Free Pattern Project: Calla Lilly

Palette :

DecoArt American Acrylics.

• Black green DA 157
• Plantation Pine DA 113
• Jade Green DA 57
• Golden Straw DA 168
• Moon Yellow DA 7
• Buttermilk DA 3
• Toffee DA 59
• Titanium White DA 1
• Control Medium DAS11
• Brush and Blend DAS1
• Satin Varnish DS15

Brushes:

• Flat brushes: 1 1/2, (I use Loew Cornell)
• Number 3 Round brush.
• Fine liner brush 1/2 size 00 or smaller

Materials:

• Piece of firm card. 5 1/2 x 7 1/4 (I have used a scrap of mounting board)
• Tracing paper
• White Graphite paper
• Picture frame (The sample is 5 1/2 x 7 1/4)

Background Preparation:



1. Base entire area with one coat of black green. Allow to dry.

2. Place on your palette puddles of Black Green, Plantation Pine and Jade Green.

3. Coat entire area in control medium.

4. While still wet pick up some Black Green and Plantation Pine on your 1 1/2 flat brush and slip slap in a cross hatch fashion over the base coat around the edges. Pick up the lighter Jade colour as you move towards the center of the background.

5. The amount of light and dark colour is entirely up to you. The light in the center should have a soft halo effect. Pitty pat with your brush to move paint around, blend and soften. The control medium allows you to do this.

6. Allow to dry thoroughly.

7. Trace the pattern onto tracing pattern and apply to the card using your favorite method. (I used White graphite)

Painting:



1. Base Lilly flower in Buttermilk using round or smaller flat brush. At least 2 Coats will be needed. You need opaque coverage on the darker background.

2. Double load the round brush with Plantation Pine and Jade Green and paint in the leaves and stems. If using two strokes, keep the darker colour to the center.

3. Pick up straight Jade on the side of the brush where you originally had the Jade and paint the light edges of the leaves. Use a drop and lift action to get a gentle wave.

4. Float highlights with Jade and shadows with Black green using your 1/2 flat brush. Brush and Blend loaded into the brush will help the paint to flow smoothly.

5. Retrace lines onto the Lilly if needed. Float a shadow of Antique white.

6. Deepen shadow with a further float of Toffee.

7. Highlight with Titanium White.

8. Paint the stamen with your liner brush by loading in both Golden Straw and Moon Yellow as you would with a round brush. Tap little dots into the stamen area. Pick up more of the lighter colour for the right hand side.

9. Glaze the Lilly by loading the flat brush in brush and blend, then picking up a minute amount of Black green on one corner. Wipe the colour through the brush so you can just see it as a tint on your palette. Tint the Lilly at the throat and under the rolled over petal.

10. Allow to dry.

Finishing:

1. Varnish with satin varnish. Do not overwork the paint. Paint a coat in one direction. When this is dry paint a second coat the other way.

2. Allow to cure for a few days before mounting into a picture frame.



Congratulations! You are done

Project Tip:


When floating colour never have excess colour on the outside of the brush. Wipe the excess away on a paper towel. Otherwise you will be likely to have ridges of colour or medium.

Decorative Painting: 51 Tips for Painting Eyes (Part 3)

Here is how you do put in the lines:


39. Put a speck of black in the center of the point where you are going to put the pupil. Use this speck as a center reference. Make a light and dark wash using the dark color of your iris color. Exp. if you used lt. blue for your iris, make these lines with a navy or similar dark blue.

From your dot of black draw straight lines of varying lengths out toward the outside edge of your iris. Keep your lines thin. Turn your piece as you are doing this. Vary the light/darkness of color you are using. Every now and then bring your line to touch the outside edge of the iris. (Think of the spokes of a old covered wagon but with more spokes :o) Make sure these lines extend past the point of however large you are going to make your pupil or you'll just cover them up with the pupil.

Let dry

Now go to the outside edge and do the same thing going toward the center but don't make these lines as long. To make it easier do a bumpy outline and pull your lines inward toward the center point from this bumpy outline. Just do a small section at a time, you don't want to give your paint time to dry. You do not pull the lines as far as you did the first time. Just squiggle your bumpy line and pull in with a little ragged motion. It's OK if you cover up some of the previous lines. Make sure your lines are straight. If you make a
wobbly line, clean it up immediately.

The outside edge of the iris is just a tad darker, to outline the outside edge add just a tad of black to your iris color, make a med. wash, then outline. This will also clean up the edge from the above process. If you are not happy with this line and it's a bit raggedy, you can pull some little lines from this darker color just as you did previously.

This process is a little more time consuming than some directions I've read for doing eyes, but believe me, you can come out with a really beautiful eye.

