Building A Cathedral, part 4

                                                    John 3:16 cathedral calligraphy piece




                                                                ----Finishing the border----



   Hello,and welcome back to another thrilling episode of "Building A Cathedral"! To recap the previous episodes,we learned in "Part 1" the basic introduction to acrylic gesso as a sculpting medium and the techniques of applying it as well as the types of paints and gilding mediums used for the piece with step by step pictures of the beginning processes. In "Part 2", we follow the continuation of the piece from the penciled layout stage through the finished capital letter section. In "Part 3",we learned about the concepts and use of "Flying Buttresses" and followed the construction of the ones for the top border section from start to finish. In "Part 4",we will see the fruition of the piece through the construction of the right side and bottom sections of the border. So sit back,put some coffee grounds in your eyes,eat a handful of sugar cubes and hopefully be entertained and maybe learn a few helpful tips and tricks along the way to use in your own artworks! Without further adieu,we will start the show...
   When trying to get the ideas and concepts together for this piece in the very beginning,I did a lot of research on the European cathedrals,particularly those in England,France and Germany. Many hours were spent collecting,comparing and cross referencing stock photo images from most all of the major buildings. There was only a limited amount of space feasibly available and the best parts of the plethora of cathedrals would be impossible to include in just the one work! From Westminster Abbey,Canterbury,York Minster,St. Paul,Salisbury et al from England to Notre-Dame,Chartres,Laon,Rouen,St.Chapelle,Rheims et al in France to Mainz,Regensburg,Schwerin,Munster,Cologne et al in Germany with the beautiful cathedral in Prague..........all were poured over,sifted through,considered,pondered upon and contemplated around!!!!!! The conclusion I reached was that one would have to do 100 or more pieces to include the best of all those magnificent buildings. So,for practical purposes and to satisfy the overwhelming need to quell the feeling of being overwhelmed, I filtered it down to 3 finalists. Rheims Cathedral in France happens to be my favorite,so naturally the overall theme would be based upon it. The capital and the top flying buttress sections are both heavily based on Rheims. For the right side and bottom,I wanted to include at least 1 or 2 other cathedrals.For the right side,I chose a portion of Koln(Cologne) Cathedral in Germany. For me,the Cologne Cathedral is the absolute epitome of classical(and somewhat dark/eerie) Gothic architecture in form,style and attitude! It is arguably my 2nd favorite cathedral and I do plan to exclusively incorporate it into a future piece! For the bottom border, I chose a section from my 3rd favorite cathedral in St. Chapelle,France which is incomparable in its Divinely magical stained glass sanctuary!!! If you look closely at the bottom border of the piece,you will see that I relied heavily on the layout and design of the bases for the stained glass windows in St. Chapelle. Now that the inquiring minds have been satisfied,we will begin with the mechanics  of the building process,starting with the right border from Cologne Cathedral.

                                                   Fig.1 - Facade of Koln(Cologne) Cathedral,Germany



                                                                 ----Guten Tag from Germany----


   The photos in Fig.1 are of the facade of the cathedral and on the left is a close up of the awesomely intricate tracery above the arch of one of the windows. It is here,from the stacked windows that I chose what to incorporate into the piece. Before throwing up the picture of my attempts at it,I have to say that due to the miniature size,I could not replicate the fine tracery in its absolution with the tools I had at the time. I could only do a general likeness and of course,took the liberties needed to adapt it to the piece,and there are unfortunately no pictures of the transient stages of the part,only pictures of the finished product.Now that I have put forth the necessary disclaimer/excuse....I will put up the picture!

                                                            Fig.2 - View of right border



   
   Figure 2 shows my attempt at the Cologne portion.The tracery is very small and was a nightmare(to say the least) to get it worked out! This section is actually more of a paper modeling/sculpting work than it is a gesso sculpture. The spires, traceries and main columns were done completely from thick backing paper. The lace works on the traceries were drawn out with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil and very....very.....VERY meticulously cut out with an X-acto knife. Once the pieces were glued together,all of it was brushed repeatedly with gesso(up to 10 times) in order to insure the full saturation of the fibers in the paper. Once all of it had dried,the hollow insides of the column were poured completely full of gesso,just like a mold form for concrete. The piece was then placed onto the paper in its entirety and very carefully plumbed into place with its layout lines.

