Transferring pattern or design to wall (larger designs)
Using photos and illustrations
When cleaning make sure you get all of the paint out of the brush, all the way down to the ferrule. It is important to use the brush basin and rake the brushes over the bottom of the basin. This allows for the paint to be released from the ferrule. It is important to get all of the paint out because if it dries up in the ferrule it can cause separation of the bristles or inability to form a good chisel edge.
After you have used the brush basin to remove as much paint as possible, it is then necessary to clean the brushes with Brush Plus. Work a small amount of cleaner into the bristles and work back and forth. Then place brush back into basin and rake across the bottom to remove cleaner and excess paint.
After you have cleaned the brush in the basin, squeeze out the excess water. You should then use Brush Plus to re-size the bristles. You will want to move the brush back and forth in the cleaner several times to get enough cleaner in the bristles to reshape them.
Pull the bristles between your fingers to re-form chisel edge. You may need to do this a couple of times for the cleaner to start to set up.
Finally, to dry brushes, place them in the slots of the brush caddy (bristles facing downward) or hang them to dry. Make sure that your bristles are not touching a surface when drying.
Folk-Art paint works great on candles because we don't use water that would just bead up on the wax.
When selecting colors, keep in mind that Thicket green matches most decorating schemes better than any other green. Wine colors like Berry Wine are used more often than red shades. Be careful when using purple, most people either love or hate this color.
First base coat with the color that you want to show trough the paint and the Crackle medium must be from the same make/company so that the chemicals work in unison.
Allow that base coat color to dry completely before putting on the coat of Crackle medium.
Make sure that when you apply the crackle medium you use a clean brush and that you don¹t put too much medium so that it doesn't start running.
This medium needs to dry completely before you can put on your top coat. You will know that it is completely dry when you touch it with the tip of your finger and it's not sticky to the touch.
When applying the top coat you can use a brush or a sponge, but do not use a roller. When applying top coat with a brush, make sure you pick up enough paint to make one long stroke if you should need to pick up more paint to finish the stroke, make sure that the strokes stagger so that you don't have a straight line across as to where you started again. The bigger the brush you use for the top coat the bigger the crackle will show, the smaller the brush the smaller the crackle. If you use a sponge, you will usually get kind of a eggshell crackle look.
Allow to dry completely.
You must seal this crackle with a clear lacquer spray finish before antiquing or painting on it. Do not roll on a finish for it will lift the crackle and it will destroy your hard work. If you don't seal it, you will also damage the crackle.
VERY IMPORTANT: You must not have any humidity in the area where you are crackling or this procedure will not work.
When painting on fabric, 50/50 heavy weight tees work best, as they tend to hold up better with washings. The colors will stay more vivid on a 50/50 cotton-poly mix than on a 100% cotton tee.
Wash and dry the garment or item according to manufacturer's instructions before painting. This will remove sizing and excess dye and guard against shrinkage after painting. Do not use fabric softener. Iron garment so it's smooth. If an item is never going to be washed, such as a lamp shade, there is no need to prepare it in this manner.
It’s a good idea to plan the placement of your pattern before you transfer the pattern or begin painting. Pin the pattern where you would like it to go and observe the placement, adjusting as needed.
For painted clothing, try on the garment and stand in front of a mirror to view the placement. When painting on tee shirts, place the design high enough on the chest area so that if the shirt is tucked in, the design will still show. Adjust placement if needed.
To transfer a design, place the item to be painted on your work surface and lay the traced pattern in position on your project. Slip graphite paper between pattern and item. Trace pattern with a stylus to transfer it.
Use a shirtboard form inside the garment so you'll have a firm surface for painting and so your paint won't bleed through to the back of your garment. Use masking tape to fasten excess fabric to the back of the shirtboard, out of your way. Your painting surface should be taut and flat, but not stretched out of shape.
Load your brush with paint. Dip the tip of the brush straight down in the Textile Medium. Return to your palette and work the medium into the brush. Repeat this step every time you feel that your brush is getting dry. If your fabric is very porous, you may need to do it every stroke. Test your fabric before painting your design.
