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.