ARLENE LINTON A LACE DOILY ART PLAY DATE 2015
A Lace Doily Palette (FolkArt): Vintage White (515) Brushes: Scharff Series 3000 Kolinsky Sable Round (#4) Surface: 8-inch Scooped Plate (#WPSCO) Available from: Hofcraft Hofcraft.com 800-828-0359 Surface Preparation (wood) Sand surface lightly before applying wood sealer. When sealer is dry, sand again to obtain a smooth surface for basecoating. Basecoat with two coats of your favorite color. Sand lightly with SuperFilm between coats. Painting the Design Step 1A: Step 1B: Transfer all lines from Pattern A. Roll a kneaded eraser into a log shape. Roll the eraser over the transferred lines to remove any transfer paper residue from the surface. Do not rub the eraser over the surface as this can make a difference in varnishing. Paint all transferred lines with thinned Vintage White. Erase any visible pattern lines not covered by paint. Use a very soft black or white eraser for this step. Re-outline the circle shapes with heavier paint as seen in the photograph and the Step-by-Step. Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: Step 5: Step 6: Add more water to the above thinned Vintage White to create a soft wash of color. Apply this wash to the areas shown on Pattern B. Refer to Pattern C and paint all the red lines with thinned Vintage White. Refer to Pattern D and paint all the green lines with thinned Vintage White. Refer to the photograph and confirm that all the lines are painted. Refer to the photograph and paint all the strokes. When the strokes are dry, paint all the dots. More paint/more pressure = larger strokes and dots Less paint/less pressure = smaller strokes and dots Finishing Remember to sign and date. It is easy to use a matte spray varnish to achieve the soft finish for this doily. Lightly spray several times, drying well between sprays. An original pattern by: Arlene Linton /rainbowsbegining.com/lintonac@aol.com /763.571.7431
Tips I use a 4-inch dense sponge roller to obtain a smooth background when basecoating most surfaces. Use the rollers with rounded ends to achieve a streak-free background color. Gray palette paper is a must when using white paint. It allows you to see the transparency or opaqueness of the paint when loading your brush for delicate linework and washes of color. Vidalon translucent vellum from Canson works best in copy machines for copying your patterns. I only use Loew-Cornell transfer paper to transfer all my patterns. This paper does not smear, is wax-free and erases easily. Loading the Brush for Linework and Strokes All the lace painting is painted with the Scharff Fine Line #4 with the exception of the basecoating, the faux-linen and the floral components. This brush carries a lot of the thinned paint needed to paint the fine lines without reloading. With a good mix in the brush, you can paint an 8x11 piece of paper without reloading your brush! Thoroughly wet a piece of soft paper towel. Gently tease the brush hairs to a point on the wet towel. Do not rub or roll the brush hairs on a dry paper towel. Carry a couple of brushloads of water to your palette away from the puddle of paint. Using your brush to mix (do not stir with the brush), add small amounts of paint to the water until the mix is the consistency of melted ice cream. To load the brush, flatten the bristles in the puddle of mixed paint and water. When you lift the brush it will have what I call a full, fat-belly. At this point there is too much moisture in the brush to paint the necessary fine lines. To extract some of the moisture, scoot your fingers back along the brush handle holding the brush almost parallel to the surface. Roll the brush counter-clockwise while pulling it up to the brush point. You should have extracted some of the moisture from the brush as well as having brought the hairs to a nice fine point. Depending on the initial amount of moisture in the brush, this step may need repeating. There should be no excess paint on the outside of the brush hairs and the hairs should not look twisted. We are painting with the paint we cannot see inside the hairs not the paint that is on the outside of the hairs. To paint the fine lines, hold the brush upright, off the surface, mid-way between where the line will start and stop; I call this neutral position. From neutral, reach the brush forward to where the line starts and pull towards you beyond neutral to where the line stops. If the paint puddles at the end of the line, there is too much water in the brush. If the paint skips while painting the line, there is not enough water in the brush. If you have to put pressure on the bristles, there is not enough moisture. This brush carries a lot of paint, allowing you to paint many fine lines without having to reload the brush. When properly loaded, you can cover an 8-1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper with lines! Test your loaded brush on a dark piece of paper to check consistency. To load the brush for strokes, scoop up the amount of paint needed for the size of the head of the stroke (do not tip the brush into the puddle of paint). This may require
scooping more than once for larger strokes or picking up very small amounts of paint for the smaller strokes. The puddle of paint will look like an ice cream swirled top or whipped cream peak. Before loading the brush for the next stroke, remove the excess paint from the brush by gently wiping off the excess paint on the wet paper towel. Every stroke must be painted with new paint; the paint is never thinned with water. Do not use paint on the palette that has a layer of what I call pudding scum over the top. Loading the Brush for Dots Load the brush for dotting by gently teasing a clean brush to a point on your wet paper towel. Scoop up the amount of paint needed for the largest dot. Bring the brush to the surface, holding it at an angle as you would a pencil. Let the paint lightly touch the surface for the first dot and then continue to lightly touch for each subsequent dot, releasing a smaller amount of paint as the dots become smaller. Do not let the brush hairs touch the surface. By using the brush for dotting, you re able to make a much longer line of dots. It is much more difficult to control the brush point to paint dots so I have started teaching dots using a stylus. Do not use the stylus in the up and down position as this will leave a dot with an indent in the center. Hold and load the stylus as described above. Release the paint for the dots holding the stylus at an angle. Brush Cleaning In the twenty-plus years I have been using a Kolinsky sable brush, cool water has been the only cleaner used. I hold the brush under cool running water and use the fleshy part of my thumb to work the paint from the ferrule. My brushes never have paint stuck in the bristles. Never rub the hairs on the bottom of any brush container or wipe it on dry towel. Why doesn t the acrylic paint permanently adhere to the bristles? The bristles are made of natural hair and synthetic paint cannot create a bond as it can to synthetic brushes. Provided by: Arlene Linton 2013 Linens & Lace Collection rainbowsbeginning.com LintonAC@aol.com 763.571.7431