Textile Medium allows the paint to stay wetter, thus aiding you in you brush strokes. Do not follow the instructions on the Textile Medium bottle when painting the One StrokeTM technique - if you do, your strokes will be very muddy.
When painting large design elements (a full rose, fruits, etc.), basecoat the area with the principal color, then double-load your brush and paint as usual.
Let painted garment dry 24 hours. Place a pressing cloth over painted design. Iron 30 seconds over pressing cloth, with iron on highest appropriate setting for fabric.
When sponging on a faux finish, follow these steps:
a. Dampen a household sponge.
b. Pounce half of sponge into one color and the other half into a second color.
c. Pounce sponge onto surface of project, remembering to move your hand in different directions so as not to create a pattern of any sort.
d. Do not over pounce or you will lose the variation of the two colors. You want the finish to be distinct in the two color differences.
e. Reload sponge as it begins to lose its color.
f. A good point to remember here is that using the sponge is similar to pouncing the scruffy brush and you don't want to muddy up the look.
g. A scruffy could also be used for fauxing small projects.When painting floral designs it is important to visualize where the flowers are coming from in order to achieve a natural look. Is the design on a growing vine? If so the flowers and leaves grow out from it. Perhaps the design is like a bouquet that someone is holding in their hand. The flowers and leaves would flow out and away from the center. Keep the design in mind and you won’t have flowers and leaves appear to be coming from no where
You painted the design and you think you want it a little fuller looking but you don’t want it to look heavy. Fill in with shadow leaves or shadow flowers. Take your brush that is loaded with paint and wipe it on a paper towel to remove the outside paint. Then work your paintbrush into a puddle of floating medium to make a muted color. Use this puddle to paint shadow leaves or flowers for a soft fuller look.
Need help with flower placement on the pieces you are painting. Lay out your design like a florist. Decide if you need an "L" shape, a "C" shape, an "S" shape, an arch or a round shape. Once the shape is decided on place your larger flowers where the focal point is then fill in with smaller flowers and leaves away form the main element. Like a florist you can add a background of leaves, then the main flowers and finally finish up with the smaller filler flowers and leaves
When sealing a piece of furniture that already has a varnish finish, use spray lacquer to seal it. Do not use spray varnishes, acrylics or polyurethane because they yellow with exposure to heat and sun.
When painting on a piece of furniture that has not been sealed, use Old English Scratch and Dent Stain oil so the stain goes into paint and gives it an antique finish. There is no need to spray a sealer over top.
Use a Spray Sanding Sealer to help acrylic adhere to the base coat on an old piece of furniture. Clean the piece then spray with Sanding Sealer. Base coat your piece and allow to dry, then paint your decorative painting.
To preserve and protect all your hand-painted pieces of furniture, I recommend using Waterbase Varnish in the satin finish.
Try adding decorative finials to the bottom or top of your hand-painted furniture for a finishing touch.When selecting glass pieces, be careful not to choose pieces that have glued joints if you plan to set the paint with heat. For example, some cake dishes have two parts that are glued together. Heating these pieces in the oven will loosen the glue and will cause your piece to come apart. If you don’t paint the base you can put just the cover in the oven to avoid the joint from separating: Use Apple Barrel Gloss paint for glass pieces. After letting your paint dry overnight, put your piece in a cool oven and heat to 325 degrees. Cook your piece for 10 minutes at this temperature, and then turn off oven and leave piece inside for 20 minutes. So easy!
When painting strokes for the first time, be sure to paint very slowly, feeling the movement and pressure of the brush and always watching the outer edge of your stroke. Your painting will look better once you've learned to paint your strokes more quickly.
Rubbing alcohol is a great substance for cleaning dried paint out of your brush. Soak bristles in alcohol for a few minutes, making sure not to soak overnight. Rubbing alcohol also works well to remove dried paint from reusable teaching guides, carpet, and clothing.
Scruffy brushes come in numerous sizes. Remove the brush from the packaging and form the natural bristles into an oval shape by gently pulling on them. Then, twist the bristles in the palm of your hand until you have shaped the bristles into a nice oval form.
