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Hi, I'm Lynn Foster and I'm here to take you back to the beginning.
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Going back to the gessoed piece that we did this morning, ready for painting for base coating,
I'm just going to sand lightly all the edges at the moment, all the way around,
using a sanding scrubber,
and along the top,
a light sand, and it feels really smooth already,
and this sets up a nice base for your background to sit on.
Back to my background brush that I was using,
into the oak moss, which I used this morning,
and I'm just putting on a coat of the oak moss as a cover.
It really does work to have that either gesso underneath,
or all purpose sealer before you start painting,
because it just gives a nice base for the colour to sit on.
Remember, hold your brush upright,
so that you can, except on the edges of course,
where you need to get those bristles into the routed edge,
but when you're working on the flat surface,
hold your brush upright, so that the paint can run down the bristles of your brush,
and give you a nice background.
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Remember to get into those grooves on the routed edge,
and there's nothing worse than having a lovely piece painted,
and then you feel the routed edge, and it feels like whiskers.
So make sure that you pay attention to those routed edges.
It does help in the eventual finish of the piece,
to have a good overall finish to your work.
You can see how easy it's been, once that gesso is on,
to get a nice finish on those routed edges.
And there is one coat over the gessoed piece,
and it's sitting very nicely.
I personally would give this another light sand,
and another light coat of paint, before I started to decorate it.
And I will be decorating one in just a few minutes.
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The paint that I'm using, as you've probably already noticed,
is Josonia Artist Gouache, and it's a lovely, lovely paint to use,
and especially for the way I paint, it's just right.
Now this paint is available in two ways.
It's in the normal size tube, but if you're just starting out,
you might like to start out with the little house of colour.
And this comes with ten small tubes of paint,
and they're all the colours that you need to have,
to mix and to match as you're going through.
And it's a nice little way to start, getting the feel of the colours.
So don't feel that you have to provide yourself with huge amounts of paint
when you're just starting out, because it's not necessary.
There are other forms of paint on the market for you to purchase,
and this being one of them.
Now when you have your paint and you put it out onto your palette,
it's sometimes not the right consistency for what you're doing at the time.
Now you can always add water to it, but by adding water to any sort of paint,
you are diluting the colour of it down.
So if you feel that you would like to have it a little thinner,
what you need to have is the Flow Medium,
and this will soften the colour down,
but will not hurt the density of the colour at all.
It will just make it a little easier for you to apply,
and it is a far better way of working rather than putting water in it all the time.
If you do put water in your paint, you may have to give it two or three coats
to get exactly the same depth of colour that you would by using the Flow Medium and one coat.
You can also put, if you have a bit of trouble with some of your background colours
after you've been using them a while, they may go a little bit thick.
Just put a few squirts of Flow Medium into that,
and that will help you to be able to use that right to the bottom of the jar.
You can see I've put that Flow Medium into one of these little containers.
These are just little sauce containers, and they just make using the mediums very easy,
and I can just have them sitting along my palette ready for me to use whenever I want to.
As I was telling you before, All Purpose Sealer is another one of these things
that you can use to help you get good finishes to bits and pieces,
and this is also very good on the edge and the top of your wood.
Just washing that brush out lightly.
And this once again will also set up a barrier for you.
It will stop all of your paint, your base colour paint, absorbing into the background
and having to do heaps and heaps of layers of paint.
It just cuts down on the processing time of getting your background right,
but it will also make all of the routed edges lay down.
You don't want those very edges on your work, and this is just another way.
I really like the Gesso because it just gives me a really nice finish,
but there are a lot of people who would prefer to use the All Purpose Sealer,
and I'm showing you the both ways today.
This is just make sure that you get into all of the edges.
This is a very easy product to use. You don't need water on your brush.
Just use it directly from the bottle and a finish on all of the pieces.
You have probably noticed that I'm not doing the backs,
but when I'm actually working on a piece at home, a total coverage is what I'm after.
So I wait until that dries, and also the other that I just finished,
turn it over and put a coat of All Purpose Sealer and background on the back as well.
