Renovating 30 year old frame & watercolor painting

Today I will restore an old photo

frame

and create a

watercolor

painting

of a bird for it. This is the second of a pair. I renewed the first one some time ago and I'll link the video in the description. This

frame

is old, smells old and is chipped. the paint everywhere and everything, including the old photograph, is sealed either because of its age or because he lived in the era when there was a lot of smoking. I think the sheep photo from 1987 is quite cute and I will save it perhaps for future projects perhaps as inspiration.

First I'm removing the nails to free the photo stuck to the cardboard. I am then cutting out the photo with an Exacto knife as I plan to reuse the cardboard edge as a mat for my

watercolor

creation that I plan to paint to match the frame in the future. The mat has a distinctive antique smell and old-fashioned yellow color. I use my plaster to refresh it and make it snow white. It takes about three coats from the top and about two sanitary coats from the bottom. The frame requires the same treatment, but I have to start. with some heavy sanding to remove the peeling paint and smooth the surface, this will be best done on the outside so there are no dusty kitty paw prints on everything I have down to the original primer coat which still holds up well and it is applied. about four coats of gesso in preparation for my current favorite color, parallel copper gold with mica.

I'm also

painting

the back of the frame to get rid of the old smell and it's finally time to create the artwork worthy of it. beautiful and bright bird frame. I'm starting with a pencil sketch which I then lighten with a kneadable eraser to prevent it from showing through the watercolor layer, then I apply a light wash all over with green and orange to give the result this aura of faded color that combines like This makes me a little sentimental with traditional paint wipes. I'm working on very thick rag handmade paper, which explains the jagged edges and why some places behave unexpectedly when interacting with my watercolors.

After that I simply paint as many layers as necessary to give it the correct contrast depth and vibrancy, all paintings always look better with more layers. I mention that even all the drawings look better with more layers. I also keep in mind to place and maintain highlights with my paints, although I really like to use a white gel pen to add another layer. By definition, when I'm done with the watercolors and now the last thing left is the montage, so here we have a new frame with a nice painting to go with it. Let me know if you like drawing and painting birds or if you like it more. to see someone else doing it comment like and subscribe for more thanks for watching