Try a shabby chic style paint finish for your artwork.

Recently I have discovered a way to get a nice shabby chic style paint finish on cardboard which is an ideal background for graphic artwork. The result I got reminded me of photos of ancient Roman frescoes.

First I painted some white acrylic paint onto some brown cardboard cut from a cereal packet. I let it dry a bit for about 5 minuets, then made some really strong tea (2 tea bags, no milk, with a little boiling water in an old cup). Using a sponge, I dabbed the strong tea onto the painted surface to make different patterns. Then I tonked the painted surface with newspaper and found some of the paint came away. Now another way to remove some paint which would be more reliable, would be to use a damp sponge, as you are more likely to get predictable results. On some occasions tonking with newspaper onto acrylic that is too dry may result in newsprint being left on the painted surface (the wrong way round).

If required, the shabby chic background could be scanned and used digitally as a background to graphic art using the layers feature on image editing software. Gimp2, a free downloadable image editor is available on the internet for PC's. Using Gimp2 it is simply a matter of first opening your background image, then open the graphic image you wish to use on top of the background, as a layer. Do this by choosing File and Open as Layers. Now from the menu bar choose Layer and Transparency then Color to Alpha... and press OK. Your image will now merge with the background. It is best if your top image is graphic in nature e.g. line art (or plenty of white background if using a coloured image). I would advise making your top image darker using curves or levels so it is not too faint on top of your background image. The background image could also be made lighter with ease and colour saturation and lightness can be altered. Images can also be made sharper easily enough using Gimp2.

Shabby chic background. (Acrylic and tea on brown cardboard.)

A coloured image with a white background, was added on top of a cropped section of my shabby chic painted background, using layers in Gimp2.

Gouache – the ideal medium for quick paintings.

Gouache study of 'Shore House' after George Wesley Bellows.

Equipment used:

Small Round Wash Brush.

Aluminium Foil for a palette.

Jam Jar.

Cardboard from a cereal packet.

Black Ball Point Pen.

First I quickly sketched in the main details from a George Wesley Bellows painting called 'Shore House'. This was done on cardboard from a cereal packet. Gouache paint covers the pen marks completely (I have left a little showing).

I painted the sky next and worked my way down. Gouache has to be mixed with water until it has the consistency of runny pouring cream. If you paint straight from the tube it can crack when it dries. You can easily blend Gouache paints to achieve a look similar to Oil paintings. Gouache has very good covering power and dries to a matt chalky finish.

This quick painting was completed in about an hour as it isn't very big. I could have put in much more detail, but decided to leave it sketchy as it's only a small test piece. Gouache is capable of rendering very fine detail and if you didn't want to disturb a layer then you could use fixative to secure layers before continuing.

The painting is not finished and has a wonky horizon, but I'm not worried about that. I've proved to myself that a painting in Gouache can be quick and fun to produce. Colours are bold and opaque and unlike Acrylics you don't have to paint layer upon layer to obtain the covering power you desire. Also, unlike Oils and Acrylics, you don't have to worry about cleaning your brushes after a painting session has finished. Brushes can be left with paint on them and just swished about in clean water the next time you need them. Of course you may want to wash brushes with soap and water if you want to paint cleanly with no hint of old colour coming through.

I'm going to paint a lot more pictures in Gouache because of the time saved compared to using other mediums like Oils.

A few random thoughts.

When I first started experimenting with trace monotypes I used oil pastel to coat the back of the image I wanted to trace. This image was usually an inkjet printout.

Although now I'm not too keen using oil pastels in the future – there is one major advantage, they don't dry! I have an image I started tracing in the summer 2014 ready for my exhibition. I ran out of time on that particular image so put it away and didn't bother with it. Anyway recently, I did an experiment to see if I could carry on tracing nearly two years later. I was able to carry on as if I'd only begun the previous day. So for a long term project that requires time and patience then oil pastel would be an excellent choice. Once the image is finished then it would need to be placed into a plastic sleeve or in between 2 sheets of acetate to scan the image onto a computer for editing and printing if required. The original should be framed with a decent gap between the image and the glass as it will deposit marks on the glass. The examples below show what is possible using oil pastel to create a trace monotype (the cat is a freehand monotype in oil pastel).

Some simple image editing is required to darken the image slightly as the originals look more like pencil drawings as they are fainter. You can also recolour the images if you wish on the computer.

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At the moment I am brushing up my painting and drawing skills (no pun intended) as I've been doing a lot of trace monotypes and less freehand work. I work mainly in acrylics and before I start painting I prefer to tone a surface either canvas board or bits of cardboard (you don't have to be so precious with bits of cardboard, especially if you are practising). I find it difficult to paint onto a white or light grey (cardboard) surface so I mix yellow ochre, burnt sienna and titanium white actually on the surface whilst vigorously spreading with a kitchen sponge (the small washing up ones with the scourer on the back). You end up with a really warm coloured background to start painting onto.

Business Plan.

A few ideas.

Recently I received a letter reminding me that I should have a business plan in place, so I thought I would share some of my ideas with you.