So that is setting up a barrier now for when it's dry to be able to lightly sand it
and then put on one or two coats of base colour, depending on the colour that you want to use.
As I travel around, I find people are telling me that varnishing is the hardest thing to do
because you can't over brush because you spoil the finish.
Now this is my way of handling that particular problem,
and I have a bottle of Satin Varnish here, and I have a bottle of Retarda.
And Retarda delays the drying time of acrylic paints and things like that.
So what I'm going to do is just give a squirt, a good squirt of Retarda into that Satin Varnish.
Make sure that you do roll it again to mix that Retarda in.
Now if you are one of those people that like to brush and brush and brush,
this is the way to still achieve a nice finish and not destroy your varnish and your finish.
Working with a dry brush, holding the brush upright as I did before, long smooth strokes.
Now I'm not going over and over, just gently over the stroke that I did before.
Now not only does this give your work a lovely finish on top,
but it also enhances the colour that you have decorated with.
So you'll find that your colours really come out and they're enhanced by what's going on.
Now on your first coat you will always find that there are a few streaks,
and this goes with anything that you use.
What you've done is just set the first coat in, ready to do the second coat.
Now wait until this is dry a couple of hours and then you can put your next coat on.
On pieces like this where it's going to be a place mat,
I would like to do maybe four coats to make sure that it's going to be a little bit heat proof
for when I want to put on the hot plates.
So that is your first coat.
Don't put water on your brush.
Rather than put water on your brush, put retarder into your bottle of varnish
and it will help you with the application of it.
But your one coat that has certainly brought out the colours
and your next coat will smooth over and then you can do the number of coats that you require.
But if you always do it like this, you'll find that you have a good finish on your work.
The worst thing that you can do is to go over and over in the one spot
because you are destroying the finish that you've put on.
So put it on, leave it and just smooth it slightly as you're going across your piece.
And just be careful of drips on the edges.
If you have a drip, just run your hand or your finger around the edge,
which will remove that drip and have a nice finish to your work all the time.
The little piece that we just sewed and base coated this morning
is going to be a little house number.
And the tracing is going to be in the video for you.
And you can put, you don't have to paint in the number.
You can buy little brass numbers to put in there to suit your own home.
And once again, you can magic tape this to your piece so that you have it right.
And remember that when you are working with pieces with routed edge,
you have to take into consideration the half inch or so that that routing takes.
So what I'm doing is just sitting the tracing onto the flat edge of the piece,
which then overhangs slightly.
But that's not to matter because you still get a good line across the bottom here.
Now you do magic tape this to the piece and you get your graphite paper,
slip it underneath with your stylus and trace the piece on.
Now I have got one already traced here, ready to do.
And what I'm going to show you on this is how to put things together
and how to finish off routed edges.
So we'll continue with this piece now.
For those of you that know me, I'm sure a few of you are going to be laughing
because I've actually set up a wet palette over here because it's so hot in here.
I'm going to be using one today.
And I'm going to be putting out on that palette some warm white,
some yellow oxide, some brown earth and some behind green.
And I'm going to be painting this little number sign.
Now what I'm going to do first off is just with my number four round loaded in pine green,
I'm going to go through and just base coat in the leaves that are on this piece.
Just to have a little bit of variation to the other piece that we have painted.
Just base coating in the leaves, nothing else.
As I go through, I'm just pulling the color from the tip,
slightly going over the tracing line so that I don't have to go back
and erase any of those lines.
Moving my work around so that I'm pulling the brush towards myself all the time.
Remember that if you're pushing the brush away,
you have lost the control that you have when you're pulling it towards yourself.
It's so much easier to work this way because you know exactly where the brush is going to stop.
All the way through just with the pine green.
Now that I've got all of the leaves base coated,
I'm going to just load the color on my brush again just to say that I have that on.
Now I'm just going to the white and I'm going to scoop up a little of the white onto my brush
and take it to my palette and just brush mix it into my palette.
So that I have a slightly lighter green on my brush.
Then I'm just going to start at the tip and pull through this color in just little strokes
about two thirds of the way down the base coated leaf, leaving the base of the leaf dark.
