PAUL COOK INSPIRED FLOAT BOX

[Scott]

Having seen Paul's beautifully illustrated float boxes I decided to have a crack at my own.. ..adding an illustration to my box that is, not making the actual box.. ..the floats are however homemade. The floats are a bit rough and ready and nowhere near the quality I've seen by some of our other forum members, that said, I'm not really a float fisherman and made these mainly as a display piece for on top of my book case, I'll maybe try them out this autumn for perch on Coniston Water...




I created the illustration by sanding off the 'varnish' that was on the box and sketched the perch on with a biro. I intend to varnish back over the sketch however I can't help imagining that the varnish will smear the ink, any of you know if this would be the case? I may resort to using a spray on varnish.




Anyway thanks for looking, Scott.

[Watermole+]

That's quite an impressive piece of artwork there friend!

To preserve the image, it might be an idea to buy one of those clear lacquer model spray cans, but not cellulose-based, otherwise the ballpoint ink could 'spread'.

If you have a similar piece of wood, why not do some test drawings with the same pen and see what happens when you spray it?

wm+

[Scott]

That's quite an impressive piece of artwork there friend!

To preserve the image, it might be an idea to buy one of those clear lacquer model spray cans, but not cellulose-based, otherwise the ballpoint ink could 'spread'.

If you have a similar piece of wood, why not do some test drawings with the same pen and see what happens when you spray it?

wm+

Thanks for the advice and kind words wm+, much appreciated...

[Loop Erimder]

Cracking box there and some nice floats too, now i'm thinking for a winter project is to do something similar :thumb:

[George387]

Nice drawing Scott, I would agree some spray lacquer will do it as a starting layer to seal the ink then varnish over if required.

[Trevor]

That's a wonderful piece of art Scott :hat:

[Dave Burr]

Give you a fiver for it :D

[Nobby]

I think biro ink will smear with either oil based varnish or cellulose dope, but as suggested try a test piece.
Biro tends to build up in blobs on the surface when heavy shading, that never quite dry...you could blot it off with kitchen roll but DON'T move it sideways...it'll smear!


If the test pieces do run, you might consider one of the water based varnishes around now, but once again try a test piece.


What will work is water based acrylic varnish. I use one on most of my floats and it reacts with nothing!
I use Polyvine satin clear varnish from Homebase. It comes in tiny tubs in the stencil decorating section.


Just follow with normal varnish when dry in a couple of hours.

[Scott]

Thanks a lot for the advice and kind words chaps...

[Paul Cook]

Now that, I do like , pretty impressive drawing Scott , looking good . You can give it a couple of coats of poly varnish and rub down with wire wool and then wax the surface nice and gentle . Will come up a treat and take away any "bits" in the varnish . I spray mine with a two pack lacqeur , but you need a booth for that method .