Gold Leaf

[Mary Sparrow]

The portrait I just started has a little girl sitting on a gold leafed chair.

Does anyone have any tips as to how to paint this?

[Allan Rahbek]

Mary,
If you could post the reference photo I am sure that someone would have a good idea for you.

Allan

[Garth Herrick]

Mary,

Having not seen your image, my guess would be to be prepared to represent a broad range of values and hues in the gold. Various ochers and raw umber should work for most of this. It is kind of like representing hair colors. If the gold is highly burnished, then it is essentially a mirror with a golden cast. Ultimately, what colors the gold leaf needs to be depends on the context of its surroundings and the quality and focus of the light which strikes or illuminates it.

Garth

[Mary Sparrow]

I don't have a reference handy, but Garth you pretty much answered my question. Thanks.

[Michele Rushworth]

Here's a painting I did with an elaborate gold object in it:

http://www.michelerushworth.com/shauna2.htm

It seems to show a bit too red on my website, but you get the idea. The main problem I had to overcome is not making this large, shiny and elaborate object overwhelm the figure. You may have the same problem, depending on how much of the chair shows.

You could also go to this site: http://www.hongminzou.com Under the category of portraits of women there's a three quarter of a blonde woman dressed in black in a gold chair. I think the whole portrait is beautifully painted. (I'd post the link here to his actual portrait but I think the site was designed with frames and the full url doesn't appear on each page. )

Hope that helps.

[Ant Carlos]

Hello Mary,

only now I saw this topic and maybe it's too late. But if you are still up with the gold leaf issue, here you have some shots with my step-by-step on building this texture in a rose (including underpainting):

[Ant Carlos]

If ever this could help, I'd be glad.

Good luck,

Ant