This is just another little way of putting some interest into your work without a great deal of work.
Now all I'm doing is putting that middle stroke in.
Don't stop dead at the bottom when you finish your stroke.
Feather it off so that it's not just a straight line across the base of your leaf.
Now this goes all the way through.
Leave that shadow just there where your leaves touch the flower
because it will work nicely for you when everything else goes on.
And I'm just gently pulling that down into that area,
leaving that bottom third of the leaf just with the pine green
so that there is that little bit of shadow down there.
Remember to feather it off at the bottom before you finish painting this particular color.
And we are going to put another layer on so you're going to have a variety of color coming through.
Now with the color that's on my brush I'm going to scoop up some white again
and I now have, working it into my palette, I have once again a slightly lighter color.
Now this time I'm coming down about two thirds of the way down the previous color.
So at the moment I've got three colors showing through.
Right on the tip I've got the very light, then I've got the medium color.
Now be careful not to cover totally that medium tone that you have on there.
And it just will give you a nice finish having the three colors coming through.
Very easy way of getting variation into your leaves with very little work.
Turn your work once again.
I'm a great one for doing that because it just makes life so much easier if you can do that.
Now this is a slightly more decorative piece than the other piece that I have just painted.
That is traditional stroke work where this is more decorative painting,
but still nice and simple for you to start with.
Remember don't cover all of your previous color because you want the tonings to come through.
This light is just on the tip.
And even before you start work there is a nice variation of color there before you start on the decoration of the flowers.
Remember if your brush is getting a little dry just put the tip of it back into your paint
so that you can get that to flow nicely on your work.
Just rinse out that particular brush.
I'm picking up my liner brush and just pine green and I'm going through and putting in all of the stem lines.
Remember to have it nice and watery, but not so watery that you don't have a good color coming through.
It's just enough water to move the color off your brush.
This is a nice little daisy project and I've just found a leaf that I have not base coated in.
Quick base coat of that little one and I've got a couple of the colors still here so I'll just pop that in while I'm here.
Thank heavens that's only a little one because I'm using the liner brush.
All the way through any other little petals or stems that are on your tracing
please put them in at this stage because it will just save you having to go back at a later time to do them.
Any that I've missed also put those in. That's a big help.
Now we're ready to start on the daisies.
This time, the first time that I was working with daisies I was using my sable brush.
This time I'm going to use my number four round synthetic brush.
I just want you to listen to this for a moment.
I'm just grating my synthetic brush across the serrated base of my brush basin
because I did have some paint in there from previously working with this brush and I just wanted to get rid of it.
Remember, do not do that with your sable brush because you will break the bristles of your brush.
They're much more tender than what this synthetic brush is.
This particular brush I have been using, not this brush as such,
but this particular brand I've been using right from when I first started painting
and I really love the way that it just fits into my hand.
It's a very nice brush to use.
Now remember, do not go over the centre of your daisy
because you don't want to spoil the fall of the petals.
Now some of these petals are slightly shorter than others
because of the way that they are falling on the pattern,
but they will look good when we finally finish.
Now I'm just pulling these petals towards the centre
and you can see I'm pressing down and lifting up as I come into the centre
because it just gives a nice little bit of shadow,
which is your background colour coming through, if it doesn't fill in totally.
I think everybody loves daisies because they're such a fresh flower
and especially when they're put with purple and blues and things like that,
they work just so well.
I think I've missed one out there.
Now across the front here I'm just putting a couple of little petals
using the side of the brush to make that stand up.
Now as you can see as I'm coming into the centre,
the brush is dragging a little bit and not filling in totally,
but this is really nice, it acts really nicely for you as you continue your work.
A really slack tracer because there are petals that I've left out
as I've done this tracing.
Working all the way around.
You can see as that petal there hits those two leaves,
you can see why the shadow works really well for you.
I'm just going to go back into my water, the paint is getting a little dry.
Just working it into my brush again, not overloading
because you don't want it to be too heavy.
There is a variation in sizes of these little daisies,
so it's just going to get your brush working for you.
