Page 62 - The Decorative Painter Summer 2017

HELPFUL TIPS
WOOD BACKGROUND PREPARATION: If the wood is not properly prepared for painting, the results of the finished project might be frustrating. There is nothing worse than spending hours, days, and sometimes weeks working on a project to realize at the end that the imper- fections of the wood underneath are visible on your final painting. Each step of preparation is as important as the painting itself, from sanding following the wood grain, to cleaning it by removing the dust and applying the sealer – which assures better adhesion of paint to the surface, increases paint durability, and provides additional protec- tion for the wood. I don’t like surprises on my projects, and I want to make sure after all that labor of love my piece will look as professional and last for years to come. An- other important point regarding the wood is to not buy any unfinished wood with knots in it. I have tried many products for preventing the knots from bleeding through the paint and yet I have not found one that is truly effective and, with time, it will stain your painted project. PRACTICING: If you have never painted stroke roses before I suggest some practice first. I like to practice on canvas paper. Paint the background color using the acrylic paint, so you can adjust the color as you practice. It is also a good idea to try several roses on the board first so you can see which strokes work best. You can then save the board for future reference. I love to use boards and I have several of them, some with learning mistakes and some with happy endings. They are very helpful before and after. KRYLON MATTE FINISH SPRAY: It is listed as op- tional but I recommend using it if you want to dry your project quickly. It can be used at the end of painting and prior to varnishing or between each step. I like to work as much as possible wet-on-wet first, and then after the paint is dry I work on the details. Then I just varnish it. PALETTE BOX FOR OILS: To keep the oils fresher lon- ger, I suggest a palette lock box. There are several on the market; just an inexpensive plastic one will be perfect. I absolutely love them! There are rectangular ones where the palette paper can fit perfectly inside, and there are round ones with the same palette papers sold together to fit them. You can also use parchment paper (the kind used as a liner for baking) and cut it according to the shape or size needed. A palette box keeps the oil paint fresh for a long time, ensuring nice and easy blending. You also will be able to save a lot of money from using much less paint. TRACING: I learned from many mistakes in the past that tracing is another important step for beautiful results. Be- fore I use any graphite paper I wipe the tracing paper with
a paper towel to remove the excess lead and to avoid ex- treme dark lines that might appear later. After that, I still test it before I make the final tracing on my project. Last and definitely not least, using a light pressure to trace the design lines is essential to make sure that no marks will be left indented on the wood surface. If the pressure is too heavy, it will show up on the final painting.
CREATING HARMONY WITH COLORS: To create a more interesting painting, some leaves are painted with warm tones and some with cool tones. Some of both leaf tones – cool and warm – have accents. The accent color is pure Alizarin Crimson, applied in a very small amount only at some edges of the leaves to create color harmony.
TECHNIQUES
GENERAL PAINTING TECHNIQUE: Always use a small amount of paint when working with oils. When you change color, gently wipe the brush on a paper towel, re- moving much paint as you can. Only use the cleaners at the end of your painting day. For the entire project start by blocking in the colors from the mixing brush technique. Blend the colors using a wet-on-wet technique. When the painting is all finished use the dry-brush technique to rein- force the darks, the highlights, and the accent colors. VALUES: When placing the colors on each subject beginning with mid-value, then adding the light and the dark values next to each other, we can judge well if there will be contrast between them. Once the colors are blended, only where they meet, another value is added. This helps to create dimension, interest, and harmony within the painting as well.
SIDELOAD BRUSH TECHNIQUE: In this project I only use this technique for the petals on the roses. After placing the colors for the background of the entire rose, as described later, do not wipe the brush at all. Use only one side of the brush – the upper side where the highlight will be – picking up a small amount of Titanium White. On a practice board draw a small stroke lightly just to take the excess of the Titanium White off. You can always highlight it later. Make sure you do not lose the dark colors on the other side of the brush.
MIXING BRUSH TECHNIQUE: Pull the first color down from a puddle. The plus sign (+) means to pick up more of the color described into the same mixture. Do the same with the next color and mix them with your brush. The first color described for the mixture is the predomi- nant one. The next colors use a smaller amount and the last color described uses just a touch of it.
60 The Decorative Painter • SUMMER 2017
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