Sanding the tombstone
smooth...
The first layer of. The final coat and
rubbing work in progress. paint is on and drying
On July 29th Blog I wrote about “Finishing Well” while working on Foxy David 2.
Last week you saw he’d been fired and today
you can see how my “finishing” work has continued.
The first thing I’ve done is paint him
with a coat of gesso. This is simply to have a good base for the rest of the
colors I will be applying. Then, since I’m looking at something of a bronze
finish for him I need to do a base coat of secret background colors. I know, isn’t
that fun. Your are getting in on a secret. These colors are of course important
in that I will be rubbing the final brown coat to reveal these background colors
and have a result that will highlight important elements of the sculpture. You
can see the results in the final photo.
For this to work the base background has
to be completely dry before the final brown is applied. The reason is that as I
apply the brown finish color I begin, in a minute or two using a wet paper
towel to dabbing/wiping the not yet dried brown away in the appropriate areas. So,
if the background is not completely dry you will have a whole different thing
happening. The colors will mix as you rub the brown and you will end up very
easily revealing the white gesso undercoat. In this case, this is not the
affect I wanted so I made sure the undercoat was dry before applying the brown
coat. On another project, that might be just the right thing.
The purpose of rubbing the darker coat
of brown is for several reasons, but mainly it can be summed up in the word “highlighting.”
So again, depending on the affect or finish one wants you will need to work accordingly.
Sometimes you may wipe most of the final coat away so that only the
indentations and carvings remain dark and are highlighted on the lighter background
color. That can be a very nice affect for a finish. In this case I did much less
and removed the brown in a gradual way highlighting folds of clothing, edges,
corners, knees, leather straps etc. More of a weathered look I guess.
You can see that his cape is red! Well,
he’s a king right? He needs something “royal” and also, it just looks more
interesting and richer.
Next I’ll be tackling that foxy head and
then finish off with the cape!
“The
mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”
Colossians
1:26
PS. Sat. night we are celebrating our
daughters birthday with an “outdoor moving night event” showing an India Jones
flick! Over 40 guests registered. All
kinds of different flavored popcorn and more... Very exciting and amazing event. Now I
just need to find my Indiana Jones hat...
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