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.

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:

The Art of Self Promotion

      Wow, November is just about over.  I barely even remember it starting, but it's been a crazy busy month with art related deadlines and day jobs filling up my schedule.  A few more weeks, and I'll be adding cookie baking into my agenda.  Oh yes, I am a Christmas cookie baking fiend ;)

I even designed a cute cookie themed baking apron.
You can buy it here.

      A lot of this month has involved working on self promotion because part of getting myself established as a full time artist means getting myself out there and noticed.  This has

Prints Finally Available

      So today marks a new milestone for Niki's Art... a teeny weeny one... but a milestone none the less.  I've officially hooked up with a print on demand service so that I may provide prints of some of my artwork.   

This being the first one to be made available.  Come on, you know you want to buy it.

      I've been wanting to get prints of my work done for quite some time now.  After all, one of the reasons I paint is so that I can share my work with other people who enjoy it, but let's be real.  Not everyone can afford a $250+ painting, and even if they could, that would only be one person who would forever get to enjoy that painting.  Prints allow for a much wider audience, and a happier me because now more people can have them in their homes.  Ideally, I would like to invest in a high quality printer and inks so that I can have full control over my prints, but for now I've decided to place my trust in Crated.com.  I just recently received the proof I ordered and was pretty pleased with the results.  I was even more pleased to find the colors of the final print matched my computer monitor image to a tee, which will make future pieces easier to adjust.

      This site offers a few different options.  For starters, you can order just the straight up print, or you have the option to order it already framed and matted.  There's also the option for a printed canvas.  The original size of the cat painting above is an 8"x10" but it is also available in larger sizes.  I should also note, if you do decide to order the print by itself, there is no white boarder and the print comes delivered in a mail tube, so the print itself will be rolled up.  Not a huge deal, but this might provide a small challenge if you're framing it yourself.

      You may have noticed I've added a link to my Crated store to the sidebar.  If cats aren't your thing, I encourage you to keep checking back, as I will be posting some more artwork very soon.  But, of course, if you are one of those people who totally love this painting, you can order the print here.