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Art For Sale - Saint Michael Miniature Pen and Ink Drawings
including:
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Our Lady of Guadalupe, stippled ink on genuine sheep skin, a (finished) Work In Progress |
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including:
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Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Inc.
The Society of Tempera Painters
Marians Of The Immaculate Conception
Egg Tempera
A work in progress
Personalizing a sketchbox
Years ago a friend of mine had given me a small sketchbox filled with tubes of oil paint that she no longer used. The box was pretty well smeared with old oil paint, but it was functional.
I have decided to clean up this sketchbox and use it to keep other drawing or painting materials in. I chose to decorate the top with three small egg tempera "panels". Below you will see the steps it took to clean up the box, prepare it for receiving egg tempera, and the finished box. The nice thing about a project like this is that the decoration or painting on the top can be a personal expression, perhaps one to inspire new ideas, to remind each of us what art means to us, or simply to visually state "this is me." :) These also make a nice gift.
Materials:
| 12" x 6 1/2" x 2 1/4" wooden sketchbox with palette (new or old) - if new, only light sanding is needed |
| Gesso (Gamblin Traditional Gesso Mix) for box lid |
| Gesso (acrylic based) for box interior), tinted |
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Egg tempera paints (pigment, egg yolk, water, clove oil for preservative) |
| Masking tape |
| Pencil |
| Sandpaper |
| Paint Stripping Fluid (may not be necessary) |
This was the used palette that came with the box. The box itself was also fairly well marked with oil paint.
This is the palette after using a paint stripper product, and sanding quite a bit. The paint stripper may not be necessary if using a new or a less marked box.
This is the box interior bottom after removing most of the paint and sanding, and below is the box front after the same treatment. The box interior has some oil residues that are well into the wood.
So, the box has now been completely sanded. This did remove the old (attractive) mahogany stain that was on the box, but it was necessary in order to remove the paint. Only the palette needed a paint stripping product. Sanding removed all the other paint. I did not remove the hardware when sanding because of the way it is attached to the wood. Special woodworking finish nails hold the latch and handle in place, and I was not sure I would find similar nails should I bend the originals. The "correct" way would have been to remove the hardware instead of sanding around it.
The next step is to prepare the lid with gesso to accept egg tempera. This was accomplished by taping off the desired areas and applying layers of traditional gesso. The photo below shows the three steps. I chose three small panels, but the entire box top could be gessoed as one surface. Follow the package directions for preparing and applying the traditional gesso.
For the interior of the box, I decided to protect the wood (and hide some stains) by applying tinted acrylic gesso. This is not the type of gesso that will easily accept egg tempera, but it will provide some measure of protection. This gesso will enable me to place drawing materials in the box without worrying that the left over oils that might be in the wood will get on my supplies, and it also affords some protection from the box interior receiving more damage from the supplies. In addition, because it is an acrylic gesso, should I decide to decorate the box interior at a later date, I can, as the wood is already primed for acrylics or other durable paint.
Interior box bottom with tinted acrylic gesso applied.
This is a partial scan of the box top ready for painting.
Here is the box with the designs inked in and tape surrounding the areas to be painted.
Here is the box after 11.5 total hours of work. The backgrounds on the three shells are finished. I chose the background colors of blue, yellow, and green because for me they represent my favorite things from the beach: the water, the sun and sand, and the seaweed. :) These three shells also were models for another of my paintings called "Items From Home". I actually have baskets of shells, but I seem to like these three, fitting for a sketchbox that will be personalized for me. All that is left is to paint the three shells and then decide whether to varnish the box.
Finished box top
detail of the painting of the partial interior of a (broken) clam shell, used by Native Americans for trading and called wampum.
Above is the box top with the egg tempera paintings finished, including a detail scan. To this point, the project has taken 17 hours. Slight amounts of gesso or pigment had leaked under the tape, so to give the paintings a more finished look, I outlined them in permanent India ink using a Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph size 4 (1.20) technical pen. I have inked on wood before and was already aware that the ink would not run or bleed, but I did have to be careful not to smear any of the ink as I applied it. I will now let the sketchbox paintings dry thoroughly and then varnish the box to protect the surface of the paintings. I don't normally varnish my egg tempera paintings, but as this will be a box that gets used, I think varnish is a good idea.