April's London Sunshine

My mom just reminded me that I haven't shown "The Insider's" painting... I did this over the summer and incorporated it into my second year project... I used it as a trial run of all the materials and techniques I wanted to use so that I could know how long it would take from start to finish. It is for a book called "The Insider's" by Craig Hickman. It should be published soon... I let you know when; it is a really good book!

I have another Icon planned for my second year project that I hope to start very soon... I just have my Islimi projects to finish... but my mom also requested a permanent picture of "John" on the side, and although I will do that in a minute or too... here is another look at him...

And if you have looked at the earlier post you will see that I thought I finished the last ceramic plate.. but I decided to Take A Risk and see if I could fix my problems with the gold...

The splotchy-ness was driving me crazy... Simon has never run into this problem before... and he has never fired gold twice... so without knowing a solution or the true problem; although it seems i put too much and too little on in various places... I decided it was worth the risk of trying again...to find a solution...

So I used super fine steel wool to rub off some of the gold where it seemed to have too much built up; this wore it down enough in places that i could see the white underneath...then i applied a thin layer of gold lacquer...but only on the outside edge and I's; and the rose petals...

I left the sun in the middle as is so that i can compare the difference when it comes out...you can kind of see the splotchy-ness on the outside rim of the plate... the lacquer is semi transparent...

The geometry is perfectly accurate for that size of plate and for the raised curve of the plate... although it creates somewhat of an optical illusion, the perspective is also perfect geometry according to the square that sits inside the circle just beyond the roses... I absolutely love using geometry and perspective, it was really fun to figure out...

I of course have symbolism for the reasons I have created what I have but i'll save that for later and just let you see that this stairwell seems to have the best light to really show the plate's true colors and the highlights of the gold. The lacquer is on the plate so it looks a little bronze-E on the outside but I think it still looks cool!