2015 #3 Fresco Blends {by Liz Borer PA Signature Designer}

2015 Theme 3: Paint

Hi there, Liz Borer here again. Today I’m using PaperArtsy Fresco Paints so that I can show you a few of the methods that I use to paint flowers and faces. I’ll also show you how to create an interesting background effect.

I have only used a few colours; Prawn, Southern Skies and Buff from the new JOFY  Limited Edition Set along with Nougat, Claret and SnowFlake. By using such a limited palette I find that the colours will blend together in a pleasing fashion and will mix to create other colours that will work together very nicely.

I find that mixing MatteGlaze with the paints allows me to add thin layers of paint and also helps with blending. As some of the paints are opaque, mixing them with Matte Glaze makes them more translucent and less likely to obscure the stamped image. 

I found this wooden folder in my stash. I know I got it originally from Leandra at PaperArtsy but I don’t know when! I painted the whole thing with two coats of Buff, sanding between coats to create a smooth finish. Then I did something rather odd; I stamped the images that I wanted to use from EEB03 and EEB04 onto white card and then I enlarged with a photocopier. 

EEB03

EEB04

I wanted to use these images rather than drawing something new and this seemed a brilliant way of doing it! I cut out the faces and the flowers from both photocopies. As you can see, I have used the flowers and faces separately on the piece of work. On the image on the right hand side I found that the hanging flower did not fit so I cut it off and stuck it elsewhere. I then used another photocopied flower to fill the gap. I stuck all the photocopied images to the wooden folder and then, when the glue was dry, I painted a layer of Matte Glaze over the images and the painted background. I did this for two reasons: firstly, it protects the paper and the photocopy and prevents the image from bleeding and secondly it makes it much easier to blend colours over the top.

Once the Matte Glaze was dry, I used the Buff paint to blend any edges of white paper into the background by painting over them. Any areas of white paper between curls of hair and so on I also painted with Buff to match the background.

The faces were both painted with Nougat paint mixed with Matte Glaze. I blended the paint down the neck so that there was no obvious line between the Nougat and the Buff paints.

This is how I paint flowers whether they are large or small stamped images. I start with the lightest colour and work towards the darker colours. The first colour I used on all the flowers you see here was a mixture of Prawn, Nougat and Snowflake. If you look, you can see that I didn’t paint all the petals, only areas that would be pale when the flower was finished.

The next colour I used was Prawn mixed with Matte Glaze. If you look closely you will see that I have added this colour to the areas where the flower would be naturally darker for example the centre. Sometimes I find that a little finger is a very useful blending tool! I also used the pale pink mixture to wash a little pink down the sides of both the faces.

I continued adding Prawn until I achieved the depth of colour that I wanted and then I used a little Claret to deepen the shading.

This shows the flowers at the bottom of the folder. As I’ve said, I started with the very pale pink but then I mixed Prawn and Southern Skies to create a pinky purple hue. I used this to start adding deeper colours to these flowers.

Going back to the pink flowers, I have added in some places a little of the purple colour. The reason for this is that by using colours from elsewhere in the design it pulls the design together into a cohesive whole and makes the colours blend well together.

This is a close up showing the deeper colours I have used.

Now, the darker flowers at the bottom of the design needed another and deeper colour so I mixed Claret and Southern Skies and used this in the shaded areas.

Now for the hair! I painted a mix of Mushroom and Matte Glaze thinly over both ladies’ hair. I added Southern Skies to the Mushroom and started adding colour to the lady at the bottom of the design.

Next I used pure Southern Skies in shade areas. Finally, I used the darker purple (Claret and Southern Skies) to add depth to the shading. I used the lighter purple mix (Prawn and Southern Skies) to add a little more colour to the face along both ladies’ cheeks.

After a wash of Mushroom on the top lady’s hair, I washed a little of the lighter purple in shade areas and then some of the darker purple to deepen the shading. Some of the lighter areas were coloured by using a mix of Nougat and Southern Skies. The centres of the flowers are Guacamole and then a darker green made of Guacamole and Southern Skies.

Finally to the background! I find this technique easiest if I use a small, flat brush. Again, using a mix of Matte Glaze and Nougat I “slip slapped” the paint randomly down from the right hand lady’s neck and also in the centre and to the right above the left hand lady. “Slip slapping” paint is an easy and random way of applying paint. Just make a small stroke with the flat brush and then turn the brush a little and make another small stroke in another direction. Keep making little strokes in lots of different directions moving away from the brightest area of paint as the brush runs out of paint. It will look very messy to start with. This is normal!

Add some Southern Skies to the Nougat to create a pale blue and continue “slip slapping” away from the Nougat to cover move of the Buff base coat. It’s not actually necessary to cover the whole of the base coat. In fact, it makes the whole thing more cohesive if little bits of Buff show through.

Keep adding Southern Skies to the blue mix and continue “slip slapping” so that the paint gradually gets darker towards the edges and the corners. I find sometimes that I have to repeat the whole process again to get a softly blended finish.

Here you can see the finished painting.

I’m stopping here because this post is about using paints. At some time I will return with this project and show you what I did next and how I decorated the outside of the folder. I hope that you’ll stop by in the future to see more of this project. In the meantime, I hope that I have given you some ideas about how to use these wonderful paints. 

Liz.

Absolutely exquisite Liz how you have blended a limited colour palette to create such beautiful effects/shading, perfect for such a delightful face. Your continued experiments in customising paint combinations is fascinating. Thank you for such a wonderful post.

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