Gilding a Panel

I've been forgetting to mention this, but I've been gold-leafing this special panel for a mother-daughter portrait of Kimberly and her daughter Sophia, which as a painting will also be pertinent for my spiritual portrait series, and I did a video clip of myself gilding this panel.  If you haven't already seen it, check it out on my miniature blog, The Ruby Slippers, along with the other posted video clip, a 'virtual visit to my studio.'

Because a short video only allows for highlighting a few aspects of gilding, I want to be sure to mention two more things for those unfamiliar with the gilding process.  It's hard to show the difference in surfaces via online and in video, but I chose oil gilding for this panel because for this particular painting I favored going with it's less shiny, more satiny patina.  The difference between oil gilding and water gilding is that water gilding is burnished with a special tool to a very high shine.  A slow-drying size will give a bit more shine than a fast-drying size, so that's in between the other two options.  Second, I skipped an important but recommended step in my video by not priming my gesso panel first with a venetian red or ochre primer before gilding, because I wanted to expedite my process with this project, but I don't want to skip saying that traditionally this gets laid down first before fast or slow-drying size is added to the panel.  It looks beautiful if a little of the venetian red primer shows through the gold, and it saves gold.

I'll post more progress on "The 'Mary' in Kimberly" later today.

Panel Progress on "The 'Mary' in Kimberly"

Further work here on my panel painting in laying down the initial layer (actually two layers of egg tempera in some darker parts) for the hair, working flesh-tones over the green underpainting, and enhancing shadow areas on the skin which will be softened with further layers.

"The 'Mary' in Kimberly," panel painting in progress

(click on each image for a larger view)

I have started on a panel painting of "The 'Mary' in Kimberly" using an arched icon panel made by Pandora, my main panel supplier.  I am starting my painting with an egg tempera underpainting in soft greens including a pigment called Bohemian Green Earth, over which fleshtones will be laid in.  Egg tempera is a translucent painting medium used by icon writers of icon panels, and I use it overall for it's luminous effects.  Luminosity is built through the application of many thin translucent layers of paint.