Shadows:

40. Shadows can go 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 across the width of the eye. You make them narrow on the points increasing the width as you go across the eye. Sort of like a modified "S" stroke.

41. You can make shadows out of a generic thinned down black but a prettier shadow is made using the iris color first then going back over that with a VERY thin float of black.

42. You do not have to float the shadow. You can just paint a thin wash across the eye. You can leave the edge of your shadow sharp or feather it to make it soft.

Eyelashes:

43. Lashes on men/boys are shorter/stubbier than the lashes for girls/women. In reality men can have beautiful long lashes but this method gives a masculine look.

44. A good place to check out styles of lashes is your local store that sells false eyelashes. lol It will give you a idea on shapes, lengths, thickness etc.

45. This is a little hard to explain but follow the curve of the upper lid as the angle for the curve in your lashes. It might help to hold a piece of paper at a pleasing angle and lightly pencil in the spot and angle of your lashes, leave a small space in-between your marks, you can fill those spots in later. Vary the lengths.

46. The longest lashes are on the outside corner of the lid. Curve the lashes out but straighten them somewhat as you bring them toward the center. The lashes immediately over the iris are slightly curved but almost pointing straight up. (I sure hope that makes sense.)

47. You do not want the bottom lashes to overpower the upper lashes. Use a slightly lighter and thinner color. Make shorter and sparser lashes, curve each side gently toward the center.

48. Use your skin tone color to clean up and thin out your lashes if necessary. This is the reason you put in your eyes before shading the skin.

49. Add a light float of iris color right over your eyelashes. This will act as eye shadow plus help set off the eyes.

50. You can also add a very, very light thin float of the iris color over the bottom lashes.

51. To represent the thickness of the bottom lid, you can put in a thin line of a pinkish red color then outline it with a darker tone of the skin color. Gently shadow beneath this.

Decorative Painting: 51 Tips for Painting Eyes (Part 2)

19. Highlight the whites of the eye for added interest. You can do this using a dab of straight white and just dab and dot it (not too much) on the lower outside section of the eye socket. You can put just a dot on the opposite side of the socket. This is another reason I never use white for the base coat. If you used white, you could not highlight it. You can also use a TINY speck of iris base color beside this highlight in
the whites of the eye.




20. Using a VERY, VERY light tiny float using the dark tone of skin tone color, float along the bottom of the whites of the eye. You almost do not want to be able to see it. This will help set them in.

21. Black/brown, a very dark brown is a better choice for outlining the lid of the eye, rather than using solid black. Black can be a bit overwhelming. There are only a couple of exceptions of certain skin types that would require straight black.

22. Don't enclose the entire eye with bold outlining. A LIGHT line on the bottom with a darker line across the top is enough. You might need to use two strokes across the top lid, using a med. wash.

23. You can gently emphasize the iris by painting a med. wash of your outline color under the iris, extending it a little on both sides.


Misalliance:

24. Put a tiny, pale smudge of red on the inside corner of the eye (as close as you can make it to toward the nose and still be inside the tear opening.) Give just a tiny hint of red on the opposite side of the corner of the socket as well.

25. You can also outline the bottom of the white of the eye to give the impression of blood in the eye. Use the lightest red wash possible, and paint a very thin float along the bottom of the eye, on the white right next to the bottom lid. If you do this too heavy or thick you'll make the person look like they've been on a bender. lol

26. On the recess of the lid, over the iris paint a very thin wash of a reddish color. This will help give depth.

27. Remember eyes are the window to the soul. Eyes are usually the first thing a person will notice and if they are done badly it will distract from the rest of the piece no matter how well the piece is finished.

28. Use a good talkon brush with excellent shape, bounce and snap. For outlining, use a liner in excellent
condition.

29. Nothing living is just one solid color. This also applies to irises so you can put entirely different colors in the iris and have it look real. Actually it will look more real if you do that rather than just using one
solid color.

30. One eye will always be harder to do than the other. If you are right- handed, the left will be the hardest eye. Do the hardest eye first.

31. Eyes do not have to exactly match each other in color, most (if not all) of us have a little variance of eye color in each eye.

32. I do not ever use white for the eye socket color. Hold a white piece of paper next to your eyes and look in the mirror. Eyeballs are not solid white. To me plain white looks stark and artificial.

33. A white eye socket will interfere with the highlights that you place on the pupil & iris. If you use white for the eye socket, then use white for highlights, the highlight color will not stand out as much as it should.

34. Use ivory, very lt. blue, very lt. gray etc. to base coat eye socket. ...depending on the skin type you are painting. Keep your coats smooth as you are base coating.

