I've been working on a few secretive projects lately, and one of them was a present for my aunts. I made a painting of their Timneh Gray Parrot, Leo (short for Leocadia, for my grandmother) with oil based Sharpie paint pens. They have had her for quite some time and I wanted to do something special for them for one of their birthdays. Timnehs are related to African Greys and are very smart birds. This is not Leo but I didn't have a great picture of her and loved this one...There were originally two birds but this one was the one I liked. :)
I decided to totally cheat and trace that image on some clear textured glass. This was actually a very quick project, at least until the framing part of it! Trace the image in black and scrape off any paint that you don't want. I decided to outline her feathers by scratching into the paint so the detail would show up if there was a light behind it. I did not have any gray markers, so I used black and white paint and it sort of mixed on the glass.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided to use my Pebeo paints and enhance the bland painting. It would also hide the reversed text from the opposite side. But how to keep the paint where I wanted it and away from Leo? I looked around the craft store and found an outline paint for glass, which had a very narrow tip and turned out to be a bit sparkly. In the photo above you can see how I outlined the bird before I started using the Pebeo paint. It dried as a raised line so I decided to try it to keep the Pebeo paints outside of Leo's outline.
Both the Sharpie paint pens and the raised line paint needed to be baked in the oven for permanence so after several days to let it dry, I baked the painting according to instructions. I don't think the Pebeo can take the heat so I had to do this step before painting. After what happened to my tiger (see a few posts back, Sharpie Paint Pens and Glass Fusing), I didn't want to go too high - esp as I thought it might scorch the sparkle paint. The photo below shows it not long after I added the living paint. I used Buttercup Prisme for the yellow, Vermillion for the tail, Leaf and Moonstone for the rest. I did have a bit of the paint spill a little over the side of the sparkly line but I wiped it off and moved the paint away from the area. You can see the shine from the wet paint! I didn't add an outer border to the edge, and the painting didn't need it as it is thick enough to stay put....to a point!
You can see below how the paint settled into the slight texture of the glass. It added a cool look to the other side. You can see the raised lines outlining Leo and her feathers in this one, and also how it covered the backwards text on this side. You can see that instead of a frame (the glass wasn't a size that would fit in a frame, plus I wanted to see the design from both sides.) I taped the edges with copper tape. I could have soldered but I did not. I first used a long piece of copper colored aluminium flat wire around the entire bottom and up both sides of the painting (like a U) and made loops at the ends to hang it with. (This is the same wire I use for bezels for my pendants!) Then I taped the entire thing to the glass as neatly as possible to secure it all. Quite sturdy, even without the solder. I know, because I dropped it on my tile floor while I was wrapping it! Other than the loops getting a little flattened, it did not get damaged at all! Thank goodness, because I was going to visit them the next day and I would have been upset if I broke it...:)
Close up of this lovely paint....it's funny how it made tinier effects on the low spots. There were a couple of spots I had to touch up areas where the paint didn't quite cover and you really couldn't tell in the final product.
This is the original side I painted on with the paint markers, the side without the outline or Pebeo paint. Leo seems to stand out because the Pebeo paint is on the other side. I wish the special effects were visible from both sides, but this side looks like plain paint. Funny, huh? At least you can see the texture of the glass, which adds interest. Anyway, my aunts were very happy with their gift. Leo, I am not sure!
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