I had this piece of vellum for a few years. I never had
an inspiration to use it. However my husband, Butch, is
always reading about Native American Indians; and Reggie
recommended a book called “Many Winters”, by Nancy Wood.
This was all the inspiration I needed.
My quote is one of many by
Chief Dan George. I used a Thunderbird to indicate the
“T” at the beginning of each phrase. I used gouache in
Red Ochre, Oxide of Chromium, Cadmium Red and Indigo to
write the quote.
The Indian Shield is done
in Colored pencil; I layered many colors to achieve the
slight variation in color. The ‘ring’ around the shield
is soft pastels. My attempt was to mimic the old
writings and ‘winter counts’ made by Native American
Indians to record their history. I became fascinated
with the designs the Native American Indians painted on
their horses. I used colored pencils to create the
designs on the horses running across the page. A B-6 nib
was used to write the Neugebauer Caps. I used the
Monoline practice sheet to write the Tom Perkins
letters. I then traced them onto the Vellum. At first I
tried to write directly on the vellum with my nib, which
kept pulling. |
I think the vellum was not prepared enough. After
tracing the letters on the vellum, I filled in with Red
Ochre – using a 10/0 spotter brush. I like this brush
for its size, but more importantly for its firmness.
I used Extra Heavy Gel Gloss to build up “Soars” and
then gilded with gold leaf. For the gold horse at top I
built up several layers of the Extra Heavy Gel Gloss;
and then gilded with gold leaf. I had to use “activator”
to fill in the crevices where the gold leaf did not
adhere. I used a pale blue colored pencil to delicately
outline the gold letters and gold horse.
The bottom section of the vellum was straight cut. I cut
the bottom to match the top curves. Using a soft cloth I
smudged soft pastels around the edged to give the look
of age. As usual, I do not do well planning a layout. I
never follow the many ‘thumbnails’ I work up. For this
piece I began with the shied and worked down. Everything
just fell into place according to my whim.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on this piece and want to
thank Reggie for ‘pushing’ me to do more with ALL of
these homework assignments! |