A larger eye iris:

35. Base coat (using a med. wash) a larger iris with a light color. Don't worry about putting in a smooth, solid base coat for the iris. Light and dark streaks will give it a more realistic look.

36. You can also add other colors on top of your dried first iris color. The colors can be entirely different. For example, say you used a light blue wash for your first color. You can then dab on a green wash of color dabbed here and there on top of that, followed by another color dabbed on the same way.
Just don't cover up all your previous colors. This really makes a beautiful iris.

37. The iris will almost always touch the top and bottom of the eye. It will touch more of the bottom than it will than at the top. But try to make the pupils as even as possible from side to side.

38. The tiny lines in the eyes are there to help the pupils contract and enlarge. You do not really need these in a tiny eye but they sure make a larger eye look better. Actually a large eye would be boring without lines. If you are going to put in these lines, do it before you put in the pupil.

Decorative Painting: 51 Tips for Painting Eyes

I like to paint eyes. Even though I mainly paint eyes on ceramic pieces, these hints can be used for wood. Keep in mind, there are many ways to do eyes, these tips are just my opinions for the way I like to do them.

Do not shade the skin before you put in the eyes.


Tiny Eye:

1. For a tiny eye, block in the iris with a med. color using a med. wash and leave streaks. Streaks help make the iris look real. For the larger eye I use a light color instead of the medium for the base coat. Outline the iris color with a touch of black the same as you would do for a larger eye as described later.

2. Use only a small speck of white for a highlight. If your speck is too large for a tiny eye, it will overwhelm and could make the eyes look blind.

3. A tiny eye doesn't need a lot of work. Outline the upper edge and lightly feather the outside edge for an
impression of lashes.

Pupil:

4. To a make pupil, for a large or tiny eye, put a dot of black in the center, enlarge pupil while turning your piece to judge distance to the sides.

5. Pupils are always black but they don't have to be boring. For variety and added sparkle you can float a dark blue color in a C type of stroke along the bottom outside (going toward the center) edge. It will mostly disappear but will add just a touch of life to the pupil.

6. Don't make your pupil in the shape of a U as you slide it to the top of the eye.

7. Size of pupil: a large pupil looks innocent (remember Bambi?) or young. Small pupils can give
a mean look.

8. Try to keep the pupil and iris a round shape even though you'll have to imagine
the top roundness of the iris since part of it will be hidden under the eyelid.

9. If the pupil is not round enough to suit you, you can put the main highlight over the area to hide it.
Just make sure put the same highlights is in the same place in each eye. (1 o'clock, 11 o'clock etc.)

10. Check your eyes in a mirror. This will help you see if they are even or not.HAHA...I mean check the eyes of your piece in a mirror.

Highlights:

11. Since I mentioned highlights, I'll talk a little about them. But keep in mind that shadows (which I'll get into later) go on before highlights. If you put the highlight on, then the shadow, you will just darken your highlight and lose the effect.

12. Eye will reflect the color of the closest light source. So you can have different colors of highlights in the eyes. (Think about standing next to a lighted Christmas tree or colored curtains with the sun shining through.) But the main or primary highlight will be white because that is the lightest we can go.

13. You can put part of the highlight on the iris, just make sure part of it is also on the pupil for the greatest contrast.

14. Use a secondary smaller highlight opposite the main highlight. Just a tiny speck of white will work fine.

15. To make a little more special secondary highlight put a TINY speck of your iris color next to the secondary highlight. Keep these little highlights on the pupil. If you are not going to go with a third highlight (described below) you can float a small C stoke of white on the pupil instead of using the tiny dots.

16. You can put in a softly floated highlight using a THIN wash of white placing it on the iris below the small secondary highlights above. (Following the curve of the iris.) This will also make your eye look rounder.

17. Primarily highlights can be in almost any shape. All a highlight is... is a reflection of light. A plain round dot is probably the most boring highlight you can use on the larger eye. You can use a wedge shape, a tornado, a skid or most any shape.

18. Your main highlight is the largest highlight, second and third highlights are smaller.

Decorative Painting: Ribbon and Lace Worksheet

Doily

1. Block in the main color for the doily.
2. Place the paper doily on top of the wet paint and dab in the dark color using a sponge or sponge brush.
3. This will give you the design work of the doily. Touch up the areas around the edges or put your background around it.

Ribbons

1. Block in the dark color at both ends of the ribbon followed by the medium color with the light color inthe center of the ribbon. Blend these colors together.
2. Add a lae edge using a liner brush thinned with turp and coice of color.
3. Where the ribbon twists would be the start of dark, medium and then light color in the center.

