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.

Historic Copy

 

Painting this figure was a concern to begin with, looking at all the detail that needed to be in him was going to be a huge challenge for me. I could see a lot of hair, and hair is always so descriptive. I also needed to make sure that the light was balanced and was giving the face the right amount character. Once I had stopped panicking, I was able to treat this no differently than the other figures, to begin with a loose study and simply play with the weight of line and light.

 

These figures are grouped together and again made me nervous. I simply had fun with each face and tried to apply as much expression and life into each one. The line work is very free on this sample, this is simply to help me to relate weight of line, light and dark and keep me relaxed before I start to make more detailed samples.

 

This figure study was a true delight, she was so graphic looking, she had bold line work and great features. I could really play with my application of line on her dress, hand and face.

Historic Copy

Here you can see that the brush strokes are loose and varying in thickness, this is simply due to the way approach glass painting in the first stages. Allowing myself to act freely gives me a confidence to feel more comfortable with the brushes and tools. I can then do more controlled studies and really concentrate on the fine details.

Historic Copy

 

 

A close look at some studies I did for a V&A historic copy. I picked a Flemish Roundel from the 15th century and recreated it. Here is a close look at the initial painting tests. Brush stroke, highlighting and stick work are really important in glass painting, as you want to be able to control the light. These tests allowed me to not only see the marks that were made on the original figure, but how heavy to apply the paint and how much to take away.

Da Vinci Studies

 

Hand painted Di Vinci study on glass 2013.