Texture and gilding. (Patreon)

I am continuing to work on the painting and in this post I will talk about creating a texture for gilding. The video can be divided into two stages, namely the creation of texture and gilding, but since they are not significant separately, I combined them into one video.

Texture. Regarding the texture, I want to say that in this work it was not necessary. I used this texture to simulate the surface of a panel or wood base. I don't really like the texture of the gilded canvas so I try to make the surface smoother. It should also be borne in mind that a smooth surface of a hard base is better suited for gilding, since gold completely repeats a smooth base and gives a shine and glow of better quality than on a canvas base. However this is a matter of taste and is very subjective. In any case, I offer you a way to simulate the smooth surface of a hard base on the canvas while maintaining the mobility and flexibility of the canvas. For this texture, you need regular oil paint (color of your choice) and fine chalk powder. What for? Since the chalk, like a pigment, is a filler and a filler that does not have opaque properties. Therefore, using chalk, the selected color does not change, but after drying it can be sanded with sandpaper. In other words, it has to looks like a putty from oil paint and chalk. Applying this mixture to the canvas and smoothing with a spatula. After drying, I sand the dried layer with sand paper until it becomes smooth and even. After sanding, all dust must be removed from the surface with a wet napkin or a piece of wet cotton.

Gilding. I start gilding by covering the surface with two layers of shellac. Shellac should be applied with a semi-dry brush without excess. Further, the layer of adhesive medium can be acrylic mixtion or oil mixtion . In this work, I used an oil mixtion because I had one and I like the oil mixtion . I used free gold as I'm used to it. This gold is not pure and contains some platinum and due to this alloy has a colder shade. Gold purity (22 ct). But this gold alloy (moon gold) has much lower ductility than yellow gold (23 ct), so it does not fit as smoothly as yellow gold. Moreover, I performed gilding in this way more than a year ago, so my skills are rusty and result not as good as I expected. The next day I covered the gold with two coats of shellac as I will be doing the ornament over the gold using the technique used in Spanish Catholic sculpture.

By the way, I will talk about this technique in the next post and also about the ornament in this work. If you have a question about information about these processes don’t hesitate and ask in comment below. In the next post, there will be the final stages with ornaments and glazing. Thank you.