In this free wood carving and pyrography project, Lora S. Irish of Art Designs Studio teaches how to prepare your paint palette, brushes, and work space when painting your next wood carving or craft design.
Basics to Painting
Working with your Brushes
In any painting session I have on my table an assortment of synthetic brushes, clean water, a palette, paper towels, and a large assortment of acrylic craft paints. Craft paints are so inexpensive you can afford to have a wide range of pre-mixed colors.
As a habit, I prefer as large a brush as comfortable for any painted area. As you have looked through the two projects already worked you see that my main shader is a 1/2″ size. Larger brushes, properly loaded, make smoother paint finishes.
Mixing a primer color
When I mix my own colors I seldom mix hard. Instead I like to swirl the two colors around a few times, allowing a variety of mixed tones. Few things in life are one solid color, objects go through a range of coloration depending on the light source and cast shadows. Shadows have color – a royal blue object will cast a bluish toned shadow. If that shadow falls on a red apple the shaded area will have a purplish tone.
Sanding the primer coats
For this quick detour I have applied three coats of the honey yellow/white mixture to a piece of birch plywood. Since I thinned this primer color with water it raised the grain of the plywood enough that after the primer dried I sanded the painted surface with a crumbled paper bag.
Note – Always dampen your brush before you load any paint!!!!
Dip it in the clean water and run the bristles up the side of the bowl to insure that the water reaches inside of the brush. Then tap or pat the wet brush on a paper towel.
Over loading a large flat shader
You can load a shader by dipping the brush into the puddle of paint as shown in the photo. This places a large amount of color on top of the brush bristles. The paint lies ON the brush, not IN the brush.
When you take that brush full of paint to your carving it dumps the paint in a heavy glob on either side of the brush. So you spend the next few minutes trying to distribute the paint and to smooth out the ridges that result from a heavy puddle of color. If your project is small or you are working in a small area you can find yourself with too much color – an over fill situation.
Scroll Saw Fretwork Lamp Patterns, exclusive Lora S. Irish patterns, available only at Art Designs Studio. Gang cut these patterns to create quick, and easy fretwork lamps. Each pattern is shown as a line art pattern and with a light gray fill in the cut-out area. Included is a toothed wheel pattern that slots into each fretwork cut-out lamp side. Chose how wide you make your scroll saw lamps by choosing one of the four different dimension wheels. All interlocking slots are worked for 1/4″ stock, but can easily be adjusted to thinner or wider woods.
Light loading a large shader brush
Lets reload that brush by laying the bristles in the puddle then pulling a small amount of color out onto the palette.Do this several times, flipping the brush so that both sides are loaded. The paint is now inside the bristles of the brush, not on the bristles.
When I move to my wood the amount of paint has been cut by more than one half as compared to the first sample painting. There are no heavy ridges of color on either side of the brush stroke. Plus it takes less time to fill the same area of a carving because I don’t spend time re-working the area to smooth out the excess paint.
In the time it took me to clean my brush, reload it, and paint the second swatch for photos, the first swatch of over-load still shows undried, heavy ridges of paint. I will end up with the same coverage of paint with a light load but no ridges, no puddles in the indents.
Working into a line or intersection
With a light-loaded flat shader I can place the brush tip slightly away from a demarcation line or joint line in my carving. As I move the brush into the line in a gently curve I also apply a small amount of pressure to place about one half of the bristle lengths onto the wood. Now I can pull the line.
Walk the brush into the line, while pressing just a bit, and use the belly of the shader to create the straight line instead of using the bristle tips.
When I begin to reach the end of the line I curve the brush away from the line while slowly lifting it off the wood.
Using the belly of the brush means that you are using the long straight side of each bristle instead of just the very tip of the bristle.
Heart Shaped Flower Patterns, another exclusive Lora S. Irish pattern package, available only at Art Designs Studio. Eighteen line art craft patterns worked in a heart-shaped design. Perfect for applique quilting, scrapbook accents, and even paper cutting flourishes. Create quick and easy kitchen trivets using 1/4″ – 3/8″ stock and your scroll saw.
Liner brush work There are several styles of liner brushes used in wood craft painting. What I use is a small #1 or #2 China Doll style. This brush has about 20 – 30 hairs total and is 1/2″ long from the ferrule to the brush tip. The number (#1 or #2) is the total hairs used, China Doll is its short liner length style.
A China Doll is loaded the same way we light-loaded the flat shader. Place the liner in the paint puddle then pull the brush out into the palette. Work this several times on all sides until the brush is evenly coated.
A properly loaded China Doll is belly just a small bit at the center but have no glob or puddle of color on the tip.
You can pull the straight line or joint line as below with a China Doll. Begin with the brush on its tip slightly away from the line, curve into the line while applying a small amount of pressure. When you hit the line about one half of the bristle length will be in contact with the wood. This uses the long length of the bristles at the belly to create the straight line.
As you finish the line curve away from the line while lifting. You will get an even coating of paint with no side ridges, a straight line, and very little if any bleeding of one color into the next.
This is a photo of my #2 script liner. This brush is 1″ long but still has the 20-30 hairs. Its made for decorative painting where you need extra long lines created with one stroke. All of the curved lines shown have been made with just one loading of paint into the brush. You don’t need a script liner unless you intend to take up tole painting and that is another tutorial for some future day.
Cleaning your brushes
I know I said I use inexpensive brushes for wood painting because the wood is coarse enough to ruin a good sable hair brush. But I still want those brushes to last as long as possible and I want to put them away as clean as possible.
I start with a puddle of dishwashing detergent (Dawn) mixed with a few drops of water. Usually I do this in the sink, but a small saucer will work well for the photos.
I load the detergent into the bristles of my brush exactly like I load paint. I place the brush into the puddle then pull the brush out towards the edge of the saucer which works the soap into the inside of the brush.
With my fingers I press any paint residue out of the base of the bristles by moving my fingers from the ferrule to the bristles. Next I move to the clean water, pulling the brush along the side of the bowl – I am loading the clean water as I load the paint.
I repeat those steps several times until the soap around the brush no longer shows an discoloration. Using my fingers and slight amount of pressure I can press the excess soap from the brush bristles, moving from the ferrel towards the tip.
The brush is ready to return to my brush jar. That soap that I left in the brush bristles will dry … it keeps the tip of my shader flat and crisp while protecting the brush shape until I need it again. When I start the next painting session, since I use all brushes pre-moistened that soap will simply wash out and I will have a nice painting edge, ready for work.
- Wood Carving and Burning Painting Supplies
- Paint Kit Supplies
- Steps to Success
- General Techniques used in Wood Carving Painting
- Burnishing your Wood Carving
- Simple Blending with Acrylic Craft Paints
- Acrylics over a Primer
- Simple Dry Brushing
- Dry Brushed Acrylics over Oil Based Stains
- Marbling and Splatter Painting
- China Painting with Acrylics
- Vintage Painting with Acrylics
Mushroom Wood Spirits, an exclusive pattern package by Lora S Irish, available only at Art Designs Studio, are usually trees, tree trunks, and branches. But this set of wood spirits are small mushrooms that live on the forest floor. Enjoy creating your next craft project using an Army Mushroom Spirit, a Doctor Mushroom Spirit, a Mother and her Little Ones Mushroom Spirit, and even a Butterfly and Mushroom Spirit. Great for pyrography, painted quilting, and wood carving
