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I painted this old phone back in July. And it sat there being an acrylic phone painting in a sketchbook. I had a love/hate relationship with it, because I had used cheap paper as a test and then liked the end result, and didn't want to try to do it again.
So, it sat there while I let my peripheral brain work it out. Is it the best solution? Probably not, but it got my end result done and I don't have to think about it anymore. Yay!
I cut the phone out of the Canson XL sketchpad paper. It has several acrylic layers on it so the piece was at least sturdy, except for the dangling pieces of phone cord. I then used Golden heavy gel medium to glue it to a 12x16" piece of Arches oil paper. Arches oil paper has gesso, or some kind of sizer, blended into the paper pulp at the factory so one can use it immediately for oil-based media, no priming needed. 300# paper - great stuff. But it doesn't like things getting glued to its special surface, and it took some doing before the telephone cutout lay flat.
Then it was easy to make a sketch around it and paint a funky background using oil pastels, just using my desk easel on the drafting table. The goal was now to to mount and glue/attach the Arches paper inside the phone niche in my house (1950 bungalow). Also, the niche, though still 4" deep all the way around, has certainly been filled in and modified over time as it's no longer functional. The "finishing" is kind of rough (though we painted it and the hallway) and not particularly even around the four sides.
So, I had to cut the 12x16" Arches paper to fit into the near-square niche as best it would, and then literally paint the top slice of the painting directly onto the back of the niche.
It looked like this at the beginning:
Then I took the finished painting on the Arches paper, applied framer's tape on the back around the edges, and inserted/pushed it into the niche. It lined up with the top pretty well, though I had to touch up some of the lines.
I still have a bit more touch up to do, but with pencils, since the chubby oil pastels don't get up into those corners very well. I applied a heavy layer of oil pastels to smooth over the top edge of the paper and blend it back evenly to the wall. (The paper line is still visible in this straight-on photo, but in the hallway it's not noticeable.) Oil pastels are superb for this kind of thing.
Once I got the paper in, I painted the phone cord onto the ledge of the niche. A view from the hall:
Aside from a bit of touch up work, the worst is over!
Seriously glad this project is done. Thanks for looking!
So, it sat there while I let my peripheral brain work it out. Is it the best solution? Probably not, but it got my end result done and I don't have to think about it anymore. Yay!
I cut the phone out of the Canson XL sketchpad paper. It has several acrylic layers on it so the piece was at least sturdy, except for the dangling pieces of phone cord. I then used Golden heavy gel medium to glue it to a 12x16" piece of Arches oil paper. Arches oil paper has gesso, or some kind of sizer, blended into the paper pulp at the factory so one can use it immediately for oil-based media, no priming needed. 300# paper - great stuff. But it doesn't like things getting glued to its special surface, and it took some doing before the telephone cutout lay flat.
Then it was easy to make a sketch around it and paint a funky background using oil pastels, just using my desk easel on the drafting table. The goal was now to to mount and glue/attach the Arches paper inside the phone niche in my house (1950 bungalow). Also, the niche, though still 4" deep all the way around, has certainly been filled in and modified over time as it's no longer functional. The "finishing" is kind of rough (though we painted it and the hallway) and not particularly even around the four sides.
So, I had to cut the 12x16" Arches paper to fit into the near-square niche as best it would, and then literally paint the top slice of the painting directly onto the back of the niche.
It looked like this at the beginning:
Then I took the finished painting on the Arches paper, applied framer's tape on the back around the edges, and inserted/pushed it into the niche. It lined up with the top pretty well, though I had to touch up some of the lines.
I still have a bit more touch up to do, but with pencils, since the chubby oil pastels don't get up into those corners very well. I applied a heavy layer of oil pastels to smooth over the top edge of the paper and blend it back evenly to the wall. (The paper line is still visible in this straight-on photo, but in the hallway it's not noticeable.) Oil pastels are superb for this kind of thing.
Once I got the paper in, I painted the phone cord onto the ledge of the niche. A view from the hall:
Aside from a bit of touch up work, the worst is over!
Seriously glad this project is done. Thanks for looking!
