Singing Potatoes
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Sunday, 11 May 2003
½-way mark

Page two is finished. It took Thursday night to do the layout and goldleafing (of which there ended up being more than I'd anticipated), and about twelve hours on Saturday to do the painting (Friday night was taken up with band rehearsal).

I decided to do a "landscape" page rather than one of the geometric borders. Took less time to lay out, but I think the orderliness of a geometric page is more to my liking. Had to buy a couple of new paintbrushes this morning, since the one I bought last Sunday is pretty much worn out.

Since just about all of the calligraphy I've done in the SCA has been for awards, I don't actually have any of my own work; it's all hanging on other people's walls. I'm glad this one is for Karen; it's by far my best work to date, and it'll be nice to have it hanging on my wall for a change.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
An itnteresting question cam up several times yesterday.

Whaen you are painting do you everinadvertantly wipe the brush on you pants? Do you ever lick you brush in order to gather it to a fine point?

Posted by Sid on 11 May 2003 05:35
Hundreds of factory girls were poisoned in watch factories 'cause they licked their brushes to a point and the watchface paint had radium in it.

Will you consider putting up scans of the finished work online? I mean, it's a gift and a private thing, but it's also really go-jus. (And yeah, when I painted a lot I wound up giving away a lot of paintings to friends and loved ones who wanted them -- which was flattering -- so somehow I never wound up with a lot of my stuff hanging on the walls, either....)
Posted by M o I r A on 11 May 2003 08:53
So far, the only thing I've gotten on my pants is a drip of varnish, from when I was making a red glaze to go over some of the gold leaf. And to make a fine point, I keep a piece of paper handy; I put color on the brush, then draw it along the paper while twisting it.

Plenty of painters also poisoned themselves during the Middle Ages and Renaissance by licking their brushes, since many of the pigments used dangerous substances (white, for example, was made from lead).

And, yes, when it's finished, I'll be putting the whole thing online, including some work-in-progress shots that I've been taking. I'm thinking about setting up my camera to take a time-lapse movie of one of the pages from start to finish.

Posted by Godfrey on 11 May 2003 09:14
Oh yes, how could I have forgotten people being poisoned by lead face paint?

And, yes, when it's finished, I'll be putting the whole thing online, including some work-in-progress shots that I've been taking. I'm thinking about setting up my camera to take a time-lapse movie of one of the pages from start to finish.

OOOH yes, do that. I've seen some other examples of time-lapse views of paintings on the net and it is sooo cool. And then of course there's one of my favorite art films where Picasso paints on those clear canvases and all the paintings are burned at the end....
Posted by M o I r A on 11 May 2003 20:02
Well, I tried the time-lapse thing on the third page, but it wasn't working out too well; because I change the angle of the vellum in order to work on different parts, it jumps around too much from frame to frame. Foo.

But at least I've been taking pictures every now and then, so I do have a record of the construction.

Posted by Godfrey on 12 May 2003 00:44
Lead-based paint, delicious but deadly!
Posted by Ginevra on 12 May 2003 07:49
So, had it not been for latex, I would be dead. interesting.
Posted by Sid on 14 May 2003 04:59
So Sid, what's this about you and latex?
Posted by Lunchbox on 14 May 2003 10:50