Page 25 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2016

ACRYLIC
BACKGROUND
BORDER AND RIM
clean water to clean up inside edge. Dry overnight. (See rim surface background above.)
Inside plate is basecoated with Off-White Background Mix. Again, this is a wet-on-wet application of tints ap- plied with a large wash brush and softly blended with a clean dry mop. DecoArt Extender & Blending Medium is added to each paint puddle and wash brush is dressed with extender. Starting from the bottom of the scene, apply tint colors progressing from dark green to lighter greens as you work toward the center of the plate. From the top edge, apply a wash of Sapphire Blue+Warm White applying less color as brush progresses toward the center. With a small filbert or small wash brush, apply small touches of Prussian Blue Hue, Light Violet, and Vermilion to the sky area and small touches of Yellow Deep, Yellow Oxide, Hansa Yellow, Quinacridone Gold, and very slight touch of Background Red Mix nearest the bottom. (See Applied Background Washes above.)
With a large mop, blend paint so there is a subtle pro- gression of sky toward the center of the plate and ground from the bottom up to the center of the plate. There should not be a line delineating the sky from the ground but be soft and mottled. In our finishing steps, we will add more color tints. Let dry. (See blended background above.)
APPLY PATTERN
Trace pattern onto the center of plate. If things are not lining up exactly, try applying the leaves, vine heart, and bleeding hearts first. Then line up Cupid in the sky so that it is parallel to the green leafy heart at the bottom of the plate and centered. Finally add the swing and couple pattern.
LEAVES AND VINE HEART
Basecoat and add shadows and highlights on the vine using a small liner. For the heart and leaves, use a small fil- bert or a no. 4 round that can be flattened and sideloaded for basecoating and shadowing/highlighting. Throughout the design, pay particular attention to maintaining the continuity of pattern flow especially of the vine and leaves. STEP 1: Vine is Medium Green Light. Leaves are basecoat- ed with Yellow Green Medium. Stroke leaves from base to tips following curve of pattern.
STEP 2: For the vein, add touches of Yellow Green Light, Warm White, and/or Hansa Yellow. The leaves are high- lighted using Warm White on the largest leaf edge and Hansa Yellow on smaller edges.
STEP 3: Vine and leaf shadows are Dark Green and Background Red Mix.
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