Mirror Paintings Revisited

     Lately I've been experimenting with an idea that I've been bouncing around on the back-burner, and did a painting with a mirror background.  Now, mirror paintings themselves are nothing new for me.  If you've looked at my portfolio before, you may have seen the Chickadee Cherry Blossom painting I've done.

     The problem with this, is that it's very difficult to maintain a piece like this.  For starters, glass has no tooth to it, meaning there's nothing really for the paint to grip to.  One razor blade will peel even the best paint off a smooth surface with next to no effort, and while most people aren't going to be purposely scraping apart artwork, the fragility of the piece does pose a problem.  I've experimented with a few ways to solve this issue, but the solution I came up with is time consuming and while it holds better, it still isn't as stable as good old canvas.  It also doesn't solve the second problem, and that's how to clean the glass.  Glass gets dusty and dirty, and you can't just Windex a piece of art… well, you could, but I doubt it will turn out too well.

     So to combat problem number two, I started looking into reverse painting, which means painting backwards on the glass then using a mirror spray to add the background last.  This way the glass completely covers the artwork, not only protecting it like glass in a frame, but also making it easy to clean.  I've done reverse painting a few times before, most notably the daycare window art I did awhile back, but never anything more detailed than a cartoon.

See more of the daycare windows in my portfolio.

     In doing my mirror painting I've learned/ reaffirmed a few things:

1) Having no surface tooth sucks.  A smooth surface means paint slides all over the place, making blending, an already difficult thing to do backwards, frustrating beyond comprehension. 

2) Light not only shines through the glass, but through any layer of paint not thick enough to block all of it.  This means you get to see lots of streaks every time you flip your painting around to check it, and painting on glass means ten times as many streaks.  I was constantly blotting and filling in these streaky patches. 

3) You get dizzy flipping the glass around to constantly check your painting progress.  If I try this again, I will be rigging a second mirror to see my painting's reflection as I work.

4) Acrylics are probably not the best option if you're aiming for high detail and shading.  Even after they dry, painting over acrylics with a second layer sometimes causes it to break up on the smooth surface.  Next thing you know, there are chunks in your painting when you flip it over.  Add to this, the fast drying rate of acrylics and sometimes things dry in place before you realize how bad the color blend looks.  If I wasn't so against the messiness of oils and the idea of having to wait months for it to dry properly so I could mirror coat this, I would have used them.

5) The mirror coating I used is not as clear as it would be creating a mirror using the silvering process.  That said, I'm not sure what the silvering process would do to the paint, though I highly speculate nothing good. 


     Despite the hiccups, in the end, I was pretty happy with my final painting.  

I think I have a thing for chickadees and cherry blossoms.

     The mirror coating worked pretty well and while the blending was messy in some spots, it all came together rather nicely.  I would like to make these mirror paintings available for purchase, so I will be revisiting and perfecting this idea.  Stay tuned to see what I come up with.  Until then…

    Thanks for reading.

Doodley Do #1 - Tackling too many ideas

          I've been bitten by the idea bug on more than one occasion (okay, a lot more).  It gets me into a lot of trouble when it comes to completing projects because there's always another idea waiting just over the horizon begging me to bring it to life.  Anyone who's looked into time management skills will know doing too much at once is far less productive than focusing on one task at a time, but let's be real here.  If you've got an good idea, throwing it on the back burner is like throwing a piece of your soul into a box with a label "Do not open 'til Christmas."  It's there.  You know it is, and it's kill... ing... you.

Soon, my precious.  Soon.

          So what to do?  Well, if you're me, you do what you shouldn't do and work on it anyway!  Ha!  No, but seriously, too much at a time only makes your work suffer and your patience burn out because twenty started projects without one finished is really discouraging.  For me, I've always found the best thing is a list of all the important, must do stuff.  I say this and also point out that I'm a bad list keeper.  I write a list.  Loose it.  Write another list.  Loose that.  Find the first list.  Revise it.  Loose it.  In less than a week my desks are covered in sticky notes, but despite all of that, it somehow keeps me on top of things and when I can strike a line through an item on the list(s), it gives me a little pat on the back to keep going.

          Once enough things are crossed off and I know I'm caught up on deadlines for the week, I'm allowed to work on one of my "back burner projects."  Eventually, those back burner projects will get moved to "the list" (unless they prove themselves not that great), but until then, I can indulge without feeling guilty.

          And if you're really overrun with ideas, keep a list of those ideas, or notebooks, sketchbooks, computer documents, whatever.  Sometimes I'll comb through my "whatevers"and revisit an idea I had years ago just to see if it still has potential.  If it does, it just might get moved up the line.  If not, I know it'll always be there waiting for me to get back to it.  Happy creating!

    

Trying Something New

      While watercolor tends to be my go to medium, every now and then I will pull out my other mediums to mix things up (and to keep up my skills with them).  Awhile back I did this with my acrylics and experimented with painting on mirrors.  I was pretty happy with the results:

Ready For The New Year

      Here I am again, another month out since my last post.  I'm so ashamed...

      The holiday rush coupled with the usual pressures of life really whooped my butt this year, but emerging from all of it I feel a renewed energy and am ready to tackle the new year with reckless abandon.

New Blog Setup - First post!

    Today marks the momentous occasion of me starting a blog with blogger.  Woot woot!

     I was originally running a blog directly on my website, but despite all of my self taught efforts and success in constructing NikisArt.com, my methods were waaay too inefficient, so I decided it was time to rely on blogger for my blogging needs.  It was the best decision for my sanity (Lord knows I need all the help I can get!).

     So what is Niki's Blog?  Simply put, it is the news hub and information spot for my business, Niki's Art.  You saw that link up above, right?  You should totally click it.  Go ahead.  I'll wait...