Shading Gold Leaf Scrolls

[Don Fearon]

Trying to broaden my gilding skills. Currently working on roman scrolls. Any tips on working with asphaltum to produce proper shading?

Thanks for the help.

[Doug Bernhardt]

Boy....that's a tough one to address in this way and will try to put a few thoughts down and post them tomorrow. Am pressed for time right now. I will add however that the post for the GoldLeaf workshops lead by N.Weber and John Studden are an excellent way to gain that as well as many other skills. Noel has used that technique many many times.

[Mike Jackson]

Dan,
If you can afford it, try to make it to one of Noel's workshops. You'll learn a lot in a short period, plus network with many sign artists with the same interests.

You'll probably get a few tips here to help steer you in the right direction. Besides mixing a little asphaltum in with your clear varnish glazes, you can also buy artist oil colors and glaze with other colors and tones. Burnt Umber will give you a similar color to asphaltum, while paynes gray might give you more of a cool gray. Quite a few of the old scrolls were done by applying a thin layer on top of an underlying thin layer, building up pigment to darken areas.

Aside from the tips you get here, the real answer is to practice on test pieces! There's no substitue for this learning curve.

Good luck, and welcome aboard!

Mike Jackson

[Doug Bernhardt]

Well..........dropped in to say exactly what Mike has just added. Mixed with varnishes (bulletin spar is terrific) you can apply several coats at different time periods (it dries quickly) and the overlapping gives sort of a blossoming effect. Just try to make your brush strokes count, you know even, smooth, long strokes so you don't need to return and touch up. It looks bad in the end.