Technique of the week is Shading, more specifically, bringing out the detail in a piece.
Acrylic Stains
There are two ways of “shading” or bringing out the detail on a piece.
Here we see a blue cap and skirt. It is painted with a light blue, then shaded by adding a thinned dark blue, and wiping it back with a cloth so that it remains in the detail.
A similar effect could be achieved by painting the dark blue first, then drybrushing the light blue horizontally over the detail, To drybrush, use a stiff brush and make sure there is very little paint on the brush. Dab excess paint onto a paper towel or brown bag.
Usually one prefers the darker color in the detail. So paint light & wash dark OR paint dark & drybrush light.
Below we see a Santa beard painted white and washed with grey.
The Mill at the right was painted dark and drybrushed light. Notice that the shadows are all darker.
When sewing with my embroidery machine, I noticed that the best-looking patterns were the ones that used three shades of a color. For example a flower painted pink, washed or shadowed with rose, and drybrushed with light pink. Whether to do both depends on the effect you want and the amount of time you want to put into it.
Cartoons
If you think of a cartoon as a coloring-book picture, you don’t see shading within each section. To detail, simply outline and add detail with a liner brush, usually loaded with black.
Fashenhues
Fashenhues is a technique where you base coat, then antique with a dark brown, and finally add the color. In other words, the shadows are painted first. There is another post on Fashenhues.
Underglazes
Both of these pieces were “antiqued” with a dark color. Notice the white background. If you want a light blue background on the cup, you need to paint and fire it before antiquing, Otherwise the background color would come off.
Brushwork
This is a term usually applied to painting detailed designs with underglazes. It can be done on bisque and glazed later, or done on unfired true matte glaze before firing. This technique is called majolica.
The leaves in the holly wreath were painted by fully loading the brush with light green, then side-loading in a medium green. When brushing, the darker green was kept to the outside of the leaves. Then a third, darker color, was used to outline and vein the leaves. This was painted on a white matte glaze.
The daisy eggs were painted on colors. Rather than double loading the brush, a light color was pulled in for the petal, then a medium color 2/3 of the way from center, then a dark color 1/3 of the way. Each color overlaps the one before. Leaves were painted by double loading greens on the brush.
Glazes
Some glazes are designed to fill in the detail as can be seen in these pieces. Look for “semi-translucent” or “semi-opaque” on the jar. Opaque glazes will tend to cover up the detail.
Detailing
Shading is just one form of detailing. You can add facial features and add patterns to fabrics, even make a plain base into a flagstone walk. You can add specialty paints such as metallics, snow, and glitter. Also, accessories such as ribbons, bells, and jewels. The only limit is your imagination. The fine detailing is what makes a piece really special.
Carol's Carousel Creations 