Fine Art Album–Van Eyck Part 2

I have now completed the pages featuring the Arnolfini Portrait of Jan Van Eyck. I applied some glossy accents to the detail picture of the mirror, and have added some journaling. I did this with my white Signo Uniball marker, which proved to be water soluble, so I sprayed on some fixative before completing the page with an acrylic glaze made up of yellow ochre with a touch of burnt umber, mixed to a thin consistency with some acrylic polymer. I applied this lightly over the journaling to age the stark white of the marker, wiping off the excess where it was visible on the background, with a paper towel.

I then painted a border in black, gold and white acrylic paint. Variations of this border will appear on all the pages to provide cohesion to the album, which will contain many varied and different artistic styles.

The final step was to adhere the portrait behind the gold frame.

Here are the pictures of the finished double-page spread and the details. In this first picture, I have folded back the 1-inch strip allowed for the binding, to show how the pages will look when the book is completed.

The left-hand page with its binding strip and journaling.

Detail of the portrait in its gold frame.

The journaling, giving some history of the painting, and some details about the skill of the artist.

Van Eyck’s signature. This picture also gives some detail of the black and gold border.

The mirror detail, complete with spiral journaling, detailing the mysterious qualities of the mirror in the painting. The Glossy Accents applied to the glass in the image give it a shiny, convex quality.

The picture is heavy with symbolism – the dog, the fruit, the lamp, the carving on the bed and the colour of the bed hangings, the Christian imagery on the mirror, to mention but a few, all symbolise different aspects of the marriage of this wealthy merchant and his wife. I have journaled a few of these.

There was much more that could have been said, and illustrated, about this intriguing work of art, but I think this gives a taste, and emphasises those aspects which I personally find most fascinating.