Decorative Painting: Extras and Fillers Worksheet

When you come back for a fresh look at your painting, focus on areas that may be too bright or dull, bare spots may need more filler, and you cay want to add curls, twigs, dabs and little extras to your painting. You will need to thin out the paint with thinner to do some of these techniques with the Liner brush. If using a mini mop, use this brush dry and just wipe off with a paper towel until finished for the day.


Baby's Breath

Brushes: Mini Mop Brush, Script Liner Brush



Use the liner brush and thin the paint with thinner and light green to put in some stems where you want the Baby's Breath.

Load the mini mop brush with Misty Grey and tap in the Baby's breath. Choose areas on your painting that need extra fillers.

Decorative Painting: Painting Poppies

Painting Instruction:

OUTSIDE PETALS
(all O's on the Poppy Structure Worksheet/Petal Breakdown)

Brush:	Badger Flat Brush
Color	Medium Peach Mixture:	Deep Orange + Misty grey
Brush:	1/2" Sable Brush
Color:		Misty Grey + Titanium White Soft

Base in the outside petals of the poppy with the Medium Peach mixture. Make sure the paint is thin, smooth and wet with medium, but not runny. Don't do the main poppy yet, just the outside petals. Now ruffle the outside petals with Magic Grey + Medium Peach Mixture. Load the brush on one side only with paint. Place the brush with the loaded side facing up, then touch the brush to the top edge of the petal and pull the stroke toward the center of the outside petal. Go all around the outside petals.


CENTER PETALS
(all C's on the Poppy Structure Worksheet/Petal Breakdown)

Brush:	Badger Flat Brush
Colors:	Base color:	Medium Peach Mixture
	Center color:	Alizarin Crimson

This is the same procedure as the back petals, only I added some Alizarin Crimson to the center of the flower; This gives it depth. Curve your strokes so you have a fan shape petal. After you put your base color in, then ruffle the edges of the petals as stated above.


FRONT PETALS
(all F's on the Poppy Structure Worksheet/Petal Breakdown)

Brushes:	Badger Flat Brush, 1/2" Sable brush
Colors:	Medium Peach Mixture	Misty Grey + Titanium White Soft
Colors:	Highlight Color: Teal mix	Misty Grey + Tad of Phtalo Green

Again, this is the same procedure as the center petals. Then ruffle each petal and highlight petals here and there with a teal color.

Centers

Brushes	Round Brush, Script Liner
Colors:	Burnt Umber + Phtalo Blue	Titanium White + Indian Yellow

Load the brush with BU + PB and tap in the centers of the poppies. Dab and relearse, do not paint. Load the Liner brush with thinner and paint, then pull up and curve grass staments ina all directions. Dot the ends with IY + TW.

Decorative Painting: Lilacs Worksheet

Brushes: Badger Filbert

1. Block in your medium color.
2. Use a filbert brush and add some dark shapes within the area and along the outside edge of the lilac in the shape of petals.
3. Add some light colors on top of the medium color in the shape of petals.
4. Dab centers on some of the flowers.

Decorative Painting: Rose Shortcuts

Rose/Poppy Shortcut Method

• Base in the color of the rose/poppy you want using a flat brush.
• While the paint is still wet, lay your traced outline (see below) of the rose/poppy pattern (using a tracing paper) on top of the area you just painted.
• Use a stylus and outline the traced rose/poppy outline.
• Lift the tracing paper off the canvas and you should have an outline of your rose/poppy.

Decorative Painting: Rose Structure

Painting Roses

Follow the same instructions for painting Poppies. The only difference is the shape of the flower. The technique is the same.

1. Start with the Back Petals (BP)
2. Paint the Outside Petals (OP)
3. The Lower Petals next (LP)
4. The Side Petals are next (SP)
5. The Center of the rose is next (C)
6. The Front of the rose is last (F).

Decorative Painting: Rose Worksheet (Part 2)

Brushes: Badger Flat 1/2", Sable Brush, Mini Mop


1. Trace the outline of the rose on the canvas

2. Block in your dark color.

3. Fillin the rest of the rose with the mediumcolor and a light color on the front of the rose.

4. blend al the rose where the two colors meet.

5. Continue to do the overlaying of the petals as described in first rose worksheet in this section.

Decorative Painting: Rose Worksheet

Brushes: Badger Flat 1/2", Sable Brush, Mini Mop



Base rose with color of choice using the Badger Flat Brush. Make sure this is not dry paint, but thinned with medium to the consistency of mayonnaise. Keep edges ragged and pull in other background colors. This makes the petals more transparent, so stretch the paint out. Locate the center of the rose and base in a lighter color than the base color. Soften into the base color.