One of the ideas I have is to get my art on to wood either by image transfer or by laser engraving. The best subjects that I have would be my Old Master trace monotypes – these would be ideal for using as panels for contemporary furniture or as vintage style table place mats (varnished or lacquered thin MDF with rounded corners). These items could be sold on Etsy or Not on the High Street.com. Another option would be to hand produce each one by doing a trace monotype straight onto the wood – these would be more exclusive as they would be one off works of art in their own right.

Another value added product would be a limited edition production run of tote bags – say 50 bags only of each design (the designs could be of different old master paintings – maybe the Impressionists revisited - see my Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes). Each bag could be personally signed by the artist (me) with permanent marker pen and then the bags could be supplied exclusively to either a department store or boutique (fingers crossed on that one!).

Going back to wooden panels, I have noticed that there is a gap in the market for a very niche product – namely reproduction Pre Raphaelite wooden furniture panels. These could be produced quite easily by first tracing a public domain Pre Raphaelite image onto a prepared wooden panel and then sprayed with fixative before painting in acrylics (I've chosen acrylics for the quick drying times and ability to varnish straight away unlike oils). These panels could be offered for sale to cabinet makers or even vintage/shabby chic designer/restorers. There is also no reason why I could not undertake a few simple projects like bedside cabinets or blanket boxes utilising these painted wooden panels. The painted panels could be offered for sale on Etsy, Facebook buy and sell, craft fairs or a dedicated website.

Speaking of Facebook buy and sell, I did have a go at selling some artwork not too long ago, but had no luck. I am going to try again with some 19^th Century reproductions - Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes of cats and kittens at play. I'm also considering producing copies of 19^th Century seascapes and copies of some of the American Ashcan School of artists who in my opinion influenced Edward Hopper.

An idea I would like to experiment with soon, is producing hand coloured prints by first doing a trace monotype onto stretched cartridge paper using Genesis Heat Set Oil paint and then hand colouring this once I've dried it using a Genesis Heat Set Drying Gun. I would like to see how a print would look using watercolours over the dried heat set paint, or maybe work the print up into a finished painting by carrying on with different heat set colours. The print may have to be done on the reverse side of thick watercolour paper if the cartridge paper proves to be too thin.

Another idea I had after seeing an advert online. A company is charging a very competitive price to produce the silk-screen screen needed to do printing from a graphic image (no tones). This would be useful for producing limited edition prints on paper – particularly the copyist trace monotype works I can produce using Genesis Heat Set paint.

I've talked about some of the more adventurous plans I have in mind, but there are also some more modest plans afoot. I am currently producing works on cardboard (cereal boxes) to keep costs as low as I can (we eat cereal anyway, so that costs nothing, the other costs could be paint, fine brushes if they splay, carbon or transfer paper, cheap frames if framing, or mountboard and mounts with cellophane etc.). There is a reason for this – car boots sales, craft fairs etc. People don't seem to have money to part with nowadays, so unless I become really famous, I don't see much need for archival substrates and the best quality thirty pounds a tube paint when the buying public are not able to pay ten pounds or even five pounds for works of art. Anyway there is method to my madness, the finished image can be scanned and uploaded to a company that produces Giclee prints and postcards etc. So you can sell your postcards for example at craft fairs and car boots or local shops may stock them for you - sale or return. The buying public isn't worried that your original work of art is on a cereal box – they have their postcard printed onto thick card that looks and feels professional, you make a small profit and everything's right with the world!

I did consider framing laser printed copies of my graphic b/w artworks at a cost of 15p for the laser printout and under two pounds for a frame. But I'm not sure how long a laser printed image would last – I could say it is 'laser printed wall art' or 'laser printed posters' if I were selling them on a market stall for example, and my son did get a laser printed certificate from Santa at a grotto this Christmas, so if it's OK for Santa to give laser printed certificates, then maybe it's OK for me.

Atmospheric paintings on sandpaper (tearing up the rulebook).

Sandpaper/wet & dry papers are ideal surfaces for painting landscapes.

They can be used with a single medium e.g. Acrylic or Gouache (or Gouache over Acrylic), or they can be used as a substrate for mixed media paintings using paints and either soft pastels or oil pastels on the top layers.

Because there is a slight drag on the paintbrush as it's moved over the surface of the sandpaper, a broken brush stroke is created. When painting on sandpaper, the look is almost like a velvety pastel painting even though you have used paint. This creates a look that is hard to mimic using other surfaces if using paint (texture paste can be applied to canvas board to achieve a similar effect, but it may not cover uniformly).

If you are painting in black & white, then very realistic scenes can be rendered – especially the countryside with wide expanses and gathering clouds.

I have included an example of a small painting I did on grey aluminium oxide paper. The longevity of such a paper is obviously a concern, however if you want to experiment without having to spend out on textured pastel papers then this substrate is ideal. Also it is better to have a finished piece of art on something that may be to hand in the house, rather than wasting time phoning or going to the shops looking for textured pastel papers, that they might or might not stock. You could be thinking about producing art while waiting for your ordered paper to arrive, or you could actually get on with it!