                                                              Fig.3 - Frontal view of border



   Figure 3 gives us the frontal and full view of the right side border. The measurement to this part is 1" wide X 14" high. The portraits are from oil paints of the Winsor & Newton brand. The metal gilding work is explained back in "Part 1" of the article. Now,at this point,I feel it is worth noting that whenever we do works,we pretty much always have some part or some thing that we wished we could have done differently. If I have one actual regret to draw from this piece,it is the portrait itself. At the time,I was running out of steam for ideas and did it half cocked. If it could be done over,I would have simply tried to reproduce the cathedral window as it actually is. If there can be an excuse put forth,I would simply chalk it up to inexperience as I had only been doing art for slightly less than a year when I attempted it. Anyway.....it is what it is,as they say. We just keep moving forward and keep working to improve all the way around! Now that the right side border has been explained, we will take our own good advice and "move forward" to the bottom section. Again,this part is based heavily upon the foundation bases for the huge stained glass windows of St. Chapelle Cathedral,France.

                                                        Fig.4 - St. Chapelle Cathedral sanctuary

    Figure 4 shows the magnificent grandeur that is the St. Chapelle sanctuary. The towering stained glass windows and impeccably carved stone works  leaves one breathless in its wake! The triple arched base section,pictured to the bottom left in the photo is what was chosen for the bottom border. 








                                                                ----Let's all get eyestrain,shall we?----

                                                             Fig.5 - Part for the bottom border


   Figure 5 is of the built up and painted part used for the bottom portion of the border. The dip pen sitting on top serves to show the sheer micro-miniature scale of the piece. The column statues measure only 1/2" tall X 1/8" wide on average,and are all full bodied,only making contact by the bases they are standing on. The micro-mini-miniature statue figures between the tops of the arches measure around 1/8" tall X 1/16" wide on average!!! The traceries were all made and carved out of paper. Whereas the right side border is an exercise in paper/gesso modeling and sculpting,this section takes it to the mountain,but just as the right side was filled with gesso and placed,so is the bottom done in this manner. In Fig.6 below,you see the finished product mounted into place!

                                                              Fig.6 - Bottom border finished

                                                                      Fig.7 - The finished piece


Figure 7 shows the finished piece.....the cathedral has been built!!! I must say that it has been a pleasurable adventure relating the story and the "nuts and bolts" behind this project. At the time,it was a huge undertaking,considering that I had only been doing art for a few months and was still trying to just learn the foundational techniques for every step involved.....calligraphy,painting,sculpting! I learned a LOT in a short time by tackling this one,and though I have not done a sculpted piece on THIS scale since, I have incorporated sculpting and the techniques learned here in many of my later works. I am not much of a qualified "advice giver",but if I had to pass along anything,it would be to never be afraid of experimenting with new techniques and mediums,and if you are into trying pieces like this, remember to have patience!!!!!!! Slow and deliberate conquers the day here. Being a long time machinist gave me a natural leg up for the virtue of patience and its use for these works. Again,it is my sincere hope that these articles provide you with some helpful hints and tips and maybe even inspire you to try something new and radical! Remember....never say die and always do your absolute best,progress will come on its own.My uncle,who was in WW2, once gave some profound advice that always stuck heartily with me......"If you do your best,that is all that is required and you have done your duty"! 

   



                                              

Building A Cathedral,Part 3

                                                   John 3:16 cathedral calligraphy piece




                                                     ----Buttressing The Big House----



   Now for another exciting episode in our ongoing cliffhanger serial,"Building A Cathedral"! In the last episode,we finished out the capital letter section and hopefully gained a better understanding of how to manipulate acrylic gesso as a sculpting medium in combination with calligraphy,in this case.Now,we will explore another major part of the piece which happens to make up the top border section,and in the real world of cathedral architecture,is a necessary key design feature that makes it possible for the great buildings to exist and to achieve the great towering heights that they were able to reach in their construction. This is none other than the "Flying Buttress",a feature that adds both size and a haunting element of dramatic elegance and beauty to the cathedral. We will touch on the engineering purpose for flying buttresses and then try to apply all of it to the piece we are working on.