On the larger ones you need more pressure with your brush stroke.
On the smaller ones not so much.
Just continuing around.
The application is the same on every daisy,
except that the pressure on your brush is not quite as much.
On the smaller ones is what it is on the larger ones.
Some of them I'm just slightly pressing the brush,
some I'm really pressing the brush down.
Just depending on the area that I have to fill in.
Once again into the water because it is dragging a little bit.
You can tell when your brush is dragging because your stroke is not what you want it to be.
Across the front I'm just holding my brush on the side,
just doing three little strokes across there.
And on this bottom one it's just two little strokes across there.
Now they'll all come into being as I put the centers in and you'll see why.
Now I've loaded my brush with Brown Earth and I'm just going to go through
and put in little Brown Earth centers.
These are just slightly different,
but they work very nicely because of the contrast of colors.
Now when you come up to these little ones up here you'll find that it's probably only
maybe a half circle on the little ones that have the shorter petals at the front.
So don't try and put a full circle, otherwise you will spoil the look of them
as we get through with the centers.
So the big ones of course you have the round centers
and the ones that are facing you full on they are round.
But these little ones here, they're like a half circle in there.
So you can get a nice look to them that they are actually sitting on the side.
There's nothing worse than having lots of daisies and they're all large petals.
Now that we're filled in those centers we're going to be working with what is called a dirty brush.
And that is just wiping your color off rather than going into your brush basin and washing them off.
I've just wiped that brown off and I'm going to go into yellow oxide.
Now starting at one side of the center I'm going to go to and fro across the center
with little dots until it just gradually runs out of paint.
The same on this one, just to and fro across the center.
So that you're getting that brown showing through but it's not totally covered.
Now just to and fro across the center until it just kind of runs out of paint.
Another little tip, even on the little half ones, start on one side.
Once you choose the side, stay with that side all the way through.
Even though this hasn't got any light source or anything to it, it still works well if you have them all in the same area.
Just patting across, to and fro across the center.
You can see some of that brown is still showing through.
And the little last one.
Now once again just wipe that off and tip it into the white.
And this time you're coming back, make sure you haven't got too much white.
Just to put a little bit of highlight into that center.
And you won't have to tip for every one because you're not looking for large amounts of white.
You're just looking for a little highlight.
Remember if you were to work with just a washed brush, you wouldn't get the blending of color that you're getting coming through on this.
And that's working very nicely.
A little white, not too much.
Just to give a little highlight into the center and onto the bottom one.
Now that's the daisies finished.
Now for those of you that know me, know that I love purple or blues.
And I'm going to be putting some purple into this particular piece.
Now I'm still using my number four round.
And I'm picking up some Diox Purple.
And I'm also just brush blending in from the edge a little bit of warm white.
Now on some of these little stems, I'm just going to be putting some little colored bits.
Just to add a little color to the piece.
Now all I'm doing is holding the brush on its edge and just touching and graduating this up as I go.
It works very nicely.
It's one of those really simple things that you can do and it adds color without really taking away from what you've already got there.
I may have to add a few more of those because I really like those.
Nothing's ever set in concrete.
And those of you that have painted with me know that.
I'm just going to put in a few more little stems.
You know one of my saying is that a folk artist always, a good folk artist always knows when to stop.
But sometimes she doesn't.
As you can see I've added quite a few more but I'm going to put a few of other things in as well.
So I'll just keep going on this little piece as such.
Still putting in the little ones as I was doing before.
It doesn't matter if they get a little white.
It's just a nice variation of color.
As you're coming through.
Now for the next section I'm going to change to my sable brush because I can get really nice effects with this.
And I'm also going to be mixing a little bit of Burnt Umber into this Diox Purple.
And the reason for that is that I want to just subdue it down so it's not as bright as what the other little areas are.
So it makes it a more antique color by mixing that little bit of Burnt Umber in there.
Now I'm also going to be picking up a little bit of Warm White.
Now going to my work.
I'm just putting in some little lupin type flowers which work pretty well.
