Panel Painting

Name: Njeri Ndungu and Cleo Nisse
Date and Time:

2016.February.22, 10:45 am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Application of Distemper to Panel

Materials:

• Rabbit Skin Glue, 1:10 glue to water
• Wide, Flat Brush
• Double boiler
• Panel Prepared With Gesso layer (Panel 04)

Procedure:

• The rabbit skin glue solution was brought to 54 degrees Celsius

• We used a wide paint brush to apply one coat of rabbit skin glue to the upper right quadrant of the panel

• We dipped the brush into the solutions, wiped the excess on the inner edge of the beaker, and used short, slow strokes to apply a single, even layer to the panel

• The final panel acquired a yellow tinge. Dark areas were revealed beneath the gesso layer, which was made slightly translucent in the rabbit skin glue

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Name: Njeri Ndungu and Cleo Nisse
Date and Time:

2016. February.25, 4:30 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Transfer Images to Panel
Materials:

• Image (Botticelli?) [Get the dimensions of the printout]
• Wax Paper (Tracing Paper)
• Fine Point Sharpie
• Sewing Needle and Bottle Cork
• Charcoal with rolled up cloth
• Panel Prepared with Gesso Layer
• Yellow Ochre suspended in rabbit skin glue

• Tape the original image to the table
• Cut a portion of tracing paper that is about half an inch longer on each side than the original image
• Tape top and left side of the tracing paper to the table over the original image
• Trace the prominent lines of the face using the fine point sharpie
• Flip the tracing paper up occasionally to compare the original image to the traced outline and determine which lines should be transferred – this is because the tracing paper is a bit opaque and it is at times difficult to distinguish details through it. This may also be due to the fact that the painting uses gradients to form shapes rather than contour lines which we are creating on the trace paper
• Remove the tracing paper from the table – there is a significant difference between the trace and the original image. It seems reminiscent of a sculpture to me, perhaps because of the way the surface of the paper catches light.
• Use the needle inserted in the cork to prick holes into the outline on the wax paper spaced approximately half a cm apart
• This part of the process takes quite long. Have to keep the paper taut to prick through effectively, it works best if you tape one side back down to the table hold the other side taught with one hand and prick with the other. It is best to have a neutral background behind the tracing paper while pricking so it is easier to discern the contour lines
• Cut the tracing paper down to the size of the quadrant of the panel
• Tape it down so it doesn’t shift during application of the charcoal
• Take small rolled up cloth and dip into the charcoal
• Dab the charcoaled cloth along the outline of pin holes
• Seems like it will not be as precise as it needs to be since the charcoal shifts quite easily along the surface of the tracing paper and the paper is not as taut on the panel as one might hope to prevent it form getting everywhere

[Get tracing paper picture from Cleo]

[Get charcoal back picture from Cleo]

• Remove the tracing paper
• The outline has transferred fairly precisely to the panel there is a bit of smear
• Gently blow the excess charcoal from the surface of the outline – not much leaves the surface, it seems to have adhered slightly to the distemper layer
• Trace the charcoal dotted outline with yellow ochre pigment that has been mixed with rabbit skin glue – the paint is rather sticky, it clings to the brush and does not adhere to surface of the panel. It either beads up on the surface of the panel or lifts the charcoal from the surface but remaining of the brush – it is difficult to determine the direction of lines when there is a dense collection of dots. Referring to the tracing paper does not seem to help much since the outline has essentially been obliterated by pinpricks and charcoal

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Name: Njeri Ndungu and Cleo Nisse
Date and Time:

2016. February.29, 1:00 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Flesh Tones in Distemper


Cleaning off excess charcoal with goose feather^


Cleaned outline ^


Proportion for the shadow layer^

Color and thickness display (mad grainy)^


Grinding the shadow layer ^


Collect the shadow stuff and put it in the glass beaker^


Add RSG and put it in hot water bath ^


Apply shadow, wipe excess on the glass and start ^ (determine what area to paint, be sure to give him a pupil: changes everything)


Check the original often (look studious like Cleo) ^


Final shadow layer of the face^


Middle flesh tone proportion pigments^


compare pigment color to example^


Oil to pigment proportion^


Pigment in RSG in hot water bath^

Apply the middle tone ^


Final middle tone application^


Pigment mix^


Grind pink flesh pigment^

[Get picture of application of the pink layer from Cleo]

