Marilyn on porcelain

[Celeste McCall]

My challenge to myself was to paint Marilyn Monroe and try to get the likeness but also to add more depth (which was lacking in the source photograph) without too much difference in the end result.

This is an 8"x10" porcelain painting.
See her bigger here:
http://www.celestemccall.net/mmc2.jpg

[Debra Rexroat]

Incredible as usual, Celeste!

[Celeste McCall]

Thanks for the post Debra and I hope that all is well with you and your loved ones. I also hope that you are busy making your beautiful paintings. Thanks also for all the help that you gave us in 2009. The evaluations that you made were great and everyone seemed to learn a lot from them. .

[Julie Deane]

This is really well done, Celeste. Portrait painting on porcelain can produce stunning results. I imagine there is a completely different methodology to doing it?

[Celeste McCall]

Dear Julie,
Thanks for the post and I appreciate your doing so.

The hand-painting of porcelain is like a watercolor technique or a transparent glazing technique in oils. The white of the surface is seen through the paint at all times except in the darkest areas (which are painted last).

This painting has 5 firings (about 2 hours of work per sitting). The paints will never dry so they have to be fired in a kiln each time (between paintings) to embed the paint and make it permanent. A hand- painted porcelain painting could possibly last forever.

Thanks again, Julie.

[Anelia Guteva]

I have experimented with painting on glazed porcelain before. Nkowing how difficult it is, I am really impressed by your portrait. Did you paint the lips last? I remember the red colour being very complicated. The more it is fired the more it fades out, but all you colours seem perfect. But anyway, it isgreat to see such an accomplished painting on porcelain.

[Celeste McCall]

Dear Anelia,
First, thank you so much for replying to this thread. I appreciate it very much that you know how hard to paint with porcelain paints are. It is truly a dying art, unfortunately, but the longest lasting art of all media....so sad that more don't learn it in order for their beautiful artworks to last forever.

The portrait colors that are used in porcelain art today are of similar pigments (unlike the old ones where cadmium based and others, like silver or aluminum based yellows, which didn't like each other in the firing) and now one can easily use reds and yellows together with none or very little if any difference when firing.

So, reds can be added at any firing. The trick with reds is to paint very thin application because when it gets thick, and if fired hot, will turn almost a brick red.

Porcelain art is all about glazing and letting the porcelain shine through the paint.

Thank you so much again and I do hope that some day you might give porcelain art a try again.

Also, I'm the International Porcelain Artists and Teachers, Inc., Chairman of the Board this and also the Editor of the Porcelain Artist magazine. I am always looking for porcelain artists to feature in our magazine. If you have work to show featuring your porcelain....please contact me through IPAT at the website:

http://www.ipatinc.com

I'd love to see your porcelain art work if you would like to submit it for consideration in the magazine.

Here are some great porcelain artists currently teaching worldwide:

http://www.gotportrait.com/
http://www.atelierdebercy.com/
http://www.andreasknobl.de/
http://www.artfilipe.pt/

[Anelia Guteva]

Dear Celeste,

Thanks for the informative reply. I think one of the reasons why porcelain art is not so popular is because it is quite expensive. One needs to have a studio and to be able to pay the electricity bill. I would love to show you some of my porcelain paintings but they are nowhere near as advanced as yours. Most of them are on plates and mugs, It was part of a ceramics course and I was the only one advised to learn the tchnique.

[Celeste McCall]

Thanks for the post, Anelia, and I agree that it is expensive to get into this art. Plus the pieces themselves are already expensive.

Here is an example of former artists and some new artists in this field.

http://www.rubylane.com/item/321505-...Franz-Bischoff

http://www.rubylane.com/item/321505-...andpainted-107

http://www.rubylane.com/item/321505-...-Artist-Signed

Here is another example of artists in this field:
Irina Zaytceva
http://www.jsauergallery.com/sagemoo...IZaytceva.html

and Kurt Weiser
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&e...w=1024&bih=510

Thanks again for posting Anelia. I appreciate sharing info about porcelain art even though it is inaccessible to most artists because of costs. It can be done inexpensively if someone has a friend's kiln to use....but otherwise it is expensive for sure.

Some use the new Pebo paints that can be fired in a regular oven but I would not suggest doing that except for purely decorative reasons.