Gold is worse than wood!

11"x14"

I've been working on this piece for a few days (in addition to finishing one piece a day, I'm trying to have a larger one going at the same time). I found my old stash of gold leaf and thought I'd try it out on the wood. So of course, instead of doing some test pieces first, I dive right into this behemoth. A bit big for an experiment, but I love the challenge of figuring it out as I go along.  Especially when I don't really know if it'll turn out or not.  Keeps me from getting bored with the whole process.  Still needs a lot of work, but the hardest part is done.  Although I'm not sure I'll try gold leafing individual scales again any time soon.

So, the birch: If you don't go too thick, the coloured pencil sits on the top of the woodgrain so the picture seems to move as you move past it.  Different colours fade in and out, shadows deepen, highlights vanish and then reappear. If you look at a piece straight on it may look dull and flat, but take one step to either side and there's a face bursting out of the wood at you. That's one of the main draws for me, the reason I love working on wood.

I've kind of figured out how to photoshop the birch pieces so they look at least similar to the originals, but this goldleafing... Hmmm. It does the exact same thing, multiplied about 10 times. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the way it's turning out, but it's going to be a bitch to photograph.  

How the hell do you take a straight-on photograph from a 45 degree angle???