I wanted some more practice with glazing and realistic painting. This hand plane seemed like a good subject because it’s a simple shape and allows an opportunity to practice getting a bit of the luminescence that comes with glazing, but it’s still an interesting subject. (And, I love hand planes.)
I started by putting three hand planes into a still life, but I realized that would be complicated. I am practicing with realism so I decided to simplify the composition by using only one.
I ended up drawing this laying flat, and it’s a really boring composition as a result. I should have painted it at an angle, that’s what I’ll try on the next one.
I started with a wash of tigers eye genuine because I just got it, and knowing it’s a primatek, I knew it would lift a lot. This was supposed to be a bit of a canary in the coal mine for me. Once I saw the tigers eye lifting, I would know I was overworking that layer.
Once the tigers eye dried, I added very thin layers of Quin Gold and Quin Purple. Then, I scratched lines with my palette knife, and let it dry. I repeated this glazing process about five or six times, ignoring the hole where the chip breaker lives. When I felt I had the layers I wanted, I stated on the chip breaker, and the wooden iron grip. Once those were done I painted the iron.
At first the background was light, but it didn’t provide much contrast, and I screwed up the shadows really bad, so I went in and darkened the background substantially. This also better matched what I was seeing in front of me since the hand plane was sitting on my desk.
I like the effects I got by layering glazes, and really liked the scratches. The wood shaving inside the chip breaker is too yellow. I also didn’t capture the blueish glare on the edge of the plane – I’ll try masking for the next attempt.
Oh, and I’m really happy with how the cross grain and initials came out on the front. The base is a bit too dark.
I like the way the iron is highlighted, but I should have preserved a pristine edge to make it feel like it was much sharper than it appears here.
That’s pretty much it, I was sick of painting water, so today I painted this. Happy Sunday!!