• charcoal for black or iron oxide to darken in place of bistre (tried lamp black but its too dark)
• red ochre –
• sap green – very little sap green lake so only use v little
• when that runs out we use (green earth) Bavarian green earth which is a very different color
• that’s first layer^
• second layer pinkish, green-y brown-y layer will have some white – chalk or powdered white lead – think chalk will be quite transparent
• third layer – a little more pink
• fourth layer – flesh layer on 13 r – a little yellow, vermillion (red instead since vermillion is a mercury sulfide) madder red lake rather than cochineal
• First thing mix colors with water – easiest to do in beakers
• Use 100 ml beakers because have to leave in a hot water bath
• Scoop out mixture using tiniest bit of sap green
• Mix with a bit of water just to mix the pigments
• Then just put the ‘bistre’ layer first
• ‘layer’ just means you put it down in the area that will be dark not that you put it over the entire face
• mix with a brush initially
• (bistre red ochre and sap green)
• cleo: we should grind it first in water because they look quite grainy in the samples of blacks used
• Naomi thinks using a brush to mix is best because ‘it pushes the particles into the water’
• Add water to figure out the shade – if its appropriate just tap water used
• Did not control the amount of water – its very grainy and much ‘pinker’ than expected
• Add rust to make it a bit blacker – the rust will already reddish but the color looks red because too much red ochre
• Be sure to use the water glass when grinding
• Really loud grainy sound when mulling –
• It looks very dry and sounds dry (is this because we are grinding it with water rather than oil? Not as viscous. Oil suspends the pigments in a different way and doesn’t allow them the same amount of friction when grinding – we also just don’t grind for very long in the oil so perhaps this is a factor as well)
• Can hear the pigments become finer as you mull – there is a right sound and a wrong sound
• The color really changes – a lot less red becomes much browner – if you are breaking down the rust particles
• It is okay to wash it down the drain because they are all natural pigments
• (curious whether the colors described by manual is actually applicable to this painting – hey don’t come from the same region) – a lot more greenish yellows than expected
• make sure the hot water bath is not over filled but still floats low in the outer beaker
• The water dried quite quickly “the pigment is quite thirsty”
• Red ochre is drying and also the rust 2 minutes and it was completely dried out
• Added glue – turns it quite dark put more glue – v. odd
• Add pipette full of glue – make
• Its so hard to articulate when you do have a sense of something but you’re just like no no no yes!
• Nice to paint with…on glass
• Very nice to use not at all what was expected (more like a watercolor than what we think tempera would be like – is this because of the proportion of glue to water that we used (1:10))
• Interesting to see where to paint the shadow colors – not just color inside the lines – cleo wonders if this is just her trying to paint rather than layer
• Should get the dark shadows in because can’t come back can only go lighter from here
• Must color in the outline to make it go away (don’t want that contour left behind) – very counter intuitive to how we learn to color in early school years, coloring in the lines
• Cleo wonders if she is following the process or just wanting to paint them as a picture
• Surprising that the glue did not make it thicker – did we make it too watery?
• If we think about how they used this method on Tuchleins and those often look like watercolors (unsaturated paintings) perhaps this is not that off?
• Also you just wouldn’t want it to be that thick since it would then be harder to manage just as much then as it would be today
• (perhaps layering was more of a possibility than we are often led to believe, especially since he specifically talks about layering with regard to distemper)
• Have to keep it thin enough so that it dries quickly
• If you do shorter strokes is seems to be a bit more viscous
• Perhaps this is just because the paint is cooling down
• We are both concerned that the colors will not change so significantly to give us the colors of the example. – is this because we used the wrong colors or pigments or is it because the example that we are using was not made exactly in this same method?
• We wonder if we’ve gone in too heavy with the shadows. Compared to other peoples attempts we seem to have gone in the lightest and it still seems too dark – thinking ahead we think that it would be best to use lead white for the next layer in terms of adding opacity, the chalk doesn’t seem like it would cover the shadows in an effective way
• When you get used to the handling, you can vary the thickness and the opacity depending on how dry you allow it to get- the eyebrow is darker and done later
• At about 12 minutes it had almost completely dried out, forcing us to paint in short quick strokes – maybe this is because of how little we used? A larger batch might take longer to dry.
• Thinking with your hand – you make microdecisions in real time as you are painting so you are mimicking and measuring as you go rather than thinking first, planning, and then applying – more subconscious after years of practice
• For me its more natural with drawing with the short strokes that are cautious and amended later – perhaps just because not as familiar with painting as drawing
• Always think about the consequences of how you leave things – palettes in pigments
• Fair amount of green, not too much yellow.. not a verdaccio its more of a base non-shadow
• The lead white doesn’t dissolve in the water =( or in glue
• Lead carbonate is not soluble in water – just using chalk as the white
• Lots of consultation over the strength and the location of shadows
• Just a bit of green, more yellow, - equal parts ochre and white and quarter part of green – mix dry pigments with palette knife –
• When mixing the pigments its unclear how close to get to the example since we’re not sure how much it will darken 1. When we grind it, just like the shadow layer did, and 2. When its suspended in the distemper, 3. After it dries
• Cleo; thinks it will go yellower and darker when it dries
• Turned a bit orange when ground
• It seems quite thick but it goes a bit paler when it dries – Pam Smith
• Be sure to put enough water so that the dry pigment doesn’t spray up at you when you press down with the muller
• The chalk doesn’t make it light enough, we can only tint it greener but can’t really get it whiter, green will make it duller but not lighter
• Want to try to use a bigger flatter brush for second layer since not as fine details, this layer goes over everything
• [Stopped transcribing at 1:07 of 1:45]

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Name: Cleo Nisse
Date and Time:

2016. March.9, 11:00 am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Flesh Tones in Distemper

[Get earlier photos from Cleo]

• The red lake pigment in distemper [Did she use egg yolk instead of rsg this time?]

• Applied red lake pigment highlights - now seems counterintuitive that the highlights would be lakes
• This is the only paint layer that we did not grind
• Reflections:
  • The materials don't seem to be working in the ways we expect them to.
  • problems primarily occurred with the application of the red flesh tone layers
  • The chalk white was far too translucent to achieve the desired color, this affected the appearance of all of the previous and successive layers.
  • Have we misunderstood the instructions? Did we perhaps follow them too literally, at times we resisted the urge to correct based on our experiential knowledge about painting but perhaps this is the missing ingredient

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Name: Njeri Ndungu and Cleo Nisse
Date and Time:

2016. March. 9, 11:45 am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Flesh Tones in Oil


Before photo^


reference image^


too much lamp black!^


more accurate proportions^


grinding^


apply^


Process^

[me doing Joseph's shadows]



Final with background^


End palette with shadow color and the background color^

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ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES

• 
  
• note time
• note (changing) conditions in the room
• note temperature of ingredients to be processed (e.g. cold from fridge, room temperature etc.)
• document materials, equipment, and processes in writing and with photographs
• notes on ingredients and equipment (where did you get them? issues of authenticity)
• note precisely the scales and temperatures you used (please indicate how you interpreted imprecise recipe instruction)
• see also our informal template for recipe reconstructions

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