experimenting with oil paint and calligraphy

lettering  in and on water-soluble oil paint with venice turp glaze, canvas is 18x24 inches

this was the blocked-in color, maybe I like it better than the finished piece.

While I like the final result of my first try with oils, the lettering is not very good as the surface was not pleasant to work on nor the paint to control. I had originally wanted to try on a panel but didn't have one when I was ready to start.. So next I decided to try that (a wood panel) with acrylic gouache for the first layer and writing and use oil glazes over it. I figure since you can put oil paint over acrylic that should work, and allow the richness and enamel-like finish I was interested in.

So I got some small - just 6x8 inch - panels for experimenting. I coated this one with water absorbent ground and did a background painting with diluted acrylic guoache

I really liked it, almost didn't write on it. Then I wrote with acrylic gouache and metal pen - it worked pretty well although occasionally the pen actually dug into the soft ground. It was certainly easier to work with than the water-soluble oil on primed canvas, even though I tried a variety of mediums, etc.

Then I coated it with the venice turp oil glaze and did some more painting into it (with the oils) to add some other color and help the words be a little more "under the surface". It doesn't show up in the photos much differently unless I get where the gloss gets in the way of photographing.

At any rate, I don't know if the oil has enough barrier from the ground with the thin acrylic layer or if it will matter in the long run, but at least the basics worked. I have two more small panels and  plan to continue experimenting and learning about the possibilities before trying another large piece.