Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Paintings using vintage paper



Last year I bought some vintage train ledger paper from TwoCoolTexans with the purpose of doing another train painting on canvas completely covered with this paper.

As a test, I covered a small 6 by 6 canvas with the paper using Modge Podge. Then I just did a quick Three Trees painting on it. This is what resulted:

I didn't like how the acrylics worked on top of the modge podge, so I tried using my Liquitex Varnish. This was much nicer to paint on and do layers with. I also found that the vintage paper is VERY hard to work with because it's so fragile and dry. It's definitely more pliable once it has some liquid on it (this may seem obvious to some people, but I had to do a trial and error thing).

This painting came out nice...the paper has a tendancy to buckle a bit, but I think it's a result of either using too much liquid. It's a very odd balance of either too much or not enough. Needless to say I won't be covering a 30 by 40 canvas with this.
Recently I purchased some different paper from SushiPotParts to see what different content would do to the balance of the painting. I'm really excited about these because I feel like the content of the vintage paper hold more weight. I used pagers from a vintage Spanish Dictionary...I love the play of the illustrations in between each other.
Next I'll put in some shading on the trees and work with the ground a bit more. I'm not sure I love the shade it is right now. I'll leave you with the latest 3 trees made with vintage paper:





5 comments:

Glenda-TwoCoolTexans said...

Julie, what wonderful pieces that you have done! Love your style, it's very unique. And, thanks for mentioning TwoCoolTexans. Thanks again so much...Glenda

Jamie said...

Julie I LOVE all of these! I have a soft spot for all things ledger:)
I really like the first set of trees in the post. I want to live in those worlds you paint. Love, Jamie

Anonymous said...

Julie, these are too cool!

Stacy's Designs 88 said...

Love the ledger paper in the background of your 3 trees. So cool and vintage.

Ronnie said...

Grabs me! Nice work.