Sketch in the rose using transfer paper over the wet paint or sketch in with thinned while oil paint. Look at the worksheet for placement.



Starting with the outside petals, load the Sable Brush with Petal Mix color ( which should be lighter than the base color). Place the brush at the outer tip of the petal. Pull down toward the center of each petal (shown on the Rose worksheet under ruffled petals). As the brush reaches the base of the petal, release the pressure. Overlap your strokes slightly. Soften any brush lines with the Mini Mop brush. Do the front of the rose last (shown on the worksheet under center petals.) Tip some of the petals with light blue



Tap centers in with the Mini Mop brush and thicker paint ( shown under finished rose.)

Decorative Painting: Fern Worksheet

Ferns

Use the Liner Brush and mix thinner into your paint for an ink consistency to make the stems of the fern. Use the back corner of the flat brush to put small dabs on each side of the fern stem. You need to angle and stagger the dabs so they don’t look to stiff. Use one dab to start the fern, then get wider as you move down the stem.


Chisel Edge Ferns

Use the liner Brush and mix thinner into your paint for an ink consistency to make the stems for the ferns. Load the flat brush with paint and touch the canvas using the chisel edge of the brush, pull down some, then release the pressure as you pull toward the stem to get a tapered point. Complete on side of the fern and then the other side. Double load with another color if you like.

Stems with Dabs

Paint in the stems first (same as above). Load a round brush with paint and dab and release the brush with the point facing away from you. Start at the top of the stem and work down toward the bottom. Dabs on the bottom can be larger than the top dabs. Try loading the brush with a double load, one side green, the other with yellow

Dab Flowers

Follow the same procedures as above and make flowers using the same brush stroke. Place a dot of paint for the center of the star flower and make dabs around it in a star shape. Add the stems next or first.

Decorative Painting: Blade Leaves Worksheet

Blade Leaves

Use the chisel edge of the brush and paint a long stem where you want the blade leaf to be (see worksheet STEMS). This will determine the length of the blade.

Now use the flat side of the brush, start at the bottom of the blade leaf and pull toward the tip of the blade leaf. As you pull toward the tip, you need to have the brush on a chisel edge to get a pointed leaf. (See worksheet BLADE STROKE). This is just like Step 3 for the basic leaf only you have a longer leaf. The stroke should be completed in one continuous motion. If you don't like the first attempt, then just stroke over the blade again with the brush.

Turned blades can be added, just use a different value of color on the top and bottom of the blade leaves (see worksheet TURNED BLADES).

Use the chisel edge of the brush to add a vein down the center of the blade leaf.



Short Blades

Follow the same instructions as above only make the blades shorter. Use the chisel edge of the brush to make the stem, then decide where you want the blade and flatten the brush and pull away from you at the same time, then pull up on the chisel edge and pull for the point.



Short Blades Grouped

Follow instructions above but make blades still shorter and closer together for a different leaf grouping.

See what one brush stroke will create! Lots of greenery to add to your flowers.

Decorative Painting: Leaves Worksheet

The worksheets were competed with the oil painter in mind. The instruction can easily be converted to acrylics by changing your brush and picking appropriate acrylic colors.

Brush used: Badger Flat 1/2", sable

Load the 1/2" Sable brush with a dark color of your choice on both sides of the brush to get a chisel edge.

• Use the chisel edge and put in the veins for each leaf (step 1). Make sure you curve the vein, the length will determine how large the leaf will be.
• Outline the shape of the leaf as shown on the worksheet with the chisel edge of your brush (Step 2).
• Using the flat of the brush, fill in the center of the leaf by starting at the back of the leaf and pull toward the tip of the leaf (Step 3).
• As you pull toward the tip, you will need to turn the brush from being on the flat side to being on the chisel point when you get to the end of the leaf. This is like a short blade leaf.
• Now you need to put the sides on the leaf. Load the brush with a ;medium color of your choice. Start at the tip of the leaf, use the flat side of the brush and tip the edges of the leaf towards the center of the vein (Step 4). The brush is at an angle, see the worksheet for placement. Do one side, then the other
• Now you can highlight the edges of the leaf with a a light color of your choice; leaf or flower color are nice choices (Step 5).
• Load the brush on ONE SIDE ONLY and place the loaded side to the outside of the leaf's edge. Tip the edges here and there.
• Just remember NOT to pull all the way to the center vein. Just TIP!

For a short cut method, follow steps 3 through 5 on the Leaf worksheet. Us the same method and do smaller leaves as shown.. One Stroke leaves are done using Step 3 of the Basic Leaf or Step 1 of the Short Cut method. (See Blade Leaves)