The scruffy, when fluffed, is used for painting mosses, wisteria, lilacs, certain hair and fur, fauxing and shading textures. This brush is not used with water. When cleaning this brush, pounce the bristles into the brush basin; do not rake them so as not to break the natural bristles.
Skin Tone Color SuggestionsWhen painting skin tones, we usually blend several colors to achieve a nice tone. Below are listed several nice shades with their tones. Blend in some of the lighter colors listed along with Floating Medium to achieve the shade that you would like. You may also blend several of the colors with each other to create the perfect shade. The AP (Artists’ Pigment) colors are pure pigment colors that blend nicely, keeping their tone, when blended with other colors.
Lighter Colors:
Tan tones:
420 Linen — very light
939 Butter Pecan —darker
472 Mushroom — darkest
Peach tones:
229 Light Flesh — very light, barely peachy
949 Skintone — darker
617 Peach Perfection —darkest
Yellowish tone:
942 Honeycomb — tan with yellowish tones
Olive tone:
237 Fawn (AP) — blend with other colors
Darker Colors: (listed approximately from lightest to darkest):
Yellowish brown tone:
452 Raw Sienna
Pure brown tones:
941 Acorn Brown — very light
417 Teddy Bear Brown — a lighter brown
944 Nutmeg — a little warmer
476 Asphaltum (AP) — a darker, warmer brown
231 Real Brown — a dark brown
462 Burnt Umber (AP) — dark brown
Brown with slight reddish tones:
945 Maple Syrup — medium shade
416 Dark Brown — dark shade with a light reddish tone
Reddish Tones:
433 Terra Cotta — a light warm tone
943 Burnt Sienna (AP) — darker, rust tone
Enameled tin should always be sprayed with 2-3 coats of lacquer (allow to dry between coats). Galvanized tin holds up best, without scratching, when sprayed with varnish.
First, paint your own design, such as a floral spray. With tracing paper and a pencil, trace the outer shape of your design (petals, leaves, etc.); do not worry about details in the center of each element or your pattern will be difficult to follow. Lay another piece of tracing paper on top of the first piece and trace over your penciled pattern with a fine-lined sharpie pen. Using this method will give you a nice, clean pattern.
Transferring pattern or design to wall (larger designs)The following is one way to transfer the pattern to the wall or surface. If you have a projector or another method please feel free to use it. An opaque projector or an overhead projector with vellums can be used quite successfully.
Trace or transfer the pattern onto graph paper. Determine the size you want to transfer onto the surface (wall or furniture) and make appropriate measurements to the surface.
Refer to graph paper as you use it as a guide to transfer, copying each graph paper square onto the corresponding square on the wall.
Example :
In the case of the ark you may use 1/2 " graph paper and use each square as 3" therefore transferring your pattern to the wall using 81/2" x 11" paper you calculate out a 51" x 66" design.
If you are comfortable enough you can just simply use a pencil to freehand a light sketch of the design onto the surface. It is helpful to have the book propped up so you can have your hands free.
Note : Copying the pattern onto the graph paper using a copy machine can be helpful.
Using photos and illustrations
It is always easier to paint a design for the first time using an illustrated picture (like a flower) than it is to paint from an actual photo. I like to use gift cards to see how flowers, animals and landscapes are illustrated. I don't copy the exact image but use it as a reference.
Use vinyl when you don't have a saw for cutouts. Take an inexpensive piece of vinyl and base coat it with 2-3 coats of exterior house paint, and then cut out the desired shape. Complete your decorative painting, allow to dry, and seal with 2-3 coats of a water-based varnish. You can use vinyl for pins, placemats, rugs, etc.
When prepping walls it is best to use eggshell or satin acrylic wall paint for the base coat.
Sometimes it is difficult to make straight lines and circles when painting on walls. For those without a bubble level, use a push pin with a string attached. At the other end of the string tie a washer to hang. Once attached to the wall and the washer has stopped swinging, tape down your push pin and draw your straight line.
For a circle, follow the same method as for a straight line but attach a ring or round object to the end of your string. Place the tip of a pencil in the hole and draw your circle by pivoting around the push pin.
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Revised: July 21, 2005
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