Mar 26 2008
I Finally Colored a Kinkade
I won’t tell you it was quick and easy but I didn’t expect it to be. It required a lot of patience and discipline. I studied every fraction of an inch of the stamp label very closely to try to figure out how to get just the right colors and how to best articulate the miniscule details of Mr. Kinkade’s art in a stamped image. For much of it I used barely the tip of my teensiest brush and still had to take a more impressionistic approach than I might have expected.
This is stamped in Timber Brown Stazon on 90# hot press watercolor paper, some of the smoothest watercolor paper you can find. For me, the best way to get this done with a satisfactory result was to concentrate on small areas at a time and not allow myself to be overwhelmed by the whole thing at once. I started with the bricks, painting each one individually with very dilute Really Rust ink — and they looked pretty darn good…until I looked again at the stamp label. Well, gee, Mr. Kinkade’s bricks weren’t just rust; there was a lot of red in them (I guess that’s why they’re called red bricks)…but some were more red than others. Yes, the stamp itself provides information as to where the shading belongs but it doesn’t put the color there for you. I had a wall of light rust, medium rust and dark rust bricks. That’s it — just rust. I touched them up here and there with some dilute Ruby Red and it made a world of difference.
And so it went on like this — the mound of yellow flowers at the base of the wall aren’t just yellow, they’re Barely Banana with Caramel shading. The white roses toward the back are shaded with Sahara Sand and dotted with yellow centers. There are four different greens in varying shades, occasionally touched with undiluted white craft ink for a little extra light.
Mr. Kinkade is not called Painter of Light without reason. My reproduction looks like a garden on a cloudy day. Not a dreary day — I mean, what day could be dreary in a garden like this? I couldn’t quite manage the dappled light nor the haze in the far distance. Maybe next time. A person could choose to color these TK images with different methods for various effects but I tried to stay as close to the original as possible for my first undertaking. I’m looking forward to starting the next one as I have several of these beautiful stamps.
I sprayed this image with four light coats of matte sealer to protect it and intensify the color. To make it look more like a painting I adhered it to a narrow mat of Very Vanilla, then a wider mat stamped with SU!’s Linen in Creamy Caramel and, lastly, a narrow mat of Mellow Moss. It’s mounted on foam tape on a 5″ x 7″ card base which I covered with a subtley patterned designer paper.
I will say this project was immensely satisfying despite its imperfections and I encourage you to give it a try when you have time. I painted this image in several sittings and completed other projects in-between. I didn’t want to rush it; there were no deadlines involved and it’s not going anywhere for a while. I think I’ll just start a little collection.
Until next time, stay happy and enjoy whatever you’re up to. Thank you for joining me today. We’ll get together again soon!
