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Have you used gold in a painting?
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Posted
I have tried various gold paints eg acrylic and ink. I have used metal leaf too. Apart from gold leaf the goldest gold I have found is Schminke Bronze powder. When the gold powder is mixed with a few drops of water it turns to what look like drops of molten gold. I brushed a couple of coats of it onto the background of the painting below. I also have their silver powder.
Have you tried this product or something similar?
Edited
by Tessa Spanton
Posted
The one time (I think) I've used gold in painting, it was a birthday card on watercolour paper, and the product was Daler-Rowney Cryla acrylic paint; it worked well for its intended purpose, rather better than gold ink which I tried first time around - its relative failure (it was quite an old bottle, don't know why I even had it) was why I bought the gold acrylic paint.
Which does mean that I now have an almost full tube of Cryla gold, and no plan for using it, beyond touching up old frames. One reason for not using it is that it doesn't reproduce well in photographs or scans; you can't really reduce it with water or medium, without losing the glittering effect, and if you want to paint a gold object in a figurative painting, gold paint won't help - you're better off researching how Rembrandt painted gold.
I've seen gold leaf used to great effect in some abstract paintings, and of course for illuminated pen and ink work - but it does take some handling: you don't want someone suddenly opening a door and letting a breeze in, because the gold leaf will fly away or fold over itself: for clumsy fingers like mine, gold acrylic is probably a better bet. I don't think it has anything to offer figurative work, but then I've not seen it so employed - doesn't mean it can't be done.
Should add - of course, I've now seen the painting at the head of this thread, which features a painting in which it HAS been used, as the setting for the flower; that is different from employing gold in any form in the body of a painting; and we're not seeing it at its best in this case either, because of the limitations of photography. It's a painting that would be best seen in the flesh; I imagine it's quite spectacular.
Edited
by Robert Jones, NAPA
Posted
My interest in the use of gold in a painting goes back to watching a demo by a Japanese artist who showed us how to apply gold leaf to a painting. There is quite a tradition of this in Japanese paintings. I tried gold ink a long time ago but was underwelmed. Gold acrylic is better but not as effective as Schminke's gold powder. Also in a comment above Andrew mentioned W&N gold caligraphy ink, it sounds better than my ancient bottle of W&N ink.
Robert is right about it being difficult to photograph.
Posted
I do have some gold acrylic paint, but, I haven't yet used it. I do use Silver Imit (Daler Rowney, System 3) acrylic the I use to highlight metal objects in my compositions. As it is transparent I mix it with white/grey to give it more body. The use of this silver colour does give objects a more shiny appearance, but, as already mentioned, the effect does not project very well into photographs of the painting.
Posted
Interesting topic. After recently discovering the art of Brad Kunkle and his subtle use of gold, I've just ordered some (fake) gold leaf to experiment with. I've read a quick guide on how to do it - but am expecting to make a big mess! :-)
This post has been removed as it violates our forum rules and guidelines.
Posted
I painted an Icon a year ago using Winsor and Newton Artist Gold paint for the gold back ground. It was about £10 for 60ml. It took three coats to get the right intensity. I was painting on paper designed to take acrylic, it had a texture which looked like canvas.
The original painting is in a Church but I couldn't find anything about its origins.
Edited
by Keith Orange