Paul Lewing Custom Tile

Working on the third and, I hope, final firing. This firing is mostly adding black outlines, but I also do some more intensifying colors, like I’ve done on the yellow-brown coral that has the outlines on it. I’ll do that on the other one too. Most china painters don’t do this outlining, but I work much larger than traditional china painters, and these images need to carry across a room, so they need to be punchy. Also, doing several coats and pouncing the colors to remove brush marks, the edges of things get fuzzy. This gets them crisp again. I keep the black in the mortar and pestle and grind it periodically to keep it in suspension. I just let it dry out in between jobs. When it's done and installed, it will eventually be on www.paullewingtile.com.

Here’s what the Mantas bespoke tile mural looks like after the second firing. You can see that the background is now filled in, the colors have been deepened and texture has been added. There will be at least one more firing. The next one will be black outlines, and deepening colors even more. I’m liking it so far. I particularly like the way the sunlight beams through the water and plays on the sand. It will probably still be months before the installed picture turns up on www.paullewingtile.com, but you cn see lots more there now.

This is how I start on a custom tile mural. I’ve got my proposal drawing to go by, my source material laid out, the tiles have been numbered on the backs. I usually start in the upper left and work my way to the bottom right. There will be a water background, but I like to get the images established and do the backgrounds later. Under the table you can see the racks the tiles will be fired in.

In the second picture you see the lower right corner almost done. I just have the two fish and one coral to do yet and it will be ready to go into the kiln. The white strokes that look like grasses just to the left of the blank area were wiped out with that rubber tool you see laying next to the tile.