Please Note: Techniques below are for both fired and non fired ways of painting. Some techniques are for both medias. Non fired is when painting on either plastercraft or bisque using acrylic paints, then glazing them with a spray or brush on media. Plastercraft cannot be fired and can only be painted with acrylic paints and non fired. Fired is when you are painting on bisque or greenware (greenware must be fired once to create bisque) with either a glaze or underglaze. Then clear coating the underglazes and firing them in a kiln. (Home ovens will not work.) As always, please do a test sample before attempting to do a large quantity. Your kiln and or conditions may vary. Each section below will indicate weather the technique is firable, non-firable or both.
Fired is when you are painting on bisque or greenware (greenware must be fired once to create bisque) with either a glaze or underglaze. Then clear coating the underglazes and firing them in a kiln. (Home ovens will not work.)
As always, please do a test sample before attempting to do a large quantity. Your kiln and or conditions may vary.
Each section below will indicate weather the technique is firable, non-firable or both.
Five steps to painting eyes
FIRED OR NON FIRED
When painting ceramic bisque there is always one area that most people have trouble with; painting good looking eyes onto their items. You can spend hours upon hours meticulously painting your item, applying many different techniques to make your item look just the way you envisioned. Only to have it all fall apart when you paint a dreadful set of eyes onto your piece. Nothing can be more aggravating or frustrating.
Remember you may click on any picture for a better view.
Step #1: The very first step when painting eyes is to paint the entire eye white. This may take more than one coat especially if some of the surrounding colors edged over onto the eye itself. Base coating the eye Step #2: The second step is to line the top of the eye with a thin line of black. For this and all of the following steps it is recommended that you use a high quality brush with a very fine pointed tip. Tip - " when painting eyes be sure to remove excess paint from your fine tipped brush this will keep your lines thin and attractive looking." Outlining the eye Step #3: You now must paint the pupil of the eye black. Notice in the picture how we try to keep the circle perfectly round and we cover form top to the bottom of the eye. Remember you may click on any picture for a better view. Creating the pupil Step #4: Now we begin to add color to our eyes. You do this by making a letter "C" on the pupil of your eye. When you do this try to leave a small space between the outside edge of black and your colored "C". Adding Color to the Eyes Step #5: Now its time to add accents to our eyes. Again for this step you will need to view the enlarged image for a better understanding. Place a small, short slash at one O' clock and one or two smaller, short accent slashes at seven O' clock. This will give an illusion of some glare on your item's eyes. Adding accents Now you're done! We carry a very detailed wall chart in our book section.
Step #1: The very first step when painting eyes is to paint the entire eye white. This may take more than one coat especially if some of the surrounding colors edged over onto the eye itself.
Base coating the eye
Step #2: The second step is to line the top of the eye with a thin line of black. For this and all of the following steps it is recommended that you use a high quality brush with a very fine pointed tip. Tip - " when painting eyes be sure to remove excess paint from your fine tipped brush this will keep your lines thin and attractive looking."
Outlining the eye
Step #3: You now must paint the pupil of the eye black. Notice in the picture how we try to keep the circle perfectly round and we cover form top to the bottom of the eye. Remember you may click on any picture for a better view.
Creating the pupil
Step #4: Now we begin to add color to our eyes. You do this by making a letter "C" on the pupil of your eye. When you do this try to leave a small space between the outside edge of black and your colored "C".
Adding Color to the Eyes
Step #5: Now its time to add accents to our eyes. Again for this step you will need to view the enlarged image for a better understanding. Place a small, short slash at one O' clock and one or two smaller, short accent slashes at seven O' clock. This will give an illusion of some glare on your item's eyes.
Adding accents
Now you're done! We carry a very detailed wall chart in our book section.
Paint piece with base color. Add pattern in pencil.
To fill in small areas, fully load your Liner brush with color until it appears to almost drip off tip of brush. Starting in center of area to be filled in, gently drop color onto surface.
Use tip of brush to move color toward outer edges. Reload brush and reapply as needed. Color will appear to go on very heavy. Try to keep color even in application. A second coat can be applied if application appears too thin.
