Enamles.

Enamelling on glass is a such a beautiful thing, it really is like painting a canvas, but due to the lack of production of enamels this process for me has become a bit of a special occasion.
I like to research and sketch historical costume and I felt that this subject matter would be a great place to use enamel. I like to do line paintings and then fill in areas with hints of colour. When I use enamels I really like to see how fine I can keep the application. I approach it like I would watercolour and keep the medium as transparent and clean as possible.

 

 

Here you can see that I have done some small quick line drawings on glass and then fired them I have used a nib to create all of the fine lines and also to add the shading contrast between light and dark areas. I have then applied the enamel. I have used a blue transparent mixed with water and kept the finish very light. This is just to give the impression of colour. I placed it on very watery and then used a small badger brush to buff it out and give me a even finish.

Day of the dead

Day of the dead has always brought me great delight, the celebration of death in such a exciting and colourful way, with just a hint of horror.

 

 

New Project!!

Anatomy has always been a interest of mine, for a short time I thought of being a crime scene investigator or work in a morgue. These things never came to be, but my dad works in orthotics and this insight into such a fascinating and skillful job has only added to the intrigue of human anatomy.
As a third year student you are given several projects to complete, one of these is called 'Personal'. This project seemed the perfect opportunity to indulge myself in the world of anatomy and really brush up on the thing that I love,  traditional glass painting.
I have been mainly looking at Medieval to Victorian anatomy and I have taken stand out images and recreated them on glass. I hope to create a series of small miniature paintings, to larger pieces that will have more than one focal point. This is a project that really excites me and is a great excuse to immerse myself in glass painting. This is not only a chance to see what I can achieve, but also learn and achieve a bigger knowledge base in glass painting.

Here are a few small samples on glass painted with brown/black pigment in clove oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Stained Flemish roundel

So here is what the roundel looks like unleaded but stained. I feel that the stain took beautifully on the boarder pieces, but as unfortunately didn't take at all on certain areas of the central piece.

 

 

 

 

 

The Flemish roundel.

The Flemish roundel that I have been studying has finally reached a stage where the border has been painted and stained.
I have taken step by step pictures of the processes that I used to keep a record of my approach to the project. I can look at my techniques and really look at what I need to do differently in the future.

The first stage was to lay my line work down. I used a brown/black mix of paint with clove oil. This was applied with a nib and also with a very fine brush. I used the nib on the more delicate areas such as the faces and brush work on the clothing.

After the line work was laid down I then placed a matting of brown/black over the whole piece. This process is easy but the correct colour to use was not. I had many attempts at mixing a colour that I felt was appropriate. The matt was laid on heavier in some areas to add depth where I needed it.

After laying down the matt that I was happy with I then began to pick out major areas on the piece that needed to be clear again; notably the background around the trees and castle. This can be more time consuming than it seems as you really don't want to go over the line work and disturb the layers. If this happens the whole thing would need to come off and be painted again.

This picture is showing the stick work in the background and also the beginning of the highlighting. I used more stick work to highlight the lightest areas, such as down the folds of the clothing and then used a softer approach with brushes to take away the rest. This process really starts to bring the painting to life.



I apply this technique across the whole piece and I also start to introduce needle work. I take a needle or a pin and I make fine marks, scratching through the paint work as another method of highlighting.

The needle work and stick work is applied all over the piece. I always start off very lightly and then go back over again where it is needed. You learn the hard way if you go in and remove too much too soon.

Above you can see a comparison with a earlier attempt. Here you can see a rather messy finish, with too many dark areas mixed with too many light. The faces and details are far too uncertain and wary. The new version has achieved much more detail, finer lines and brush work and the highlighting is much clearer and defined.

Here you can see the roundel almost at a finished stage. The central piece has had another layer of paint applied. A lavender oil mix with a brown/black paint has been placed in areas that needed to be softened and have a extra amount of depth.

The border has also been added. The border is a Lamberts tint glass and has had several techniques applied to it. Firstly I needed to cartoon the border, this was a task I thought would be easy but turned out to be difficult due to my need to fuss! I also wanted to make this roundel appear to have just been made. My goal was to create a finish like it would have been when it was first made in the 15th century. The original has some visible paint loss.

The border has been pooled in a dark black/brown mix and has then had stick work and shading applied. The shading is a lavender oil black/brown mix and softened out with a medium badger brush. 

The centre piece was then silver stained to finish it off. This is applied to the back of the glass and is placed where you want the yellow to show through. The glass that I used was an antique and unfortunately it would not take the silver stain in certain areas. I attempted several times with no luck so I am left with no stain the the central fore ground.













St Peter Preaching in Samaria and Denouncing Simon the Sorcerer

Below you will see a selection of close up pictures of the Original Flemish roundel.

 

Object: Roundel

Place of origin: Flanders, Belgium

Date: 1520

Size: 35.7cm

 

I visited the V&A where this roundel can be viewed in their stunning stained glass section. It was a project that I was given as part of my University course. This was for my traditional glass painting. I decided on this roundel purely for the challenge that it would give me, and it certainly lived up to it.

 

 

 

Above you can see a group of people listening to St Peter. I love the way you can get completely lost in they're faces, there is a huge amount of detail and a complete understanding of how to use light.

 

 

This Image is showing you a wider angle of the roundel, you are able to see what I was faced with when I first saw this window. It is a true masterpiece, and completely breathtaking when you see it in the flesh.

 

 

Here you can See the border more closely, its so striking with its dark black brown paint and then the shots of yellow and varied controlled sections of light.

 

 Everywhere you look you see more detail, the beautiful hats and gold coin purses, It looks as tho you could pluck the pearls off her hat.

 

St Peter has such a wonderful face, a full beard and expressive wild hair.

 

This picture allows you to really look at the drapery and how the stick work and shading all comes together to create this sumptuous and endless fabric. Keep in mind that each of these figures are around 8-10cm.

 

The castle just thrown in because they could. This castle is so small it was giving me nightmares for weeks.

 

Simon the Sorcerer. He has such wonderful hair, a true use of weight of line and stick work.

 

The peacocks around the border. You can see there is paint loss on these which makes it difficult to see whats really going on, but it appears they are striding over a scroll, the lettering on the scroll is all but gone so that is very challenging, but since Flemish roundels were mainly used for domestic use it could be a family motto, or a saying from the bible.

Historic Copy

 

Here is a small sample with different shading effects to compare to the original, this was a important stage for me. Here you can see the Silver stain, this is the yellow that you can see on the glass. I love Silver stain, it the extra decadence that really brings the glass to life.

I like to do as many samples as I can. I like approach each piece differently and vary the paint application on each one. I may take away paint or apply it more heavily on some. Its all a learning curve and its important to go the extra mile and make more detailed pieces. It only made me more confident when I came to do my finale Roundel.

 

Here are some more samples. The larger one is the whole roundel painted, but it is again another way for me to see the outcome of a variety of methods. Different oil mixes, different paint mixes and the highlighting across the whole piece. This particular one had several things that I changed for my final piece, but it was worth the effort painting it to find out I wasn't happy with it.

 

This is a sample for the boarder, there is a variety of techniques in the border which give it the overall effect, and one of those is pooling. Pooling is where you fill a large area with paint. In this case the black. It can be difficult because you can get tide marks, you can See where the paint has dried so you very often have only one chance to fill the area as quickly and smoothly as possible. It can be quiet the challenge.