Engine room inner wooden door panels

[Peter-Bullfinch]

I thought it may be of interest to see a few of the stages of my amateur effort to create four inner panels.

I posted this before but I hi jacked another thread a little!

The graining is completed now.

Making a start on the roses and castles.

I now appreciate the skill and professionalism of those who do this for a living. I squeeze in an hour or so when I can but it's taking ages.

[haza]

great job they look very nice

[Ray T]

I like your "man cave."

[chubby]

How about some close ups and a step by step guide please ? They look very good so far

[Peter-Bullfinch]

I'll post a couple more pictures as I go along but there are far more accomplished people on this forum who can give much more detailed and authoritative advice. Tony Lewery publishes a step by step video which I gave me lots of excellent ideas. There are many others who run courses which I am sure give a great introduction to this style of decoration.

[OldGoat]

Yummy, yummy. After xx years - perhaps I should get on with mine...

[Ray T]

I'll post a couple more pictures as I go along but there are far more accomplished people on this forum who can give much more detailed and authoritative advice. Tony Lewery publishes a step by step video which I gave me lots of excellent ideas. There are many others who run courses which I am sure give a great introduction to this style of decoration.

 

Just one example : http://canalartbyterence.com/paintingCourses.html

 

Although some may not be too keen on his style I went on one of Terence's courses a few years ago and it gave me the confidence to paint my own castles scene.

 

 

Admittedly no where near Dave Moore's standard but they are my own effort and I like them.

 

In a way I cheated because I painted them on panels then attached them to the back doors. I didn't fancy attempting to paint a vertical surface.

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Ray T

[dave moore]

Hi all

I'm happy to offer advice to those wishing to develop painting skills, bearing in mind that those painters in dockyard days possessed techniques that allowed them to work swiftly and confidently. I've watched the late Ron Hough produce a landscape in little more than half an hour, my own take little longer in working time, though I prefer to paint in 3 separate stages:

Sky, water, mountains and clouds first

Castle, bridge, foreground and path next in block colours

Followed by details, trees, fence, boat etc finishing with foliage....tree, bushes etc.

 

Peter looks to be doing a fine job, though I suspect he's making needless work for himself, I've already offered to advise. Though I no longer run courses as such, I'm happy to offer one to one tuition here at home for those who are wanting to acquire appropriate skills.

 

Dave

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Dave, I'm following your sequence for the castles. Thanks for your advice about the back ground. Yes, I am taking things slowly ( and making mistakes)!

I did the scumbling and graining and my dear wife said...it's quite good but is it a bit dark?...so I did it all again.

Yes, the red edging undercoat may have been unessecary because I will have to line this in at the end.

I suppose in the end it will be my own style rather than a copy of others. I'm not good enough for that but I'll enjoy pottering in the engine room afterwards and thinking...yes I'm glad I had a go.

Ray, I like yours. I was tempted to repair my old doors but in the end I thought making a new set of side doors would be better...and fun to do as well.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Peter-Bullfinch

[Peter-Bullfinch]

I finished the four roses panels today. To have an economy of brush and colour use it pays to know the sequence everything goes in and what order to put the colours down. Luckily I realised that the last colour was probably going to be yellow so this saved a bit of effort. With more practice I suppose I'll get there.

A closer look at one of the four panels. Now to tackle the castles which I suspect are going to be a lot more difficult.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Peter-Bullfinch

[chubby]

Absolutely fantastic Sir !!

I think that doing them yourself is a very nice way of adding your own personal touch . Paying an expert is all well and good , but what youre doing is putting a bit of " you " into the boat .

I think they look great

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Thanks,Chubby. I am in awe of those folk who do this for a living. When you do a job yourself it might be fun as a one off but it certainly makes you appreciate what good value employing a professional can be.

[chubby]

Oh i don t doubt for a moment that paying a pro is worth every penny , especially if there are many panels to be done . But , as i say - yours are now personal & as time goes by they ll provide more pleasure & pride as you know the effort you put into them . Brilliant stuff !!