Mix with electric mixer for about 2 minutes until you see a vortex. Avoid touching edges of pail with the mixing blade. A stainless steel wire whisk can be used to stir glaze periodically.
Submerge a TL497 Viscosity Cup into tank and fill with glaze. As you lift cup from glaze, begin timing. Stop timing when the steady stream of glaze begins to break and only a few drops remain. A range of 19-23 seconds is normal. If glaze remains in the cup and reading is below or within this range, or if it takes longer than 23 seconds to drain, the glaze is too thick. Add small amounts of water as needed.
Hold ware with hands or tongs. If using hands, wear protective gloves. Rapidly submerge cone 04 bisque, covering 1/2 to 3/4 of piece if large or completely if small.
Give hand a slight twist while quickly lifting ware out of glaze.
Coating should have thickness of a business card over nonpainted bisque areas. Colored areas may appear to have less glaze, which is normal.
Set ware on stilts or rack to dry. Glaze will dry quickly.
If necessary on a larger piece, dip unglazed portion, slightly overlapping glazed area for full coverage. Let dry.
Use an SB807 fan glaze brush to touch up any missed areas with glaze after ware dries. Some bubbles may appear after dipping, especially over painted areas. These will disappear in the firing process. Use a TL420 palette knife to shave off drips or runs to prevent airborne dust.
Set ware securely on clean, sharp kiln stilts in kiln. Fire to Shelf Cone 06.
Trace your pattern onto the ware with clay carbon and a pencil.
Dampen a Shader brush in water and wipe off excess on a paper towel. Place a small amount of each color on a separate area of foil. Load one side of the brush with the first color, then load the other side of the brush with the second color.
Apply the colors to the piece, working the brush back and forth to blend the colors. Be sure the colors remain wet while you blend. If the colors start to dry as you blend, it will create a muddied appearance.
Dip the cleaned brush in a darker color and apply 1 light coat to shade an area. The see-through color creates the natural look.
Outline petals and create light detail lines with Liner brush and Dark Black. Dip brush handle in Dark Black and touch to ware several times to add dots to flower center. Let dry.
Use Fan Glaze brush to apply 2 coats of Clear Glaze completely over plate. Let dry after each coat.
Stilt and glaze fire to shelf cone 06.
Place small amount of an Oil-based Translucent Stain on a palette or piece of foil. Use a soft brush to apply 1 coat over a dry decorated piece, being sure to work the color into all crevices.
While the color is still wet, use a soft cloth or paper towel to wipe back color, following the contours of the piece. For large pieces, work with one area at a time.
Dip a bristle brush into paint, and brush color back and forth over a paper towel, flat paper grocery sack or coffee filter until almost no color shows up on the paper.
“Dust” the brush back and forth on the detailed areas of the piece.
E-Z Stroke™ Translucent Underglazes are ideal for banding on color. Thin color with water to a milk consistency.
Choose a brush size that best fits the size of the area you are painting. Center the piece on a banding wheel, and turn the wheel slowly with one hand while adding color with a fully loaded brush. Hold your hand as steady as possible for smooth, even lines. Reload brush as needed.
For another technique, try using a Fan brush to create streaky bands of color.
Once the bands have dried, apply Clear Glaze.
Wipe ware with damp sponge to remove any dust.
Pour a large puddle of Concepts on foil. Use No. 10 Round brush to apply 3 coats of Concepts completely over piece. Let dry after each coat.
Squeeze out a small amount of X-TREME Dimensions color on a separate area of foil.
Load a No. 4 Round brush with Xtreme Dimesnions.
Apply 1 coat of Xtreme Dimensions to piece. Let dry completely.
Brush piece with Clear Glaze. Let dry.
For this technique, work with one color at a time. Pour some color in a plastic container. Add water to thin the color to a milk-like consistency.
Add 1 drop of liquid dish soap. Mix together.
Use a drinking straw to blow air into the paint/soap mixture to create bubbles.
Lower the outside of your bisque onto the bubbles. The bubbles will pop right on the ware, creating delicate bubble-shaped circles of color.
Repeat as many times as you need to get the pattern coverage you want.
Repeat these steps for each color you want on your bisque.
To finish your piece, glaze and fire as you normally do.
