Tyger Tyger

[stlukesguild]

Back in art school, I did a drawing of a nude lying on the floor with a ceramic Tigger (from Winnie the Pooh) cookie jar. Light through the blinds cast striped shadows across her body as if she were another tiger. I ended up titling the drawing: Tyger Tyger after a favorite William Blake Poem.

A good number of years later I was working on a painting of a couple of girls that was tentatively titled, Sisters. After completing the setting of the painting I was working on rendering the faces and bodies. At a certain point, I began thinking that it was OK... but bland. I don't know where the idea came from, but I suddenly painted out one of the faces and gave her a Catwoman mask.

One of my studio mates at the time walked over to my space and immediately opined, "What the fuck?!" I started laughing... but I felt it worked. I also realized the other "sister" needed something as well. I toyed with the idea of various other superheroes... and then came to the thought of giving them both the same masks... Tyger Tyger.

Again! Red! In this instance, I began employing florescent paint inspired by some later works by Francis Bacon... and the fact that the DayGlo company was just down the street.

While comic books were among my first artistic inspirations, this was the first painting that explicitly employed themes rooted in comics.

I showed this painting in a large group exhibition and got any number of comments about the title from those who assumed I had misspelled Tiger/Tyger. Here is an installation view in my studio with my wife to give a better idea of the scale of these paintings:

 

[snoball]

Good job David!

 

[stlukesguild]

Thanks, Sno.

 

[Hermes2020]

I like so much about this painting: the diagonals, your reds, and the gold against the red. How permanent are fluorescent colours in general, and those from DayGlo in particular? I would like to play with them some time.

 

[joe1It]

I find it a majestic and very beautiful and interesting job.

 

[stlukesguild]

The fluorescent paints I use are acrylic. They are translucent. I have mixed them with the other acrylics... or more often I will apply them like a glaze over the regular acrylic. I am uncertain of their permanence, which is one reason I employ them in this manner.

 

[Artyczar]

Love those reds! Good job.

 

[Enyaw]

Such bright color and subject matter must make your paintings sought after things. They must sparkle IRL. Good work.

 

[Trier]

Hey! I almost missed this one, it's getting hard for me to keep up but maybe if I put "RED" in the search box, all of your paintings would come up; I should be so lucky.

Really admire your work.

 

[Trier]

I forgot to ask, if you have a ready answer, what would be your recommendation for gold in acrylic.

I suddenly feel a need to use it in some new efforts and in some old paintings that would benefit greatly from a better gold than I had at the time.

I get the impression that you presently use the real thing , gold leaf, that is.

Best Location In The Nation

 

[stlukesguild]

I don't use real gold leaf. Gold is currently selling at over $2000 per ounce. I do use real metal leaf. As for gold acrylic... I presume you mean paint... I can't offer any recommendation. I disliked the results of every gold paint I have used. Your best bet would be to try out a few in small bottles and see what works best for you. Musket?

 

[Trier]

I don't use real gold leaf. Gold is currently selling at over $2000 per ounce. I do use real metal leaf. As for gold acrylic... I presume you mean paint... I can't offer any recommendation. I disliked the results of every gold paint I have used. Your best bet would be to try out a few in small bottles and see what works best for you. Musket?

Thanks, will proceed, and maybe musket can recommend a pigment that I could use to make a good gold acrylic paint.

 

[stlukesguild]

Yes... I wonder if there is a pigment that might be added while the paint is wet that would give it a greater metallic appearance.

 

[musket]

There's no gold paint that looks even like imitation gold leaf, never mind the real thing, but Golden makes a nice metallic gold acrylic. Of course, if you're not on a budget you could use shell gold, which is 23KT gold powder in gum arabic. Just add a little acrylic dispersion. That's what I used on this bird. The "tree" however is gilded with 23.75KT rose noble leaf. No paint will give you this look.

Despite the high price of gold, gold leaf weighs almost nothing and isn't all that pricey, probably fifty-seventy bucks a book depending on the type. Much depends on your technique. If you just throw it on any old way, you're gonna lose a lot of leaf. If you do it right, with a gilder's cushion, a gilder's knife and a gilder's tip, there won't be that much waste. But you do want to make sure you save the excess you brush off, for use in faulting-- covering any areas you might have missed in the initial gilding.

Gilding fascinates me, but if you're not the type who goes for the arcane, well, better to use Golden.

 

[musket]

Trier, if you want the look of real gold, paint just won't do as well as metal leaf, why not experiment with imitation gold leaf, like stlukes?
It's inexpensive. I don't know if oil size is used as the adhesive, but he's explained the process well.

Even shell gold looks like what it is-- gold powder, though more like gold than imitation gold paints, since it is real gold. It's expensive for what you get, mostly because turning gold into powder isn't easy.

 

[Trier]

Thanks a lot, musket,
There's a lot of info there to start me to explore the various options.
Nothing like the voice of experience jn these situations, helps a lot.