                              Fig.1 - Design drawing and flying buttresses,Rheims Cathedral


   In the Fig.1 pictures,we see the engineering draft of the cross section for Rheims Cathedral and on the right we see the actual top ornamental half of the buttresses and their connection to the main walls of the sanctuary,which makes for a very good practical comparison of the relationship from the drawing to their functionality. The great cathedrals were constructed from carefully sculpted stone sections stacked and interlocked in particular geometric shapes and configurations to insure strength and stability along with the visual effects. As the decades and centuries passed during the Medieval Period,cathedral designers pushed engineering to its limits and sometimes beyond in order build bigger structures spanning greater distances and reaching greater heights. The concept of the arch played a large factor in allowing for higher vaulted ceilings. One problem was that the building was very delicate in its structural arrangement and the extreme weight of the top sections placed more downward force than the lacy walls were able to hold up. Naturally,this makes the walls tend to push outward until they buckle under the weight and crash to the ground. The smart cookies working out the designs for the cathedrals reasoned that additional "ribbed" style structures attached along the walls in key positions would absorb the heavy load from the roof and distribute the stress over a much greater area. The result is the ability to construct a building that reaches for the sky....in a safer and stable manner,of course.
   While doing the cathedral piece, I had finished the capital section and still had an overwhelming need to do more sculpting on it. After all,I had finally wrapped my head around workings of gesso and had only just barely whetted my appetite! That is,I had grabbed the "tiger by the tail",as it were and there was no letting go just yet! After thinkin',and mullin',and scratchin' my noggin for a bit,I figured the next logical step would be to add some flying buttresses!!! I used the ones for Rheims(my all time favorite cathedral) as inspiration,and upon examining them closely,I must admit to having a certain degree of intimidation! Fortunately, I do have a deeply ingrained "never say die" attitude about difficult things....thanks in part from my dear old retired military father(RIP). Essentially,in a nutshell,I broke the buttresses down into individual parts,or sections......the base,the backbone,the columns,the statue and the roof. Luckily,I had found the engineering drawing in Fig.1 earlier and had saved pictures of the sanctuary wall and buttresses from image searches to study and rely on for reference. Once determining the dimensions for the buttresses,I used Windows Photo app to pull up the drawing and increased the scale to the full size of what I was wanting. From there,it was simply a matter of getting all the key measurements of the buttress and transpose it to what I was building....easy as pie!!! Next step was to use thick backing paper to very,VERY carefully layout the templates and construct forms to be put together,much the same as putting together forms and molds to pour concrete in for whatever. Once the forms were built and thoroughly saturated with gesso for strength,it was simply a matter of using the dip pen to apply and fill in all of it with the gesso. I say it is easy,but that is really a gross overstatement! Again,the fine details are miniature in size and many hours and days were spent getting them put together.

                                                   Fig.2 - Flying Buttresses with dip pen


   Figure 2 displays the ornamental buttress ends with a calligraphy dip pen to give the relationship of scale. You can see the general complexities of the pieces,particularly in the spired roofs and the miniature angel statues.....which measure 5/8" tall X 3/16" wide on average. If you look very closely,the angel on the left is holding a shofar horn and represents the Archangel Gabriel while the one on the right is holding a sword and represents the Archangel Michael.

                                                        Fig.3 - Frontal view of buttresses


   Figure 3 shows the full frontal of the buttresses with the pen standing to show the scale. The buttresses measure 5/8" square up the main column and 6" overall in height. With the buttress tip built,all that is left is to construct the connecting bridges and the section of sanctuary wall! Of course,for this,it is always wise to constantly refer to examples in photos of the cathedral.

                                                        Fig.4 - View of buttress bridges


Figure 4 shows us a nice view of the bridging between the main wall and the statue columns. For the piece,it was not practical to construct a full length for the bridging as it would stick out much too far off of the paper. From the column ends,only about 30% was used and the arches were adjusted accordingly.

