By Jim Hingst
About William Blake.
Artistic genius is generally not
recognized until long after the artist has passed away. Such was the fate of
one of Britain’s greatest printmakers, painters and poets, William Blake.
During his lifetime (1757 – 1827), Blake was regarded as eccentric by some and
mad by others. Not until the mid-nineteenth century was this visionary artist
recognized for his expressionistic and surrealistic imagery. Blake’s prints
elicit an extremely emotional experience in the viewer. Today, many art critics credit Blake’s gestural style for influencing expressionist painters of
the 20th century, such as Edvard Munch.
Since my days as a student, William Blake’s artwork and poetry has fascinated me. In my rendition of his Red Dragon painting, I attempted to capture the emotion and spontaneity of his fluid style. Blake actually did a whole series of Red Dragon watercolors, which were commissioned as illustrations for a bible.
Reverse Painting on Glass.
As the term implies a "reverse painting on glass" is done
in reverse on the second surface of a glass panel. Here are the steps in my copy of Blake's Red Dragon:
I used washes of transparent
colors over line work.
For the earthtones, I mixed asphaltum with a quick
rubbing varnish.
For the red hues, I combined Nazdar’s 59000 Series Transparent
Red Enamel Plus Gloss screen printing ink with 1-Shot Tinting Clear.
To thin
these mixtures I used an artist’s turpentine.
After painting the transparent colors, I
backed up the painting with mixtures of 1-Shot White and Chamois enamel.
The final step is to water gild
the background with 23 karat double gold leaf.
For information on glass gilding
see my following articles:
Additional Articles About Gilding
Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer. Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.
Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 150 articles for publications, such as Signs Canada, SignCraft, Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 325 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.
© 2015 Jim Hingst
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