Page 16 - George O'Hanlon
George O’Hanlon is the technical director of Natural Pigments, and executive director of Iconofile, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting understanding of sacred art. George received his fine arts education and apprenticeship in Mexico. Upon return to the United States, he worked as creative director for advertising agencies in Silicon Valley, working on such major accounts as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and Ricoh. He founded an agency later acquired by the chemical giant, Shin-Etsu. There he served as vice-president of U.S. marketing. In 1992, he studied traditional art techniques abroad. Then in 2001, co-founded Iconofile and in 2003 Natural Pigments to promote an understanding of these practices. Since that time he has formulated hundreds of artists’ paints and materials, including Ceracolors, a waterborne wax paint.
- June 10, 2013 1201
Rublev Colours Stack Process White Lead is made in small amounts according to the 16th-century Dutch method, differing little from the historical “stack process.” It is a basic carbonate of lead and usually contains about 70% lead carbonate and 30% lead hydroxide. This grade of white lead is composed of the actual flakes that fall off the corroded lead coils of the stack process and the white lead that is mechanically removed. It is washed and ground, ready to be mixed with a paint binder...
- June 10, 2013 2089
Instacoll is a size (adhesive) for high-gloss, weather-resistant exterior, and interior gilding. It can be used on nearly all substrates prepared using standard methods to create weather-resistant surfaces...
- June 10, 2013 882
Vermilion and cinnabar are historical pigments of red mercuric sulfide (HgS). The former is the artificial mineral pigment, whereas the latter, cinnabar, is the mineral found in nature. Their hues and undertones are unmatched by any modern equivalent pigments, such as cadmium red...
- June 10, 2013 3817
How to make shell gold and apply shell gold to icons and paintings, and its use in icon paintings...
- June 10, 2013 5073
An earth color palette, the core palette used by old masters, provides both important limitations and advantages. The most significant limitation is the number of hues available in very light and dark values at a high intensity (chromatic purity). Earth colors, because of their subtle nature and the harmony of their hues and relative values, can be used more spontaneously. Although the limitation mentioned, a great variety of color effects is nonetheless possible; a variety considered more than adequate by many of the greatest old masters, including the most famous colorists of the Renaissance...
- June 10, 2013 1117
Dammar (or damar) or soft copal varnishes are soft, very flexible, and transparent but dry slowly. These varnishes have a bright appearance and a faint pale yellow color. The color may be varied from golden yellow to yellowish brown by gamboge, dragon's blood, and asphaltum...
- June 10, 2013 1499
Since the 1970s, it has become difficult to buy lead white in linseed oil to prime canvases and panels. As a result, artists who wish to use oil priming for their supports usually must substitute other materials for the lead white in linseed oil. Read this article on preparing canvas and wood panels with lead white oil primer. Some manufacturers of artists' materials still sell lead white oil paint in cans and large-capacity tubes. It should be noted, however, that most, if not all, of these lead white artists' oil colors are ground in safflower oil or poppy seed oil and not in linseed oil...
- June 10, 2013 1821
This tutorial describes how to prepare and apply a base for gilding and how to apply the gold leaf and burnish the gold. This tutorial includes working with dry powder or cone bole, such as Selhamin Poliment, or wet paste bole, such as Charbonnel Gilder's Clay Base...
- June 10, 2013 1871
The Reeves brothers are credited with the invention of watercolor cakes. Since the introduction of watercolor cakes over 200 years ago, manufactured watercolor paint has changed how artists work. Artists no longer must laboriously grind pigment in gum water to make paint and tirelessly rub hard cakes to get color...
- June 10, 2013 879
To painters, discussing mediums can be like a political debate. There are pro-Maroger, anti-Maroger, pro-natural resins, and anti-natural resins, as well as pro-alkyd and anti-alkyd proponents. The disputes are always about potential cracking, lack of adhesion, and yellowing. I have always been the curious type and have experimented with almost every medium that I could get my hands on. However, if you are new to painting, the best approach is to experiment with the paint right out of the tube so that you can understand and fully integrate into your procedure what the paint can do without additives...
