Mystic Embrace

[Frank Walsh]

Some of you may remember 2 years ago I started a tread of a work in progress. It was going to be the third sculpture I ever attempted...With the two prior ones I only was involved in doing the clay and was left out of the rest of the process. This one was going to be all mine and I'm happy to say it is finally finished.

It is cast in bronze and stands 14" high x 6" wide. Instead of doing a patina I decided to hand paint it. To learn more please visit the original thread. http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=622141







Frank

[Marmsk]

What a beautiful sculpture. The composition of the two dolphin has a beautiful rhythm.

[Frank Walsh]

Thank you Eileen...I like your description of the composition as a "beautiful rhythm".

[ArtsyLynda]

Gorgeous!! And a beautiful paint job! I remember when you were starting this. You've done a wonderful job with it. Congrats! And nice to see you here again!

[sculpturedolls]

Wow, this is beautiful! What a special patina, that you hand painted. I love the rich navy blue and the light blue pattern (airbrushed I assume) painted in. Also, I like you have a bronze highlight above the eye. It really adds balance to the piece instead of just half bronze patina and half painted. Very well done. The brush back of the painted ocean where some sparkle of bronze shows through looks good too.

Questions: What type of paint did you use? Did you paint directly onto the bronze or clean the bronze in some way before painting such as using rubbing alcohol? Did you wax over the paint or use a lacquer? Did you polish the bronze yourself to a high sheen?

I've done some painting on my bronze in the past but always kind of wondered how durable the paint up will be. I've been told it's just fine to paint the bronze with oil or acrylic paint and then wax over it and all is okay. A famous Indian Sculptor colorfully paints the costumes and feathers on his sculptures with good success. I wonder exactly what kind of paint he uses etc. etc.

Thanks for sharing and I'm happy for you to have this sculpture that you were involved throughout the bronze process too!

[Frank Walsh]

Thanks Lynda, it was a long journey and a great education. I do appreciate all the advice you gave me. I'm now trying to decide what I'll sculpt next.

Thank you Sculpturedolls...I'll let you in on my secret but you have to keep this to yourself.

I hand painted this piece using Liquidtex acrylics right out of the tube. This is my medium of choice for my paintings and what I'm most familiar with so why not? I figured if it didn't work, I'd just sandblast it and start all over. BTW I originally planned to air brush it but after welding the two orcas together it was obvious it would be difficult to mask.

I first worked on semi polishing the areas that are normally white. I wanted slightly brushed finish instead of a high polish. Only after this was complete did I start painting.

I first laid down 3 thin coats of gray gesso directly to the cleaned/degreased bronze. The gesso provided the tooth I needed for laying down the color. The colors were payne's gray, ultramarine blue, dioxazine purple and alizarine crimson. The payne's gray was the base color and the light patterns were applied using white tinted with the various colors mentioned. The technique I used is exactly what I do in my marine life paintings and is very labor intensive. Once the patterns are painted I follow up with numerous highly thinned washes, again using the colors mention. I usually take it to the point of almost hiding the original patterns. I use a hair dryer to speed the drying process so in some ways its almost like applying a chemical patina. I go over the patterns again with tinted white and repeat the process of the washes. When I was finally satisfied with the colors I went back one more time with straight white. I used it very sparingly to add a few highlights. Then you guessed it.. a few more washes. Everything is done with very thin coats to keep the brush strokes to a minimum. For the wave I used a thin wash of thalo blue and called it good.

I had to go over the polished bronze once more to clean off the tarnished areas before spraying the clear coat. I used an epoxy clear that had a strange name I can't remember but if anyone needs to know I'll get that info to you. I would not even consider using wax for a number of reasons. My first choice was using an automotive polyurethane but I was cautioned by a few that it might not bond that well to bare metal. Lacquer was another option but I wanted something more durable. The epoxy was exactly what I was looking for and the spray characteristics were excellent. The only negative is it takes about 5 hours before you can carefully handle it and 4 days before it reaches its hardness.

I think the artist you mentioned that sculpts the plains indians, is Dave McGary . He is an incredible artist and has mastered medium. He uses acrylics as well but mentions its a special formula but my guess its just right out of the tube. He also applies a chemical patina.

I hope my description of the process I followed helped.

