Tudor Pewter


I was slowly awakened before dawn, dreaming I was feeling increasing pain. Finally it got to a degree where pains woke me up and I realized it was real. I am besmurched. Good news though, so far the pains have been managed with regular high doses of Ibruprofin. I was even feeling well enough to go with Clare to Nova Color this morning and we had a great time there. I told Barbara, their most excellent expert paint partner, that I wondered what would happen if I mixed their Black gel for dimension with their incredible metallic Stainless Steel and a matte Black gesso for the miniature window leading. She ooo'd at the thought and proceeded to open the jars to test the combination while raving about what happens when you mix these sort of pigments. Her swatch test resulted in a stunningly beautiful antique pewter look and it rang my bell big time. She also tipped Clare and I off to how their gorgeous Red Iron Oxide looks exactly like real rust when blended atop the Steel with a touch of black. Noted.

Late tonight, I took a simple Tudor pattern and scaled it to fit a panel of the bay window, taped a piece of acrylic on top, mixed the three Pewter pigments together in a squeeze bottle and proceeded to pipe a bead of the mixture on the test piece following the pattern as well as possible. I'll see how it changes and looks when more matte when dry. A next version should have more Steel and less gel to be even better and I've got to do a better job of making the lines straight and even. Tomorrow I can fill in the diamonds with differing thicknesses of the gloss medium and perhaps repeat the process on the reverse, including piping leading on the second side, like a real Tudor window would look. We'll see.

Not much done today but it could be worse. So I'm pleased.

Comments

  1. Wow, that looks awesome! Yeah, a few jigglies here and there, but get them under control and you're singin' in the rain sister!

    You might try a straightedge lifted up to run the edge of the bottle along... something like a yardstick held upright along the line, to serve as a guide to slide the squeezebottle along. Should free you up from those little arm tremors and allow you to concentrate on smooth sailing and even steven squeevin'.

    Oh... oops! I guess once you've got a line or two laid out you couldn't really lay a straightedge atop them anymore, huh? D-oh! Ok, ok... you could have a pair of 2x4s or something standing at each side of your windowpane and lay a (very rigid) straightedge atop them. Think of it as a painter's mahlstick.

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  2. After I posted I went back and played sumore. I figured out the same as you that a perpendicular straight edge helped (and made it peak like the real thing when it's lifted away!) Next I'm going to try to pipe a series of straight lines on wax paper, let them dry, and then glue them on the acrylic panes, cutting the cross lengths to fit. This way should do the trick! I may have to mix in a plastic polymar in order to make the lines flexible enough to stay in one piece when pulled off the wax sheet.

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  3. What a useful post...I love knowing how to create little details like that! Thanks for sharing this, Shel, and thanks for my Halfland button! It now holds a place of honor in my animation shrine with various characters from past films and other stop-mo-memorabilia! :)

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  4. Thanks Michael, stay tuned on the window thing it should get better today and thanks for including Halfland in your animation collection. I'm still waiting to hear from Mike if he's happy with his Ahab mug so I can git' one for my array!

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  5. I totally forgot about the moichandizing! T-shirts! Mugs! Shoelaces! Spatulas! Toilet paper!

    Gotta get on that...

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  6. Oh man.... after the bad experience with the T-shirt I was going to delete all the rest of my stuff, but couldn't figure out how to do it, so I just haven't mentioned it since, hoping everyone would forget. I don't know why the picture didn't show up.... could be because of the black shirt, could be i did something wrong. But it just soured me on the whole thing. So forget I have any merchandise on that damn website, ok?

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  7. Hey Mike, Let's wait until you get an image from a film that YOU LOVE. Not that the Ahab shot isn't great, it's just that the Ahab film is not being shot *right now* and therefore isn't currently loaded with Strider juice.

    When you get a set up you like of say, the bar scene (!) or Buster with the wind blowing his tie (that would be great by the way), etc., we'll take it to a digital print site and rock it. I want one, in fact one of the entire Mike Brent Collection 2006 - 2050.

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