kackoff
04-30-2008, 01:46 PM
I should probably properly introduce myself...
I have been an artist for 30+ years, and worked at the Smithsonian for 10 years as a scientific illustrator. I am now back in academia in a professorial position.
I work small and tight, generally using watercolor and/or gouache, ink wash, but I especially like silverpoint and egg tempera. Over the years, I have come to adapt working with egg tempera, using watercolors as my pigments. (This makes traveling with art supplies much easier.) I did used to work with pure pigments and plan to go back to this again, as a point of comparison.
I've presently started an illustration, based on the medieval "seige of the castle of love" with watercolor on calf-skin vellum.
I have worked with gold leaf, also, using medieval gesso made from white lead, Armenian bole, sugar, slaked plaster and hide glue. I have tried using calcium carbonate instead of white lead, but the lead provides a harder, shinier surface. Of course, it is toxic and care must be taken in it's handling. I haven't, to date, worked with stamping the leaf, once applied, and am interested in doing this. I have picked up a few, old letterpress pieces over the years. I expect they might work well.
My web site, if anyone is interested, is:
http://mypage.iusb.edu/~kackoff/
It is always under construction, so some of the links on the artwork pages do not go anywhere. But some do.
Any way, hello to all, and I find this forum most informative and helpful.
Karen
I have been an artist for 30+ years, and worked at the Smithsonian for 10 years as a scientific illustrator. I am now back in academia in a professorial position.
I work small and tight, generally using watercolor and/or gouache, ink wash, but I especially like silverpoint and egg tempera. Over the years, I have come to adapt working with egg tempera, using watercolors as my pigments. (This makes traveling with art supplies much easier.) I did used to work with pure pigments and plan to go back to this again, as a point of comparison.
I've presently started an illustration, based on the medieval "seige of the castle of love" with watercolor on calf-skin vellum.
I have worked with gold leaf, also, using medieval gesso made from white lead, Armenian bole, sugar, slaked plaster and hide glue. I have tried using calcium carbonate instead of white lead, but the lead provides a harder, shinier surface. Of course, it is toxic and care must be taken in it's handling. I haven't, to date, worked with stamping the leaf, once applied, and am interested in doing this. I have picked up a few, old letterpress pieces over the years. I expect they might work well.
My web site, if anyone is interested, is:
http://mypage.iusb.edu/~kackoff/
It is always under construction, so some of the links on the artwork pages do not go anywhere. But some do.
Any way, hello to all, and I find this forum most informative and helpful.
Karen