Painting with Distemper-- Goldenberg & Soley

Preparation of Panel

Date and Time: 2016.February.22, 1:30pm
Location: Chandler 206

Materials:

• Masking Tape
• Rabbit Skin Glue
• Double Boiler
• Thermometer
• Large Paintbrush

Process:

1. Used masking tape to divide sections on the panel. The panel had been prepped with rabbit skin glue during the previous semester.
2. Melted rabbit skin glue in double boiler. Use thermometer to ensure that glue is approximately 70 degrees celsius.
3. Using a large paintbrush, lightly coated the panel with rabbit skin glue. A light layer is necessary to ensure that the panel will dry.
4. 
5. Allowed panel to dry before transferring image onto panel.
6. 

Image Transfer onto Panel by Pouncing

Date and Time: 2016.2.25, 04:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Chandler 206

Materials:

• Image to transfer (on printer paper)
• large sewing needle
• masking tape
• champagne cork
• finely ground charcoal and cloth applicator
• gessoed panel primed with rabbit-skin glue
• Fine brush
• Yellow ochre distemper

Process

1. Poke dull edge of needle into cork. The cork acts as a a grip to ease cramping during pouncing.
2. Use the cork and needle apparatus to poke holes (pounce) in the printed image. Holes should correspond to the outline of the image/
3. Tape the image to the panel.
4. Dip the rolled piece of fabric into finely ground charcoal.Tapp away excess
5. Using the charcoal applicator, trace the holes such that the charcoal falls through the holes and stains the panel.
6. Remove the punctured paper carefully such that the charcoal does not smudge or stain the panel.
7. 
8. Create ocher distemper by mixing ground ocher and rabbit skin glue until it has a liquid consistency.
9. Trace over the charcoal outline on the Panel with the ocher distemper using a thin brush.
10. 

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Painting Panel with distemper paint

Date and Time: 2016.2.29 12:45-2:15om and 2016 3.2, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location: Chandler 206

Materials:

• sample design (portrait of a man)
• prepared panel, primed with rabbit skin glue and under drawn in distemper
• various pigments in dismember (rabbit skin glue, chalk, and water), such as bavarian earth, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, lamp black, red ochre, brown earth, and sap green

Process

1. Create distemper paints by combining various pigments (see above) with rabbit skin glue.
2. 
3. Paint layers of distemper paints from dark to light (and thus shadows to highlights). We layered dark brown (brown earth, burnt sienna) and built up shades of greenish-yellow (yellow ochre and bavarian green) and pale pink (red ochre), etc
4. 
5. Allow each layer to dry before applying the next layer.
6. Hues are become more transparent after they dry, so it essential to consider the final color when mixing pigments.

Result:

Notes:

• It was interesting how the dried paint changed in appearance compared to when it was fresh and wet. We also found it really important to wait until the paint was dry before adding another layer or color because the under-layers of paint really showed through and affected the look of subsequent paint layers. For example, the preliminary dark brown layer really showed through even out final layer of white highlights, adding depth and shadow to the modeling.
• Mixing the pigments to achieve the desired color of paint was at time difficult. We particularly struggled to make a flesh-colored paint of the proper tone; our sample image had quite yellowish-green skin but we ended up with a much more rosy peach color (more realistic, but not as close to the sample). If we had more time and expertise it would have been good to make more colors and be able to really deliberately layer and hatch.
• Our final painting did not look very close to the original in terms of color, but we were quite satisfied with the overall outcome as it 'looked like a person.'
• It was difficult to maintain the contours of our underdrawing as we added more and more paint layers, so the final version does not bear a very close resemblance to features of the original face.