The bright colours of yesterday's base coats of paint quickly muted as Peter brushed on and judiciously wiped off the glazes. The textures and crevices were enhanced by the transparent paint left behind. The plaster suddenly looked old. Once the glazes were dry Peter then added the highlights and further aged the pieces using a dry brush technique. The last step was done by using the sanding disk in the grinder to deliberately remove paint from the freshly painted metal. Each pass was carefully planned to appear haphazard. A little sprayed acid aged the metal by years in a few minutes.
Instant circus!
As we start painting the base colours onto our features things tend to look pretty bright and garish initially. We know from experience that things will quickly tone down when the glazes are brushed on and then brighten again as we add the highlights and dry brushing. As we brushed on the bright orange base colours of the bricks and bright blues of the rocks this was quickly forgotten. It looked a lot like an instant circus. But tomorrow things will soon look like they are supposed to. Stay tuned...
Anything but ordinary
Coming up with a clever idea for a theme is fairly easy. When six ideas are needed to work up a themed series it is a little tougher. We decided on six themed signs for NEBs Pub. The sixth sign gave me some pause and made me really scratch my head. I wanted a double sided sign, a unique bracket and it had to follow the faerie theme in an unusual fashion. After hours of scribbling, erasing and reworking I finally struck on an idea I loved. 'Garden Variety Gnome Whiskey' - anything but ordinary. This will be a fun one to create!
