Ancient View

[digitaleyes]

This is a detail of a mixed media piece that started with a fractal which I transferred to a copper foil covered canvas and then painted with acrylic.


The whole piece and another using the same technique can be seen at http://withdigitaleyes.com/pgs/LE/copper/copper.html.

[Cyndi L]

Wow Jeri! That looks amazing. Is it as dimensional as it appears in the image?

[Eraethil]

Very nice image. And a cool concept too. Well done!

I've often wondered about painting acrylic on metals. I paint acrylic on glass when I want to be able to peel off the acrylic skin. Do you do something to prepare the metal to prevent delamination? Oh, and does it develop verdigris over time changing the copper colour? (aging gracefully from orange through green to almost black?)

[digitaleyes]

Cyndi,

Thanks. The copper is the base and the transfer and paint are on top of it. So it looks like it has some depth, but it doesn't really.

[digitaleyes]

Eraethil,

The copper does change color. I painted it with washes and tried to darken it for this one. I used Golden medium to seal it and this also caused it to darken. On another one I sealed it with polyurethane and it didn't discolor.

I painted on top of one layer with Goldens and then sealed the whole thing with it. I'm not sure what would happen to the copper and the acrylic directly on it, but suspect there might be color shift problems.

Experimentation is good. I want to try printing directly on a sheet of aluminum or copper flashing next.

Jeri

[Cyndi L]

I paint acrylics on aluminum foil all the time, and as long as I don't add any water and keep the layers thin, there's no problem. I did add some GAC 100 (Golden's medium) to create more of a glaze.

[digitaleyes]

I've been working with copper for awhile, but I'm feeling drawn to use more metal in my work.

Painting on aluminum foil sounds interesting.

[H2O_Baby]

Jeri, I love the depth and ancient feel of the pic. How large is your pic?

It reminds me of Dorothy Krause - she is a digital printmaker from MA who sometimes prints on copper as well. In person her work on copper did have an appearance of depth too. Your prints are more abstract though. Hers are huge, she has some large digital printers.

http://www.dotkrause.com/art/art.htm

She works with Mary Taylor sometimes, Mary though now seems to have branched out on her own.

[digitaleyes]

The piece is 20" x 20".

Thanks for the reference to Dorothy Krause. I'll check her out.

[Cyndi L]

You might really enjoy one of her books:

Digital Art Studio: Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials
by Karin Schminke, Dorothy Simpson Krause, and Bonny Pierce Lhotka