Don't be too particular with them because they always look better if you look as if you haven't put a lot of thought into it.
So it's just little touches as I'm going, picking up a little color.
And you can see that it's not any particular type of stroke work as I'm going.
It's just a little color.
And these are the things that really add to your work as you go so you just might like to put a few here and there in.
Remembering that a good folk artist always does know when to stop.
And that's looking pretty good.
Going back to the blending brush, I'm now going to put a dark edge around here on the routed edge which will just frame that little piece in.
So this time on that oak moss I'm using some Teal Green.
And it's really good this brush for doing edgings like this because it has got such a small amount of large bristles on it that it doesn't flip over and cause a problem making you have to go back and fix some base color up as you go.
But you can see how it's not making a mess on the top edge at all.
And just pulling it along, make sure that you have all of the routed edge finished.
Now if your edge is nice and smooth you will go along very easily with this brush and not have a worry.
Now it's always nice on these little pieces especially when it's a house name or a house number to have a frame around the edge because it just finishes it off.
This is one of the best brushes that I know for doing this sort of work.
I don't know if you've used brushes before to try and do routed edges but they do tend to no matter how careful you are to flip over the edge and you've got to go back and touch little spots up.
But this just works so well.
It's worth its weight in gold just for this without anything else.
She says that she goes over the top.
But that was me not the brush.
Now you can see the difference that that has made to the piece.
It's framed in by that darker colour now.
And then you can choose what colour you're going to paint the numbers.
And because I've used the green I think I may do it in the darker green which is teal green.
Now remembering if you're not sure about painting your numbers on there's lots of numbers available.
Either stick on little wooden ones or brass ones or whatever.
And they just add a nice touch.
Now if you are painting numbers on a good way of doing it is to get your liner brush and go around the edge first.
Doesn't matter if it's not an even line but as long as you have got a good line along the edge which will give you a good smooth finish.
And then all you have to do is to go back and fill in.
It's a little bit of a cheat's way of doing it but who cares.
You can see it's quite easy with a good liner brush to go around the edge.
And then all you have to do is to come back with your number 4 brush or whatever brush of your own choice and fill in and there's your number.
This is the number of my house by the way that I'm doing.
Now all I'm doing is going through filling this little area in which makes it so much easier especially if you're not good with your brush control at the moment.
There we are.
It saves all the worry of trying to get those edges nice with just filling in and it's very easy.
Now once you've done that let it dry for I would say maybe overnight before you varnish it just to make sure that everything's dry on it because there are several layers there in the centres and you don't want to move those layers before they're actually dry.
This little piece then can be put outside but if you're going to use it outside in weather please use an exterior finish varnish on it.
I don't feel that the polyurethane, the water based varnish is strong enough to take our weather conditions if it's exposed.
Remember that no matter what you put on the front please put on the back as well because if it's outside it does need to be sealed all the way around to stop the wood deteriorating.
And that's our little piece with a little bit of decorative work in it as well.
You can if you wish go through with a liner brush and put a little line down the centre of the numbers when they're dry which they are and I'll just do that here now.
Just adds a little bit of detail to it and it's a nice finishing touch to it.
Remember all these things, all these little details make your work just slightly different to everybody else's.
Now you can see the difference that just that thin line using your liner brush has made to the numbers.
It's brought it into the colour of what we've got on the piece which is the white daisies.
Make sure that the paint is moist so that you get a nice line and that just is a nice finishing touch.
I hope you've enjoyed our video and I hope that I've been able to demystify some of the things that may have been worrying you about your folk and decorative art.
There's lots of things on the market and it's only going to be a matter of trying them before you realise whether you enjoyed painting with them or not.
There's two things that I would like to say to you.
One is to remember that stroke work will help your brush control and brush control in any form of art is going to be helpful.
The other thing is that there is no right or wrong way.
There's only different ways.
So please when you're doing things don't think that because I've done them this way they have to be done that way.
This is only done because I have enjoyed painting the way that I have showed you this morning but you may come up with some other ideas that may be helpful as well.
And I hope that you will only share them with other people too.
Thank you.