TECHNIQUES

Hello all! This question betrays the rustiness of my miniature painting savoir-faire -- I'm due for a refresher course with Vaishali; it's been a while! I was admiring this beautiful painting by @samanthabuckley designs on instagram (screenshot below, and link to the Instagram post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-nbTBus7qk/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link). I believe that she did the shell gold background last, but it's done so impeccably and so "to the edge" of so many intricate fine flora shapes that I have a doubt. What do you all think - was that background done as the last step of the painting?

Coloured Chinese papers used as backgrounds for Islamic manuscripts:

See the backgrounds upside down! And the gold sprinkling

Thank you to Mary Yaeger @Mary Yaeger for permission to share the very useful gold gilding information in her email to me here:

This is the original text I found on the John Neal Books web site. I've made some revisions in the method I've been using that has worked pretty well, especially with patching small areas. But the last time I gilded was over a year ago, so I apologize as more editing is needed.

With much love,

Mary

It's always instructive to see an ancient painting in progress, and unfinished. This one's by the famous Behzad (c. 1480) and depicts a poet being attacked by dogs. We learn that miniatures were built up in different areas at the same time - something I always try to encourage in my teaching - and you can see areas that are already rendered to a high detail and others that are hardly touched. This is the way artists worked (at least I do too).