    
                                      Fig.5 - Close up of buttress bridging and roof details



   The old photo in Figure 5 presents us with an awesome close up view of the intricate details of the buttress bridging with the corresponding sanctuary windows. More importantly, it displays the beautiful frieze details along the top of the sanctuary wall! The photos presented here lays the foundation for everything needed to complete the top border of the piece. For the bridging,I used the thick backing paper and upon laying out the initial template from the outer 30%, enough sections drawn out,cut and glued together to get a 3/16 thick piece....of course,gesso was generously added in building all of it up and carefully detailed as close to the pictures as possible. Next was to lay down the gesso for the facade of the sanctuary wall. Gesso was put down 1/4" thick with 5 high arched windows and all of the individual detailing,as seen in Fig.6.

                                         Fig.6 - Gesso for partially completed facade wall



   Figure 6 is a mostly complete facade with the exception of the windows. The drawings for the window paintings depicting various times in the life of Christ are also shown.

                                              Fig.7 - Frontal view of completed facade wall


   Figure 7 is the completed facade with all windows built up in their bases and top traceries. I used a Dremel  tool to grind out the slots in the facade for the tabs of the buttress bridging to fit into....basically just like assembling a model kit in some ways,except that you have to build all the individual parts as well.

                                                  Fig.8 - Buttresses attached to facade


   In Figure 8,we finally start to see the plan coming together!!!! The buttresses are VERY CAREFULLY attached to the facade. The bridging tabs and slots were filled with gesso and smoothed out. You can see the modification liberties I took with the bridging to adapt it to the piece. It turned out pretty satisfactory.....even if I say so myself!

                                                            Fig.9 - Top border finished



   Figure 9 gives the finished product,gilded and painted! The windows are of the various times during the life of Christ.....from left to right, 1). Mary holding baby Jesus....2). Jesus walking on water in the storm reaching out to Peter....3). Judas preparing to betray Christ with a kiss.....4). Crucifixion.....5). The Ascension of Christ into Heaven. I have been asked before if the buttresses are strong,and I did a strength test by actually picking up the piece by each of the 6 buttresses.....everyone of them easily held the heavy piece up! Yes....it is very strong,and I have come to absolutely love acrylic gesso as a workable sculpting medium!

                                                   Fig.10 - Angled view of buttresses


   In this photo(Fig.10),an angled view is shown to present the details of the bridging and how it is connected to the facade. If you look closely,you can also see the arch modifications. I tried to give it more of the full arched appearance rather than a small piece of an arch.You will no doubt notice that there are a few liberties taken with the designs. I did deviate a little here and there,but not to take away or add to it so much as to do enough to make it my own....if that makes any sense. Overall,it is a pretty close approximation to the pieces I used for inspiration,or close enough!

                                                             Fig.11 -  Opposite view



   Figure 11 is just a bit of an opposite view to present all sides. That is about it for this portion of the show,ladies and germs! I hope you are enjoying the articles at least a fraction as much as I am in writing them!!! It is also my hope that the works presented here provide some measure of inspiration and some helpful hints and tips for your own projects! Tune in next time when we will expand the border to include parts from the cathedrals of St. Chapelle and Koln....and really get a lesson in the use of an X-acto knife......same bat time,same bat channel!!!

Building A Cathedral, part 2

                                               John 3:16 cathedral calligraphy piece

   Greetings once again and long time,no post! I must extend apologies for my long hiatus. The last several months have been busily packed with selling out,packing and moving to a new location,but now that all the initial settling in processes have been completed,we can now get back to where we left off....building a cathedral! In the last episode,we had explained the basic premise of the piece and introduced the "hit or miss" trial and error techniques,completing the statuary located at the bottom of the capital section. So,without further adieu,we will get back to work laying down the frameworks of the portal door and the larger full bodied statues located around it. First,we will look at the initial penciled layout drawings to see the portal as it appeared in the 2nd dimension and then we will explore the build up process involved in it.

