Decorative Painting 101 - Palettes & Color

Welcome to the fourth installment of the workshop series brought to you by Mustard Seed Creations and Funky Junky Interiors! I am so excited to hear reports of people who are trying their hand at decorative painting. I'll be adding a link party in a few weeks for anyone who would like to share what they've done, so snap pictures as you go along!

Make sure you pay a visit to Funky Junk Interiors this week to get some inspiration for your workshop area. Donna will show you some clever pieces to use for storage as well as a new use for that old ironing board (now that you've purchased wrinkle free clothes for your hubby.) Check it out!

Today, we're going to add color. I didn't realize how challenging this was going to be to teach. It is a personal taste thing, first of all, but the style also varies based on what you're painting. I'm going to show how to add color to the basic flowers you learned last week. This style would suit tole painting or something in a European folk art style.

First of all, get your palette set up. For a basic palette, I would suggest having a Light Green + Burnt Umber (BU), Dark Green + BU, Light Blue + BU, Dark Blue + BU, Red + BU, Red + White, Light Yellow, Gold, Burnt Umber, White, and Black. I also like to put a dab of Light Yellow next to the Light Green and Red to mix to make a yellow/green and an orange.

Mix up the paint with one of your brush handles. When working with so many colors, you'll want to have a cup of water and paper towel handy to clean your brush between colors.

Here's what the palette looks like when it's all mixed. I'll generally put a dollop of glaze in the middle of it to pull from when I'm painting. I'll put my brush in the glaze, then the color. Another method is to mix glaze into each of your paint colors. Either way is fine.

One tip: I have found that if I want a true red, I need to spend a little bit more money and get a high-end heavy body acrylic paint. Most of the cheap craft paints turn out pink or maroon, especially when you start mixing them. You will have pink flowers when you want red.

If you want a palette more sophisticated than a paper plate or one you can seal up for a day or two if you're working on a larger project, there is a great "wet palette" system by Masterson.

It is composed of a miracle sponge that expands when you wet it, Sta-wet paper, and a plastic case with an air tight lid. You wet the sponge and put it in the plastic container. Then, you wet the paper and put the paper on top of the sponge. You can mix your paints right on the paper. When you need to take a break, snap the lid on and your paints will stay wet for a couple of days.

White Daisies: These are one of the simplest flowers because the petals are solid white with a yellow center. You can add highlights and low lights to the center, if you want to get fancy.

Colored Daisies: Sketch out the shape of your daisy with burnt umber. Check out last week's workshop, if you missed it. Using your #4 filbert, brush the darkest shade of your color on the petals, blue in this case, and color the center in gold. Allow it to dry for a couple of minutes and then add the light blue on the petals in a smaller stroke.

Finish with a small straight comma stroke in light blue mixed with white. Then add a light yellow highlight to the center. This is a sort of messy example, but you get the idea.

Colored Tulips: You're going to follow the same steps as you did with the petals of the daisy. Start with a burnt umber base. Add the darkest shade of the color of your using. Allow it to dry. Here's where some thought comes in. Where is your light source? In this case it's to the top left of the flower. So, I'm going to apply the medium pink color on the left side and tops of the petals. I follow up with the medium pink, mixed with white to add a little bit more highlight. Everyone still with me?

Leaves: You're going to see a pattern emerging, here. Sketch the leaves in burnt umber. (I am using my sample sketch from last week.) Fill in the leaves and stem with the darkest shade of green. Since my light is coming from the top left, I brushed the lighter green on the top of the leaves and the left of the stem.

Mix your light green with yellow and add another highlight over the light green stroke. Then add a final white highlight on the top of the leaf. I also mixed the dark green with burnt umber to add a middle vein in the leaf.

Here is one last example of the low light to highlight progression, with the strokes exaggerated a little for you to see them clearly.

Color is the kind of thing you just have to play with. You'll find that you'll add a highlight and you're not crazy about the look, so you'll bring the darker color in and blend it a little more. Just keep working with it until you like how it looks. And remember, this is decorative art, not fine art.

Are you keeping up with me, Donna? Color is tricky, don't you think? Do you have any expertise to share from your tole painting classes?

Donna: "I'm trying really hard to remember how I mixed colour in tole painting. I believe you dipped your brush on the side of the tip in one colour, spun the brush slighty and dipped in the other so you had a dual coloured filled brush. Then when you did your strokes, you twisted the brush to create the right highlights. It sounds weird but the method created the most amazing blends because they were both wet. It takes abit of practice but comes quickly. And the main focus always was, where is the light coming from, so you get your highlights in the right area.

Tole painting is abit different than decorative painting. Your style is simulating a real flower painting where you can lift your brush between strokes, where tole painting was creating an object without lifting your brush - one stroke with all your desired colours intact. I think your way is easier. :)

Me: Yes, you're talking about the "one stroke method." That is a great way to paint, but you really have to get the color mix and stroke technique perfect, so I agree that this layering method is easier.

These flower samples are gorgeous! But I'll admit, I'm falling behind in my practice, so these are looking complicated to my untrained eye. Know what I'd love to try? Having you do a simple edge on a real piece, or a simple flower with a nice trim in the center of something so I can try a small design. I think I need to see something come to life in order to be really inspired. :) I seem to get abit lost in how to lay it out on something. Any tips on that?"

I hear you! In a couple of weeks, we're going to talk about inspiration. I'll give you some of my favorite sources and some specific things you can try.

For now, here are some of my finished floral pieces to give you inspiration.