Originally I had been debating about whether to try a beveled letter effect in the gold, but I decided that I had already taken this lettering to the extents of legibility in the design.  Beveled lettering although cool, would probably hurt more than help at this point.  I decided to go with kind of a split letter thing, thinking that the burnish pattern would illuminate evenly for at least half of the lettering, making for a slightly calmer effect while still adding some of the depth I wanted.  Plus, it'd be easier.

Here I've made a couple of pen plots and cut out the pattern with an x-acto knife.  The plan was to burnish the inset top and bottom shapes in different directions so that the gold would catch light differently, while leaving the outline alone.

I made two pen plots because I was afraid that if I cut out the patterns all on one sheet, that the paper would be too weak and rip when I was burnishing.  I also alternated between top and bottom shapes to help avoid this too.  These patterns were the main reason I really wanted to use a computer to help with the main lettering.  I thought it would be a real hassle to create these by hand and have them align with the original lettering perfectly.  Again, the registration marks make it very easy.

Here you can see the pattern after it was burnished.  I took a piece of velvet and burnished all the tops in one direction and all the bottoms in a perpendicular direction - I can't remember which is which... but I burnished in horizontal and vertical directions.

I did rub too hard in a few spots, and there were a couple of imperfections from the size, so I was initially quite disappointed.  I really wanted it to turn out perfect.  But, part of this panel swap was to challenge yourself and learn, and I certainly did both.  After the panel was finished, the imperfections weren't all that noticeable anyway.  I think this was a good example that proves the saying about a decent layout going a long way in making up for poor craftmanship.

  

I've always heard that gold was hard to photograph, but didn't really appreciate it that much until I tried.  Here's an animated gif of the effect of light on the gold from different directions that helps to show the effect.

 

You can see the stabilo lines I used when I came in with yet more Smith's Cream and added a glaze to the barnboard texture to create a beveled look to the "boards".  I suspected when I did this that although it was looking pretty good, that there was just too much contrast between the shadows and highlights for the pictorial work to stand out.
I projected a photo of a chicken onto the panel and painted it, turning the projector back on every once in a while to see how I was doing.  I was using Smith's Cream again here, but not quite enough because it ended up taking on more of a dry-brushed pictorial look.

At some point in the design stage, I had thought about using artist's oil colours instead of One Shot and Smith's Cream, but somehow I forgot about that plan until just about the time I was wrapping the panel up to send.  It would have made for much smoother blending, but this turned out ok too.

I knocked down the highlights on the barnboard texture with another Smith's Cream glaze to help the chicken stand away from the background a little more, and at some point added a grey outline around the oval to tie in some of the elements of the design with colour.  Finally I painted some dark green ornaments to give a smoother transition between the two main panels.

The final panel showing the gold glowing on the bottom half of the letters.

After all is said and done, I am very happy with it.  I think Adrienne is too, and that's the main thing.  I think it is a case of what didn't kill me, makes me a little bit stronger.

Bob
   
 

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