Dabber Brush Tips

I believe that we all have our techniques of painting and that we all learn from each other. I do not "float" colors to place in my dark, light or accent values. There is no "one" right way, it is a matter of choice. I find so many painters who feel that they have failed because they have trouble floating. You have not failed, just relax, paint in the way that feels good and works for you.

My technique consists of basing in areas of my design with two or more coats of base color or medium value until I have good coverage. Allow to dry. Using an old brush only for applying retarder, dampen the surface that you are working on with retarder. Wetting the surface with retarder gives the feeling to the painter that the base coat remains wet. My patterns indicate dark value placement with crosshatching. I pick up a small amount of the dark value using the dabber brush which is explained under Brushes and dab in my dark value as indicated on the pattern by cross hatching. I then wipe the excess paint from my brush, I am then ready to blend. Where the dark value meets the base coat or medium value, I dab to blend, softly merging the two colors together. For example if I were painting lots of leaves, I would repeat this method with all leaves. Allow to dry or blow dry with a hair dryer. I am then ready to add my light, high light and accent values. Again, dampen the surface with retarder, begin dabbing in the values as given in the instructions, wipe excess from the brush and blend. Usually I have marked the light value placement with dots. It takes practice to get the feel of how much retarder to use. If you get too much or it is too runny blot the area with a clean paper towel. Move your piece to an area of your home where you relax. Sit back, study over your design. Can you see the dark and light values or does it seem dull? If you do not see these values repeat the above technique. By using the retarder, a glazing technique is developed. You may repeat this technique as many times as needed to get your desired results.

If you need help with this technique, I am available.

Floral Brush Tips

The floral brush is only available in one size which is equivalent to a size 6. This particular brush was designed to paint floral (my hydrangea & geraniums) as well as my birds. The brush has a very fine chisel edge. On this particular chisel edge, the brush resembles a dagger. When using the chisel edge, I can then use the brush to paint in tiny bird or animal hair in a jiffy, much faster than a liner.

The student also finds that the floral brush makes wonderful comma strokes as well as line strokes when using the chisel edge.

I do not recommend that this brush be left soaking in water. I have found that if it is exposed to water for a long time, the paint will not peel off of the handle and that the name will remain intact. The brush is glued into the ferrule where many brushes are simply clamped.

Floral Tips

Use the floral stroke on most of the flowers, especially Hydrangeas and Geraniums, using Nancy Kinney's Floral Brush. Load both sides of the brush with paint, tip brush into color called for. Pull the loaded brsuh toward the center of the flower, lifting the brush while slightly turning to get a thinner tail on the stroke. If painting Hydrangeas, pull about 4-5 petals per small cluster. By loading the entire brush, you can paint larger petals. For smaller petals, load only the tip of the brush.

Marbelizing with Smoke

The surface to be smoked must have already been prepped with the background color and dried. To smoke, light the candle in the holder and allow to burn a few minutes until you have a tall flame. Hold the scooped side of the tablespoon over the flame until you get a black carbon buildup on the spoon. Practice moving the spoon around over the flame until you see a steady stream of black carbon or smoke rising above the spoon. This stream of smoke is what adheres to the project piece. Hold your piece over the stream of carbon, moving the piece around so that the carbon will adhere to various places. Be careful not to let the spoon touch the surface. When you get the desired result, immediately spray with Krylon Matte 1311. On some larger piece I smoke sections, spray, allow to dry and then smoke other section. Spray to avoid smudging. To give the marbelized project a more interesting effect, I wash in touches of color where there is no smoke. Wipe excess paint from brush and blend into the smoked areas a little. Allow to dry. You are now ready to transfer your pattern to the surface.

"For the Birds" Techniques

Please become familiar wih the bird parts as you study over the diamgram of the bird. You will find that I refer to the words: feathers and fur. I think of the tiny hair on the breast, crown, neck, back, belly and rump as fur areas. I refer to secondaries, primaries, (wings) and tail as having
feathers. The most important thing in painting birds or any animal is that it is important to understand in which direction the fur and feathers grow. Always remember that the fur and feathers grow towards the tail Begin painting the bird parts using the color called for in the instructions. As you paint these parts be sure to paint in the direction that the particular part grows. I often use the chisel edge of a flat or the floral brush for this precedure because I can get tiny individual hairs using this method. I only use the liner to add tiny hairs to small places.

Base in as many coats necessary for good coverage. This will be considered your first painting. Allow to dry. You are now ready to begin adding dark, light, and high light values to the parts of the bird. Wet the bird with Jo Sonja¹s Retarder, blot if too runny. Begin painting in the dark values in each part of the bird. Dry or blow dry with a hair dryer. This is considered your second painting. Wet the bird again and begin painting in your light values to the parts of the bird. At this point you can also high light if it is called for on a particular part of the bird. Remember to paint all of these values in the direction that the fur or feathers grow.

Note: I have tiny lines on the bird patterns to indicate the direction of hair growth. There is very little crosshatching on the bird pattens for fear off getting the pattern too busy. To keep up with the pattern lines especially wing feather separations and tips, I find that it is easier to paint right to the pattern line without acturally touching it, therefore, I do not lose the
pattern lines.