Pour a quarter-sized puddle of color on a piece of foil and dip the brush tip in the color to load.
Lightly press the tip of the brush to the piece.
Slowly pull the brush and press the brush hairs down on the piece to flatten and create the teardrop shape.
Then slowly lift the brush to end the teardrop shape with a fine point.
To shade the brushstroke, load the brush in a darker color.
Use the same technique to pull, press and lift the color on one half of the teardrop.
To detail and create a leaf stem, pull a fine line brushstroke the length of the stem.
Gently press the brush down at the end to create the stem base.
Basecoat with the underlying color.
Pour out a small amount of a contrasting color on a piece of foil or glazed tile. Dip the end of a brush handle in color and touch to the piece to create a dot. To create dots of the same size, reload the handle for each dot. To create dots descending in size, continue to stamp a trail of dots without reloading the handle.
Dip a bristle brush into paint, and brush color back and forth over a paper towel, flat paper grocery sack or coffee filter until almost no color shows up on the paper. “Dust” the brush back and forth on the detailed areas of the piece.
Use hands to "wedge" or press the clay to remove any bubbles.
Roll out the clay with a rolling pin.
Gently press the fish skeleton into the clay with your fingertips.
Cover the clay slab with newspaper or craft paper.
Press the fish skeleton into the clay with the rolling pin.
Peel away the paper.
Gently remove the fish skeleton.
Use the TL 407 Sgraffito-Duster™ tool to carve in the background detailing.
While the clay is still wet, apply the EZ Stroke colors for the background and detailing of the fish.
Outline and detail the fish with EZ 037 Black. Let the clay dry. Fire to shelf cone 04. To finish the piece, glaze with Clear Glaze and fire to shelf cone 06.
Apply paint with squeeze bottle. Maintain steady squeeze pressure. Start swirl from center and move in circular motion outward. Do not touch bottle tip to ware (this may cause the French Dimensions to flatten).
Apply paint with squeeze bottle. Maintain steady squeeze pressure and pull lines. Can't draw a straight line? Draw your lines with ruler and pencil and then follow as guide.
Maintain steady squeeze pressure and drop a small amount of paint onto ware. Lift bottle straight up.
For this technique, dilute each Courtyard Art Glaze with an equal amount of water for even spraying. Use a spray bottle on the spray or mist setting to spritz on 3-4 coats of the thinned Courtyard Glaze on the piece. Lighter colors will require more coats for solid coverage.
Spray on the second thinned Courtyard Glaze color here and there, using a setting in between mist and stream on the spray bottle.
Spray on accents here and there with a final thinned coat of Courtyard Glaze, using the stream setting on the spray bottle.
Using a straight edge and pencil lightly sketch one line across and one line down slightly toward edge of saucer (see photo for placement). Pour a puddle of Dark Black on foil. Use Round brush to apply 3 coats of Dark Black to lines (width of brush creates width of line). Use Fan Glaze brush to apply 3 coats to inside of cup and handle. Let dry after each coat.
Pour a puddle of Mediterranean Olive on foil. Use Fan Glaze brush to apply 3 coats of Mediterranean Olive to outside of teacup and completely over saucer (right over Dark Black lines). Let dry after each coat.
Stilt and fire separated pieces to shelf cone 06. The Concepts® color reemerges in the firing and creates the Halo Effect in the Courtyard™ Glaze.
Select a nonmoving glaze so that the design or pattern does not become distorted in the glaze firing. Apply 3 coats to bisque plate, using a fan brush. Let dry.
Trace design on plate, using, clay carbon and pencil. Typical majolica designs are traditional fruits, flower and leaves, abstracts or patterns.
Apply 2 coats of glaze to design, using a round brush. Let dry. We use Concepts Underglazes for the design glaze.
Outline and detail design, using a liner brush. Let dry. After the glaze firing, the design is a permanent part of the glaze surface.
Stir Courtyard glaze. Pour a large puddle of Pumpkin Spice on foil.
We rolled thinned clear glaze inside vase and lid. Use BR576 3/4" Premium Glaze brush to apply smooth coats to outside of lid (except handle) and bottom section of vase. Let dry between coats.