                               Fig.1 - Two slightly different views of the penciled layouts

   The photos of Fig.1 show the basic overall view of the planned border designs for the inner and outer layers,even if they are poor quality pictures....which I apologise profusely for as I did not have a high quality camera at the time. The "cross and acanthus" stylings of the border were of course based on foundation patterns found in the various portals of Rheims Cathedral in France. In Fig.2,you will see a much better close up for the design patterns,along with the position and designs for the statues and their bases.

                                              Fig.2 - Close up of border patterns and statues

   As we can see,Fig.2 thankfully makes up for the optical shortcomings of the previous pictures! Here,we can see the cross patterns on the outer layer of the border and the double rowed acanthus patterns of the inner border. The layouts for the statue and its base is apparent as well. Now that we have established what the border will look like,we are ready to apply the gesso and get it built up. For the thicknesses,I settled on 5/16" for the inner and 3/8" for the outer. You may be wondering how I worked out those serious and definitive sounding measurements....and,it is ok to ask! I did not use any complicated architectural formulae or meet with the Antient Rosicrucian Order to consult the Philosopher's Stone. Nor did I follow the footsteps of Nat E. Dred and "gimme ganja"(from the 1980 show "Fridays",for all you old timers),and to that,I will answer with "No,no,NOOO,no"!  I simply took a ruler,got down about eye level and made the decree across the land that "hitherto and henceforth,the measurements shall be 5/16" and 3/8". When I began laying down the gesso, I was using a fine tip steel nib on the dip pen. I figured out quickly that it needed to be gooped on to the paper faster,so I changed over to a broad tip and it worked out nicely. In Fig.3,we see the progression of the gesso and a nice view of the patterns. There are also little markers present to show the position of the statues within the inner border.

                                          Fig.3 - Initial application of gesso on the border 

   The Figure 3 photo gives us the visual of the cross and acanthus patterns. The crosses in the outer layer were not so hard to put down,however,the acanthus leaves were a different story. For these,a fine nib was used and the gesso was applied by pushing it into the border then "pulling out" with the nib to stretch and shape the leaves. It was done repeatedly to layer it and and give it greater depth. To achieve the desired aesthetic of the acanthus,a few things are needed at this point:
 1). Good to excellent lighting - to do fine detail work on miniature pieces,it is                                                absolutely necessary!
 2). Magnification - use a good strong magnifying glass for the pieces mentioned in 

         point #1. I used a 5X magnifying lamp in conjunction with 1.75X reading                                             glasses. Do not overwork or strain your ey
 3). Very steady,almost surgical hands - The placing and shaping of some parts of the                                   piece were very exacting and required slow,deliberate work. You definitely                                           would not want to attempt a piece like this while having a blockbuster                                                   hangover!!!
 4). Not just a lot,but "A LOT" of patience - Pieces like these WILL(!!!) test your 

       might! I can attest to the fact that many times,only an inch(or a fraction) of                                           progress may be achieved after the result of up to several hours work. If your                                       thing is instant gratification or having the overwhelming need to "see where                                         you have been",then projects like these will not be your thing!

   Now that we have been bludgeoned with the tire iron of wisdom,we will uncross our legs,stop levitating and move onward with the project! In Figure 3,we laid down the foundation of the border and in Figure 4,we will see placement of the first statue with its base....