Uphill near Weston-super-Mare. Copyright Antony R James.

Finally got around to testing one of my Christmas gifts from my wife!

I received a set of 6 Pitt artist pens with various nib sizes for Christmas from my wife and thought I would try them out at the local arts centre where I hire their studio one morning per week.

I had a go at sketching first, then went on to produce some semi abstract doodles.

The Beach At Troville - after Eugene Boudin with a Spaniel from a George Stubbs painting.

Conclusion: I was really impressed with these pens and I produced some really good images without any bother at all - they didn't smudge (easily done by me as I hold my pen differently), you can produce bold marks with the larger nibs and very fine detail with the smallest. It says on the pack pigmented India ink with three stars for maximum lightfastness, waterproof and permanent. Odorless, acid-free, pH-neutral. 6 nibs: XS,S,F,M,B(brush),C(calligraphy).

The pens could be used for pen and wash and in mixed media artworks. I scanned the doodles in and coloured one in Gimp 2 just to see what it would look like.

Images Copyright Antony R James.

Last summer's trip to Cheddar in Somerset, England to photograph the Gorge.

Mission - to climb up Cheddar Gorge and capture some photos to use as reference material for my artwork.

 

 Event - June 2015. 

Equipment: Compact cameras - nothing fancy.

 

Now I'm not the world's best traveller, and in the past I used to suffer badly from panic attacks, but I had the urge to go on my own to Cheddar (which is not that far from my home town in Somerset - by car that is.)

Anyway, I set off mid afternoon from nearby Burnham-on-Sea and I already knew where I had to go to find the way up the Gorge - the track is called Cufic Lane, opposite the National Trust Information Centre. Which I had discovered the last time I visited Cheddar; as I saw people walking down the lane and realised this would lead me to the top and enable me to look down on the Gorge.

I had imagined that it would be a gradual climb up to the top - quite leisurely - well I was wrong! Not far along Cufic Lane there is a gate leading steeply up a hill. I met a couple coming down who looked a lot older than me, they told me it was a very strenuous climb and they were right!

Lets say I was not as fit as I thought I was. Because I soon became really hot and sweaty and was very out of breath. A few times I had to hold on to trees as my head was spinning.

I managed to pick my way upwards over rocks and tree roots (good job it wasn't wet and slippery!)

This climb seemed to go on for about twenty minuets until eventually I reached the top where the trees thinned out and I was surprised to see goats walking around.

I followed the goats until I reached my destination: Mission Complete. Apparently you can take a route from here that will loop all the way around the Gorge and you end up on the other side. As this was only a reconnaissance mission for me I was not really up for a long hike and time was getting on as it was after 5.00pm when I reached the top.

Images Copyright Antony R James.

Carbon Paper Trace Monotypes

The Latent Image.

Antony R James (Artist/Printmaker without a press!).

There is a fascinating discovery to be made when producing Carbon Paper Prints: The carbon paper retains drawn information as a latent image - carbon is removed from the carbon paper and  deposited onto the blank paper placed underneath it when you trace an image. If you look carefully at the carbon paper once you have finished tracing, you will see a faint image (a negative).

This negative can be scanned onto a computer and developed like a photograph using image editing software such as Gimp 2 or Photoshop. This latent image is not always usable, however when it proves successful it can be very exciting seeing your image appear! The best latent images are obtained when tracing an image using plain printer/photocopy paper or thin cartridge paper.

Very complex images can be rendered and "stored" on the carbon paper. Handle the carbon paper with care when you have finished a tracing and place gently onto a home scanner to "develop" the image.

An example of a "developed" latent image is shown below.

Carbon Paper Trace Monotype: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère - after Edouard Manet.

 

Printing Without a Press - Antony R James.

Over the past couple of years I've been itching to have a go at printmaking, but haven't had the resources.  I've had a go at monotypes, linocuts, waterless lithography (with no success - I can't find the correct sealant!) and kitchen lithography (some success - I can etch foil, but can't print it).

Anyway, after loads of experiments I hit upon a way to make a print that suits my needs. I found a way to produce a print with predictability, at a pace that suited a slow considered approach.

The way I go about it won't really be considered a proper print by purists, however it is a fun, creative way to produce artwork that anyone would be proud of.

Once my "Prints" are finished I upload them to Redbubble.com (Search rusty65).

Here's an example of my "printmaking" - this was created with black Genesis heat set paint brushed onto the back of an inkjet printout of Renoir's 'Luncheon of the Boating Party' and traced on to a blank sheet of standard A4 printing/photocopy paper with a ball point pen. Obviously everything has to be taped to a book or clipboard to preserve registration (so everything lines up - even after weeks of working on the tracing. I would advise using clear tape to secure the A4 blank paper and paint covered inkjet image to the book or clipboard.)

Yes you did read correctly - a tracing can be produced over many weeks at your own pace, so very complex images are possible - once your print is complete, simply use a Genesis heat set gun to dry the paint (read manufacturer's instructions on using the heat set gun, as it can get very hot, and should never be used as a hairdryer!).

My finished print was scanned onto computer and I uploaded it to Redbubble.com