Lantern Inspiration

I’ve been part of the ‘Light Up Eye’ project (run by Peterborough Presents) in Eye village over the last couple of years, and now we’re getting closer to the second Lantern Parade I thought I’d share some photos of lanterns I’ve decorated.

If you live in the village, I also hope they might inspire you to have a go yourself and decorate your own lantern for the parade.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I’ve done a video demonstrating some basic decorating techniques which can be found here or by going to Peterborough presents' YouTube channel and looking for the video titled 'Lantern Decoration Demo Video - With Artist Hannah!'

These first two photos are of the lantern I decorated in that video. It’s a simple flat panel decorated with basic supplies like Crayola pens and some cheap unbranded watercolour paints.

[Image ID] A flat lantern, made up of four triangles with a different image in each. The top one has an eye in the centre of it. The bottom left one has a brick factory, the bottom middle has a butterfly and the bottom right is simply filled with different bright colours. [description end]

I took all the photos of these lanterns in my garden as I liked the way the sunlight shines through the transparent tissue of the lantern. The transparency is why I recommend sticking mostly to watercolour or water-based felt tips as the ink in them is also transparent and won’t block the light.

Of course, if you intentionally want to block out a small area of a lantern so the light doesn’t come though then acrylic/poster paint can work for that.

[Image ID] This image is another view of the previous lantern [description end]

Speaking of acrylic paint, this next lantern was created as part of an experiment using it. I mixed a small drop of green acrylic paint into the water and glue mixture used to attach the tissue paper to the lantern, which gave the entire thing an even green colour.

[Image ID] A flat lantern shaped a bit like a church window. The main colour on this lantern is green with some purple flowers in the centre. [description end]

Once the lantern was dry I painted the detailed design on top with watercolours as usual.

The next lantern was inspired by stained glass windows, such as those in the village church. 

[Image ID] A flat lantern, shaped like a church window. The panes are blue and yellow, with a star in the top pane and a floral design in the others. [description end]

I added a mix of watercolour colours across the entire lantern to get a colourful background, and once dry I drew and coloured the floral design on top with Crayola pens.

[Image ID] This image is another view of the previous lantern [description end]

This final lantern was inspired by this parade’s theme of village history. I used some more ‘specialist’ art supplies on this lantern, as after some initial layers of watercolour and pen I added some Nuvo Shimmer Powders – which are a kind of watercolour pigment powder that has shiny mica in it – to intensify the colour and make the lantern sparkle in the light.

[Image ID] A three sided lantern with a willow handle. This first side of the lantern has a brightly coloured sky, behind an eight sailed windmill. [description end]

For the first side, I decided to draw a windmill inspired by the eight-sailed windmill which used to stand in the village – one of only seven to ever be built in England.

[Image ID] This second side of the lantern has an image of the Leedsichthys Problematicus on a blue background. [description end]

The second side was inspired by the incomplete Leedsichthys Problematicus fossil which was found in the brick pits at Eye Green.

[Image ID] This final side of the lantern has an image of the brick factory, that was associated with the village, with smoke rising from the tall chimneys. [description end]

This third side depicts a building inspired by the brickworks themselves. On all the sides, in addition to the shimmer powers, I used Crayola pens and fineliner pens to add detail and outlines to the scenes to help them stand out more from the background.

If you live in the village, I hope this post has inspired you with new ideas on how to decorate the lanterns you’ve made, or perhaps inspires you to attend one of the public workshops to make and decorate one.

Otherwise, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a bit of a different project from me. Working on a 3D lantern is quite different to my usual flat paintings, but it’s been a fun challenge and experiment.

Artwork and photography ©DragonsFlyAtSunset 2024, all rights reserved.