patina

Whew....been a long time since my last post. We've been renovating some buildings and our house so time has been detoured.

Due to snow, I was only able to make a couple of the patina classes with Andi at the Denver Art Students League. The photos won't be very good, as I don't have a place to set up for photos at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones, with bases, up soon.

This sculpture had a base coat of Forton and bronze/brass metals. Then I used a mixture of several different oxides and patinas from the class. After the metal had oxidized, I buffed with a bit of steel wool to bring back the metal. It came out a bit darker than I had anticipated. I do think I like it overall.