Page 75 - The Decorative Painter - Fall 2019

let it dry and check this next to the color mix chart on the Step-by-Steps to ensure you have the correct value or color mixes before painting on the rice paper.
Always place the rice paper on wax paper so that the wax will not stick your project to the painting surface. Never attempt to unstick the rice paper from the wax paper until you are completely finished and ready to iron the wax off.
Place the rice/wax paper on a white surface such as a foam board so you can easily see your work.
Always paint with the tip of your brush (no. 10 round) and tap paint onto the rice paper to avoid damaging it. Rice paper becomes very weak and fragile when wet and it is easy to brush tears and holes into it if you are not careful.
Blot your brush on paper towel first and work from the inside of the area you are painting outward to minimize color bleeding outside your pattern lines. This project was designed to keep color bleeding to a minimum; however, you still want to avoid this as much as possible. Wetting the rice paper and blotting with a clean piece of folded paper towel will help to clean up and lift any color bleeding.
Before waxing areas on your project it is very important to make sure the rice paper is completely dry. You may use a hair dryer set on cool to help it along. Avoid melting any wax that is already on your project.
Be careful to keep your watercolor brushes separate from the wax brushes. Once your brush touches the wax it will only be good for waxing afterward.
LET’S PAINT
The poinsettia is a lovely plant with confusing terminology as to its parts. For clarity, we will use simple terms to label the parts of the plant and leave the complicated stuff to the botanists. We will use these terms: berries, petals and leaves.
Wax: Cover all flowers with pieces of paper towel. Spatter wax over the entire background evenly, just as you would spatter with acrylic paint. Next, using a liner brush, wax a thin line over all flower petals and vein lines on the center flower.
Berries: Paint each berry Permanent Yellow Deep. Wax a dot in the center of each berry. Then paint over each berry with Olive Green. Wax all berries.
Petals: All flower petals will be painted at the same time adding layers of shading (see Petals Step-by-Step). As we shade we will wax out three sections of petals as they develop and become more detailed (see Wax Step- by-Step).
Mix a moderate/large size puddle of Shell Pink, add a
tch of Rose Madder and basecoat in all petals. Add more Rose Madder to the mix and while the rice paper is still wet, shade the base of the petals around the berries, where all petals overlap and along the center vein lines. Next add a tch of Red Violet to the mix and deep shade to form the
WAX STEP-BY-STEPS SECTION 1
SECTION 2
SECTION 3
DECORATIVEPAINTERS.ORG 73