                                              Fig.4 - Doorway statue on base

   In Figure 4, a nice close up is presented of the full bodied doorway statue standing on a semicircular,tracery embellished base. It is worth noting here that the doorway statues are not connected to the paper in any way other than the bases upon which they are standing. To further examine this part,we will simply go from the bottom up. If you look closely at the base, it is hollow,just as it appears to be. To get this effect,the general traceried shape of the base was laid out on a one inch wide strip of thick backing paper. From there,the shape was cut with an X-acto knife and then folded into shape.The top was also cut from the thick paper and the corresponding parts "glued" into place with drops of gesso. Once dried, multiple layers of gesso are brushed on the paper,both inside and out. This insures that the core of the fibers in the paper are soaked and once it sets up,will increase the strength many times while still having a degree of malleability,afterwards,the traceries are built up and carefully detailed. The statues involve an equal part of imagination and skill at manipulating the gesso. From the original drawing,we see that the statued figure is looking in earnest to a far point and holding his hands out from his body. To begin the figure,basically cut out a silhouette shape of the statue from the backing paper.....i.e., head and general body shape with even the hands,etc. Coat the paper well with gesso and let dry,bending and shaping it to an approximate concave shape(think of it as the concave form of the back part of the head and body). After gluing the paper to the base in the desired position,begin globbing the gesso on and carefully shaping it as desired. For detailed work on the statues,refer to the described statuary section of Part 1 for this article. It will describe all the basics for working the gesso through its stages until the finished product is achieved. This piece contains 6 full bodied statues around the doorway. Whether you are doing 6 statues or 60,the process is the same once you get a comfortable feel for the techniques......wash,rinse and repeat until done!

 

                                                 Fig.5 - Doorway with full statuary

   Figure 5 gives us the full application of the gesso and the piece ready to paint. The top "Spire" section is not shown here as it merits its own explanation. What you see here is the result of about 3 months work! It is not for the faint,but fortune(in one form or another) always favors the bold! 

                                                       ----The Infamous Spires----

   This brings us to the last construction part of this section. Actually,this is the first part that I worked on when beginning the project. As mentioned early on in Part 1 of this article, when I had began the piece,I had absolutely no idea on how to do it or what direction to go in.....other than a cathedral. The spire section at the top of the capital was what nearly broke me. Pretty much everything that could go wrong was seeming to go wrong and I could readily find no solution to any of it. The spires on top of the main portal of Rheims Cathedral are extremely ornate and complex,as well as indescribably beautiful! My first task here was to try to copy them in miniature....somehow! Not knowing if the gesso would be hard to see once on paper,I mixed in some red food coloring. Of course,the gesso was too thin and was always running. I did not yet know the dynamics of the medium and was becoming fast convinced that it would never work for sculpting. The biggest frustration I initially experienced was that the gesso would not readily build up enough to be of any workable thickness. After continually having to wipe up the runny red gesso bleeding across the paper,I came to the point of having to decide whether to declare the grand experiment a failure, toss it in the can and move on to something else. It was the closest I ever came to giving up on any piece I ever tried. Yet,from somewhere deep inside,the OCD ravaged maniacally mad inventor came out and the idea of using paper surfaced,with trying to get the gesso to thicken. The last attempt turned it all around and kept the cavalry charging on it until it was finished!

                                                       Fig.6 - Beginning attempt at the spires

   Figure 6 shows the mess made from the thin gesso and botched attempts,though the ones pictured were the best ones up to that time.

                                                          Fig.7 - The improved Spires

   Figure 7 shows the last incarnate for the spires,made from paper and built up with gesso to get the desired appearance. The photo on the left side shows the "ready to paint" capital. The photo to the right gives a good picture of a half gesso/half drawing,just for the purpose of comparison.

                                                     

                                                         ----Painting The Old House----

   After the application of gesso is completed,the next step in the course of things is to apply the metal work and paint. To get the low down on what types of paints and metals are used,I again refer you to the latter half of Part 1 of this article. It explains in detail what was used and how it was applied. The letter "F" here underwent a full makeover when painting the piece. Rather than the flat red letter "F" before,it was built up with gesso for a raised appearance and leafed with copper. It was actually quite a struggle to decide whether to do the letter in gold or copper. I finally settled on doing the tracery around the letter in gold and the letter itself in copper.....a decision I am happy with! Again, I hope this article is somewhat helpful with your own art endeavors and will provide some kind of direction or even inspire you with your works. I will finish this part of the article with pictures of the finished capital. Tune in next episode when we will attempt to buttress the old girl up!!!!

                                     Fig.8 - Oblique view of the finished capital

                                        Fig.9 - Painted capital with portrait and gilded letter

                                          

                                              ----Close Ups Of Border Statues----

                                                   Fig.10 - Figure with staff

                                                  Fig.11 - Female figure at top of arch

                                                             Fig.12 - Left side statue

                                                                      Fig.13 -  Left side figure