Digital Art

I am working on learning more about digital illustration this year. I bought some toy fantasy characters and here is a sketch I am working on.

 

Merrimac River

I took a couple pictures of the Merrimac River today on the way home from work. I still want a sunrise shot but haven't found the best spot yet.

Plum Island

I've been taking sunrise pictures at the beach from my new house at Plum Island, Massachusetts. I have been experimenting with panoramic shots using my tripod, long exposure and then photomerge with Photoshop.

This is a great place to live for photography and art. I am hoping to take advantage of my opportunity while I am here. There are supposed to be bald eagles, snow owls and seals on the beach this winter. Here are a couple more shots I have taken around the area.

Resume part 1

Here are a few things I have done:

 This is an 8 foot diameter conference table, it has the initial polish in this photo it will be wet sanded and final polished after this.

All of the solid ebony edging on this table is faux painted maple.

This one was huge, it is a closed coat 30 degree sheen finish conference table. It was sprayed with Ilva 2k urethane and this is an off the gun finish.

This is a 30 foot high faux concrete wall I finished for the W hotel in Fort Lauderdale while working for Hollywood Woodworks.

We also did some faux concrete cabinets for the reception area on the same job

This is a distressed crackle finish done for Genoa Lakes Country Club in Nevada

Finishing Urethane carvings

If you want to include carvings in your work urethane and plaster castings are an easy way to go. Most people don't know how to make them look like wood though. Here are a couple of "Step strips" that show the process. A step strip is something a finisher makes as a sample so the finish can be duplicated by someone else later. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The first step on the right is white primer. Next a base color of lacquer (utc mixed in clear) the base color should be a little lighter than the lightest color of the wood color you are matching. Step 3 is a gilsonite glaze. Sherwin Williams S64 gilsonite mixed with mineral spirits. I used a chip brush (cheap disposable brush) to make sure I got color in all the nooks and crannies and then a thin sealer coat to seal the glaze for the next layer. Step 4 is another glaze. This one is artists oil colors. VanDyke brown mixed with a little black thinned with a little mineral spirits to make it brushable. You brush on a full coat and wipe the color back off the high spots with a rag. Let it dry 15 to 20 minutes and I sealed it in using Mohawk Ultra classic toner in an aersol can. You can also mix your own toner using ngr stain or transtints mixed in your lacquer. Here is another step strip over the airbrushed wood pecker.

Very similar steps on this, the base color is different though.

Both of these moldings were made by me using a urethane mold making system from the original carvings.

Here are a couple of jobs we did using urethane moldings. All of the carved features in these 2 sets of cabinets are urethane moldings.

Don't be a Sap

This is how to get rid of that pesky sap wood. Sometimes it can look nice but in this case it was asymmetrical.

This is a conference table we did awhile back that they wanted to use up some old veneer with sap wood. It was nicely figured veneer but no one wanted to see the sap wood. This client took a chance and got a nice discount. The first step was to mask off the solid wood and spray ngr stain on the sap wood with a cup gun. The fan is set as small as possible and the fluid is cut way back. Then you just color between the lines to even out the color. ( I used Mohawk ultra penetrating dye stain Cherry for this table)

After all of the sap wood is colored I applied my stain to the entire top. This helps to blend in the sap with the rest of the top. This top got a black painted inlay line as well.

This is the seal coat while it is still wet. The stain has been applied and the inlay line painted on. Notice the difference in color on the end solid. This isn't really a different color it is just how the dye stain changes color when viewed at different angles.

Here is a shot of the final finish. This is a 15 degree low sheen top coat of Milesi 2k urethane. The client was very happy, you could still see the wood figure but the sap didn't jump out at you.

I did a faux painted table base awhile back. I thought I would do a step by step on the process. I used a 2k urethane, the process would be very similar for other topcoats. 

 

Here is a picture of the base with just the white primer. I used a 2k urethane white primer for this one.

The first step was to mask off for the 4 way match faux veneer. I am matching an ebony veneer we used on a conference table.

The first step is to apply a fine texture using a flogging, scumbling or stipple effect with a gilsonite glaze. I use Sherwin Williams S64 stain base concentrate Gilsonite mixed with mineral spirits. After the glaze dries it is sealed with a thinned down isolante sealer so the next glaze step won't wipe it off.

The next step is to do a straight grain with a pencil liner brush. The glaze is artists oil colors mixed with mineral spirits. The grain color on this is Van Dyke brown and black. The thinner black lines were added with an airbrush. When it looks right the glaze is sealed and when the sealer is dry the masking is removed and the next area is masked off.

The process is repeated for each area of wood grain.

This is the end panel after both sections have been grained.

I wanted to add a faux raised panel on the sides so the first step was to faux  paint the rails and stiles.

I decided on a faux birds eye maple panel for my raised panel. The shading was all done with an airbrush.

This is really not that difficult. A great book for technique is "The Art of Faux" by Pierre Finkelstein

This is a quartersawn oak piece I did for the Ponderosa Ranch at Lake Tahoe. The carved panels were duplicated from the originals by making a urethane casting and then faux painting them as well. The panels on the left and right are flat. The shadows are created with the airbrush. Here are a couple more...

Everything is shipping tomorrow.

The conference table assembled for a client visit today.

 Finishing up blending in the raw mdf edges.

Sprayed  the final coats on the upper bookcases today. I should have all the doors done tomorrow for a Wednesday delivery.