From this to....you'll see.

[holsgo]

Sneak peak. Top design.
Process was: Wet sand black at 800. Draw on design with black sharpie. Follow sharpie lines with yellow paint pen and fill in field with acrylic. Wet sand again. Paint acrylic again until field is as built up as possible to cover black without being too much paint to affect polishing out. Clear it, wet sand again. Draw on design with sharpies and paint pens. This pic is without tan shading.
Set aside much of your life to do this approach. Guys 200 years ago really were good!
Whole thing will be cleared etc...
[ATTACH]14833[/ATTACH]

[Gene Howe]

Really nice.
Like to know more about the paint pen technique. Very interesting.

[holsgo]

Thanks for the compliment.
Paint pens are at any local art store. They are an oil based quick drying formula. The trick is finding the same acrylic color as the paint pen. You can then use the paint pen for a base coat and outline and the acrylic, water based to paint the field. I bought 2 yellow paint pens and then took a razor blade to cut a wedge to a fine point on one. Then with a steady hand you can paint like you draw. Now, what is critical are the wet sands between coats, this removes gloss and allow the sharpies to glide and adhere for the detail. Also use fine point paint pens. Of course, as you do this there will be different shades and sheens between mediums. Once you clear, these will disappear and you won't see any differences. I'm going to clear with an oil based poly mixed with a tint or stain which will take a shade of brightness out of the yellow paint and effectively age the piece. The black will still be black, but where the tinted clear covers the yellow it will create a slightly deeper yellow look.

[JPG]

That is gonna be a very nice 'after'.

These fat stubby uncoordinated fingers could never do such nice work with a paint pen.

[Gene Howe]

Thanks a lot! I'm saving this one, for sure.
I think I've seen refillable paint pens at Dick Blick. Gotta go look.

Thanks for the compliment.
Paint pens are at any local art store. They are an oil based quick drying formula. The trick is finding the same acrylic color as the paint pen. You can then use the paint pen for a base coat and outline and the acrylic, water based to paint the field. I bought 2 yellow paint pens and then took a razor blade to cut a wedge to a fine point on one. Then with a steady hand you can paint like you draw. Now, what is critical are the wet sands between coats, this removes gloss and allow the sharpies to glide and adhere for the detail. Also use fine point paint pens. Of course, as you do this there will be different shades and shears between mediums. Once you clear, these will disappear and you won't see any differences. I'm going to clear with an oil based poly mixed with a tint or stain which will take a shade of brightness out of the yellow paint and effectively age the piece. The black will still be black, but where the tinted clear covers the yellow it will create a slightly deeper yellow look.

[holsgo]

Refillable pens would be great, then there would be no issue color matching. Be sure to get an assortment of artists brushes. There is need for a couple types to fill in the areas. Back in the day, they would paint in the field and then finish the detail with pen work. This would be old time dipping pens etc. This is just a modern version.

[holsgo]

Gene seemed interested so I thought i would show the technique in detail. Now, first, the design is from actual piece of Baltimore furniture from 1830 or so. But lets step through the process. I didn't take pics of painting the design but this was a simple one. It used 4 types of medium, oil based paint pen, acrylic paint for the field, sharpies, on oil based base coat. Now, I already knew that any oil finish would dissolve any oil paint pen under it. But the oil finish would not disolve any water based (acrylic, but sharpies can be disolved by acetone or mineral spirits so they needed to be isolated). So I had to isolate the design from the oil finish. I wet sanded the whole piece and applied 2 coats of water polycrylic to the design only. You can see that here.
[ATTACH]14892[/ATTACH]
Then a wet sand to 800. Don't be nervous, the water will not lift the acrylic.
[ATTACH]14893[/ATTACH]
Check and see for signs of gloss. Any glossy areas need to be sanded slightly to break the gloss. Do not sand through. If you sand enough to start seeing paint color in the slurry you have gone too far.
[ATTACH]14894[/ATTACH]
Dry. Now, if you have done this right, you have isolated the design from any oil based finish. But I have a mistake and maybe you can see it. The oil poly got through and tried to dissolve a slight bit on the lightening bolt, bottom right. I stopped it with a hairdryer. No, problem, I can fix later.
[ATTACH]14895[/ATTACH]

[holsgo]

Here is a reflection of the dried piece. I'm looking for areas that I will need to focus on for subsequent coats. There will be 3 coats and 5 in areas being polished.
[ATTACH]14896[/ATTACH]
Why not just use a water poly all the way through? I like polishing out oil finishes. They build better and are more durable and harder. Also, keep in mind that your paint on your base coat creates bumps. I use multiple coats of water poly to build up the area around the painted design so it can all be sanded down and of a consistant feel. You cannot polish out with those paint ridges visible.

[nuhobby]

Have to say I'm enjoying this! Also I went back and saw some of holsgo's other pictures which are great.

[holsgo]

The day started with this mix. I have a number of Behlens Japan colors (which, BTW, I got 5 boxes of all kinds of stuff for finishing and these were in them...all for free from a retried furniture restorer, how lucky). I mixed the yellow and red to get an orange to mix with poly and mineral sprits. You can see the amber mess here in the plastic cup. Testing revealed that my orange was too dense, meaning it would show as orange on the black. Not good. Back to thinning and testing which ended with a 1/2 teaspoon of each red and yellow Japan color, thinned in 4 tablespoons mineral spirits then mixed with 1/2 quart poly, again thinned for the gun.
[ATTACH]14999[/ATTACH]
So, it was off to the driveway and a spray. I'm not posting a pic of the finished product yet but, in my haste i created a run which I tried to fix and, well, it still looks like a run. More pics to come.