Frank

[sculpturedolls]

Frank,

That was a great and thorough explanation! Thanks for sharing your "secrets"!

So your patina would be much more expensive than a regular chemical patina because of the time involved in doing it. It is very beautiful.

The "tooth" that you speak of, the foundry tells me they get by a final sandblasting of the piece and also they rough it up some with a rotary grinder. This is only done for the opaque patinas (where it covers the bronze) and not the traditional bronze patinas.

McGary is the name of the sculptor, and yes, I remember that he was secretive about the formula so it makes a person feel that trying to achieve similar results would be difficult.

Using the thin coats like you do really make the piece look like it's been sprayed on because of how smooth and without brush strokes it looks. :-)

Ron Young talks about using a spray lacquer over his bronze patinas and then says to wax a couple coats over that for protection. How that would work over epoxy I don't know.

Look forward to what you do next!

[ArtsyLynda]

My Oregon foundry casts McGary's bronzes. He ships them to Mexico to have the beadwork painted (those tiny beads on the Indians' clothes), so I was told, and I was also told it was acrylics.

My foundry also uses spray lacquer on the finished bronze, then uses Kiwi neutral wax over that to protect the finish and also so it can be buffed up. They even do this finish on outdoor bronzes (like my life-size horse, which is being dedicated THIS SATURDAY! I'll be posting a new website tomorrow evening that has pics of the piece, which I wasn't allowed to share before. Hmm, I should put that on my "life-size bronze" thread . . .)

Anyway - Kiwi wax or Trewax (for light patinas) or Johnson's paste wax (for dark patinas) is used over most finishes. If you want more info on patinas, the Patrick Kipper book on patinas is the best, by far, of those I've read.

Keep up the good work, Frank! Looking forward to seeing what you do next!

[Frank Walsh]

Dave McGary is featured in the July/August issue of Art Of The West magazine.
I've always admired his work and magazine could not have come at a better time...It made it easier for me to try painting the piece with acrylics.

I'm curious as to how long a lacquer finish will last in the elements? Years ago I used to paint custom cars, boats and motorcycles using acrylic lacquers. I liked working with them since you could color sand and buff to a very high gloss. Today most auto painters use polyurethane type clears which can also be sanded and buffed but are much more durable.

What I used is called Glisten PC by POR 15.

[ArtsyLynda]

It is a special kind of lacquer, IIRC. If you look up Patrick Kipper online, he's a patineur who has a book out on patinas that's a bible for lots of them. He may mention on his site what he uses, or you might be able to find a link to patina suppliers and find out that way. If all else fails, remind me and I'll ask the guy who does my patinas about it.

As for lacquer holding up outside, my life-size has lacquer and then wax on top of the patina. The owner is supposed to wash and wax the sculpture every year - more often if there's a lot of acid rain as there would be near a city, but he's waaaaaay out in the country and there's very little traffic on his road. Washing it, making sure it's dry, then applying a new coat of wax should hold the lacquer for at least ten years, IIRC from what I was told. A bronze that gets touched a lot might have the lacquer (and the patina) rubbed off where it gets touched a lot, but in normal outdoor bronze situations, it should last quite a while.

I don't know how long your acrylics will hold up if they're outside. I'd be interested in hearing what you learn in researching those.

[Frank Walsh]

Lynda, I wonder how well an automotive acrylic lacquer would compare with they use for outdoor installations. With the number of great polishes and waxes available for cars, boats and planes, I would think that may also be worth exploring. Many areas of California prohibit any solvent based automotive finishes which would include acrylic lacquer. All the shops in my area are using water based paints.

I'm not expecting any issues with the acrylic paint since my sculpture is intended for indoors. Even so if it was exposed to the elements the two part epoxy clear, that my piece is top coated with is meant for outdoor use and is very hard.

Frank

[ArtsyLynda]

Yeah, your piece should be fine. If you ever use real patinas, you might want to check into the lacquers patineurs use - I don't know if there's a special kind for chemical patinas vs. paint or not - I've never researched that. Since you're doing your own finishes, it might be a good idea for you to find out what will work outside in case you need to know that! I just told my patineur, "Black horse, highlights rubbed out, and he'll be outside." Easy-peasy! (He's patinaed with Birchwood Casey and Liver Sulfate, IIRC.)