[dave moore]

Well done Peter.

When adding petals to a swag of roses, I start at the extremities and work towards the centre. That way, any overlapping of adjacent flowers has the head of the inner over the tails of the outer. Reversed, the result can look very unnatural. Just a thought.....

Dave

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Thanks Dave, I'll try that next time, it certainly makes sense. I found the brush strokes quite difficult and the paint consistency quite tricky. I ended up using various numbered brushes but mainly 4 and 1. I looked hard at pictures so see how the petals formed the rose and filled an A4 piece of paper with practice strokes.

[dave moore]

Consistency and brush loading are crucial factors. I load paint into the brush from a palette, adding reducer or white spirit if necessary. I work the bush through the paint to load it, when you can do so with almost no resistance, consistency is about right. I always work with the entire bristle loaded fully. Most canal roses have a large or major petal, this is painted first and everything else has to work around it. Usually, I then add supplementary petals under the major petal, then start on the other side with smaller ones, finishing off with a crescent and tiny petals at the head of the flower.

[Ray T]

I finished the four roses panels today. To have an economy of brush and colour use it pays to know the sequence everything goes in and what order to put the colours down. Luckily I realised that the last colour was probably going to be yellow so this saved a bit of effort. With more practice I suppose I'll get there.

 

A closer look at one of the four panels. Now to tackle the castles which I suspect are going to be a lot more difficult.

 

Personally I found the Castle scenes easier than Roses, "There's nowt so queer as folk." (simile, colloquial) Nothing is as strange, as odd as people can be.)

 

Theses are a couple of my attempts at Roses:

 

 

 

After I had finished the oil can I realised the bottom roses weren't facing the correct direction. C'est la vie.

Edited January 22, 2017 by Ray T

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Dave, have you used a chinagraph pencil to plan out your work? Does it rub away readily afterwards? I love your roses. I hope you won't mind if I have a go at copying a couple on my next piece.

Ray...your work looks splendid.

[dave moore]

I occasionally use China graphs, more usually Stabilo pencils, from signwriters suppliers, for setting out....just a centre line and very rough positional circles for each flower. They are wax-ish based, but are readily removed with a damp cloth after painting. Some times, I don't bother unless they are too obvious. Feel free to have a go, try to develop a range of petal patterns....lots of good ideas in Flowers Afloat. Tony's work inspired me many years ago....I'm happy to send better images if you'd care to furnish an email address. Always happy to encourage folk who care!

 

Dave

[Ray T]

As well as having been on a course at Stoke Bruerne Museum I was once given an impromptu lesson on painting roses by Dave.

Along with Tony Lewry's "Flowers Afloat" I found John M Hill's "From Stem to Stern" a useful guide.

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stem-Stern-John-M-Hill-x/dp/0905366271/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485103216&sr=1-

 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flowers-Afloat-Folk-Artists-Canals/dp/0715301454/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485103772&sr=1-1&keywords=Flowers+afloat

 

Edited January 22, 2017 by Ray T

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Dave,

A pm sent with my email address

Many thanks

Peter

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Other than final varnish coat and fitting them back to the boat these four panels are finished. As I thought I found the castles hard. Blending colours, the design and finishing details were all a bit of a puzzle.

Here are couple of the troublesome castles scenes closer up so you see what I mean.

[chubby]

Well ,

 

I think theyre exceptional!

[Peter-Bullfinch]

Thank you Chubby but not only have I seen the lovely free flowing originals painted by Roger Wickson which sadly were starting to rot, but I have seen lots of professional ones I would love to imitate.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Peter-Bullfinch

[Ray T]

Peter, the important thing is they are YOURS. Remember not all the working boats were professionally painted, many boaters did their own.

 

With R & C's all the usual conventions of art, i.e. perspective, accuracy, colour representation don't matter. The early boatmen painted their interpretation of what they saw at the time.

 

The professionals have had years of practice to hone their skills.

 

Some from days of yore.

 

 

 

 

Pictures from CRT Archive

 

Edited January 26, 2017 by Ray T