Tuesday Tutorial with Charlotte of Roma Land Wood Crafts

Painting a Bird's Nest Bowl

I thought I would share how to paint this Bird's nest bowl.

I use Deco Americana Paint, BUT use what YOU have and change the colors to reflect what YOU like.  It is JUST PAINT and I want you to learn to LOVE to paint and to ENJOY it.

The colors I used were: French Vanilla, Black, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Fawn, Light Avocado, Green Tea, Evergreen, Spa Blue, Indian Turquoise

The bowl I used was a 10 inch bowl and it came ALREADY based with Gesso...Ok...I understand that just flew over SOME of your heads...But you can find wooden bowls of all shapes and sizes at most any thrift shop.  Clean them with HOT soap water and let them Dry THOROUGHLY...IF you wish, you may base them in WHITE to make the colors brighter, BUT this is NOT necessary.

I based the bowl with two coats of Spa Blue...After this had dried, I added another coat of Spa Blue and WHILE it was still WET, I added some strokes of Indian Turquoise in an X pattern...the goal is to have some of both colors showing AND by mixing these two colors, you will get various shades of blue...Do NOT over-mix...Paint very loosely until it is what YOU LIKE...Let this dry completely...IF you paint gets MUDDY, and you will KNOW mud when you see it, LET it dry and start over...Don't fret!!

I then took Raw Umber and a #1 liner brush and thinned it just a bit and started in the center and drew squiggly lines in a circle...Do NOT worry if the blue shows through, because you will do this same things several more times...

As you can see, I added some Raw Sienna with this and started filling in more of the circles being careful to cover more of the blue

You will see pictures of the same thing...just keep adding swiggly lines...Here I'm adding more Raw Sienna and Raw umber..

I then added Black to the Raw Umber and added darker lines because when you paint a bird's nest, you want the base to be darker and then add LIGHTER colors (or highlights) on the top layers...this will give your nest some DEPTH. Painting is simply building layers and that is what you are doing.

ok...so let me review WHAT I have done to this point...

I started with thinned Raw umber and laid in the FORM

I next added some Raw Sienna in this.

Raw Umber mixed with black was added next which started the process of building your layers...the first two steps were JUST to get the SHAPE of the next defined.

I again added More Raw Sienna

Fawn was next

AND French Vanilla Highlights were added last...

I added some STRAY twigs to the top of the nest with the darker mix HIGHLIGHTED with the lighter colors...Leaves will be added to the STRAY twigs..

The next thing I did was to make a feather with the center being a straight line. Feathers were added with an 18/0 liner brush using Indian Turquois and white

The leaves were done by double loading a #6 Flat brush with Light Avocado and Green Tea...IF you cannot do a one-stroke leaf, don't fret...SIMPLE paint a leaf shape with your #1 liner and Light Avocado. WITHOUT getting your brush wet, with just a small amount of paint, work the Green Tea on the right side of the leaf and quickly blend the two colors with your brush...Add stems with your 18/0 liner brush...add some leaves inside the nest also... 

I added some smaller leaves with Evergreen and Green Tea using a #4 flat brush

Add some eggs using Spa Blue...The shape is simply an EGG shape...you can do it WITHOUT a pattern! When you paint your eggs, have them overlapping so they will look more natural...Shade with Indian Turquoise...When this is dry, using an old scruffy brush, pick up JUST a very small amount of white and dry brush this into the center of your eggs. When this dries, using a STIFF toothbrush, fleck Indian Turquoise onto the eggs (don't worry if it gets on the nest, BUT you can always remove them with a damp q-tip)

I then shaded around the eggs and feather with Black and that is it. I signed the bowl and later I will seal it with a Brush-on varnish.

What I LOVE about painting is being able to create something that is a REFLECTION of ME...I paint WHAT I like and do my best to add MY OWN style...Don't say you CAN'T, but instead TRY...I hope you see how simple this can be.

Thank You Charlotte for a fun tutorial!

You can find Charlotte here:

http://romalandwoodcrafts.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RomaLandWoodcrafts

Tuesday Tutorial with Charlotte from Roma Land Woodcrafts

Everyone who knows that I paint KNOWS that I paint and design QUCK AND EASY projects. Learning to paint quick and easy projects is a great way to practice your techniques so that you can then learn to paint more difficult pieces—the techniques are the same! The thing about these projects is that they still need to be done well with some added extras to give them that little PIZAZZ to set them aside and to send them to the head of the class.

I think the MAJOR mistake that people make when learning to paint is to NOT have a good liner brush. This, in my opinion, is a MUST to make your projects have a superior quality. LEARN to make thin lines and I think the rest is a piece of cake. THEN the next thing is to learn to float, and that takes a little time, BUT is easy to do—isn’t EVERYTHING easy WHEN you know how to do it!

I believe that ANYBODY can learn to paint. So, I want to show how easy it is to make a snowman. I have another project for a snowman that is on my Facebook page, so be sure to visit.

Gather your supplies. I am painting on glass, so I am using water based ENAMEL paints today. THERE are other processes, but this project will be done with enamel. The Apple Barrel enamels are thinner than most and are cheaper and they work fine for this. The Folk Art brand is VERY thick. You will need your surface, paint, scruffy brushes, a GOOD liner, a pallet (I use a Styrofoam plate—you can use freezer paper wrapped around a pan), a rag, and water to clean your brushes (I use a pint ball mason jar).

1. Remove the top of the ornament and stipple (dab) white paint onto the ornament all the way around. You may speed up the drying time with a hair dryer. 

2. MAKE SURE the white paint is COMPLETELY dry or you will pull off the paint. IF this happens, let it dry and re-stipple with white…all is NOT lost. Using a small scruffy brush, dab red paint for the cheeks…DO NOT RUB or the paint with come off.

3. Using Black and your liner, add the mouth—do NOT make the PIECES OF COAL round because coal is irregular in shape. Make the coal smaller as you go up the SMILE. It may take two coats of paint.

 4. Add the Eyes with Black. It may take two coats of paint.

5. Add the nose with orange. It may take two coats of paint.

6. MAKE a brown by adding just a drop of BLACK to the orange…you may buy brown is you wish, but it is not necessary. Line AROUND the nose to make it stand out. If you do this while the orange paint is still wet, you can work the brown paint into the orange so the line’s edges blend with the orange, but still remains as a visible line.

7. Wipe the paint off the brush, but do not get it wet. Using the brown mixture LIGHTLY pounce on the left OUTSIDE of each piece of coal, each eye and UNDER the nose. THIS is one of those LITTLE EXTRAS that helps make your piece have some more detail.

8. With your liner, gently add some white to the TOP inside right of each piece of coal. Add a line to the inside left of each eye. Make a cross next to this line and then an X on top of the cross. Put a dot on top of this “snowflake”. Do this to both eyes. Add 3 dots to the top of each cheek.

9. Put the top back on the ornament. Add a string and you have an ADORABLE ornament!!

Helpful hints: Do not WET your scruffy brushes. They perform better without the added water. BE SURE to clean your brushes as soon as you use them! NEVER add water to enamel paint. You will destroy its chemical make-up and it will not cure properly.

Wasn't that FUN! PRACTICE…practice…practice…This is a wonderful project to get you familiar with using a paint brush! 

Thanks Charlotte for this fun tutorial!

Charlotte can be found here:

www.etsy.com/shop/RomaLandWoodcrafts

http://www.romalandwoodcrafts.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/romalandwoodcrafts