Table of ContentsWelcome Art Quote Featured Technique Free Christmas Pattern Your Favorite Things Share Your Favorite Tips Recycling, “Artists are Environmentally Friendly”
Quick & Easy Recipe (Who's got time to cook?! Gotta paint!)
WELCOME!
Hello Painting Friends,
The very first issue of The Palette Gazette from Your Decorative Painting Resource is hot off the press!! A newsletter that's all about you, the tole and decorative painter. Autumn is here and thoughts of Christmas are already in the air! Kids have been back at school for a while and vacations are distant memories. It seems that coming up to Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the Holiday Season, decorative painters are quickly dusting off their paintbrushes and flipping the lids off their paint bottles. In that spirit, do we ever have a few things to share with you! Keep well and get painting! Cheryl Poulin and Jodi Clerke
ART QUOTE“It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.”
- Claude Monet
FEATURED TECHNIQUEUsing the Liner BrushAs teachers we have the nice advantage of watching many painters as they work. It’s by closely observing our students that we learn, and our observations help us to be better instructors.When it’s time to add those last tendrils and loopy flourishes to the nearly-finished projects, many students freeze. “Oh, I hate this part! I can’t do linework! I always end up with blobs!”…on and on it goes. Does this sort of frustration sound like you? Are you afraid of ruining your work with those final liner details? We can help you right here, right now. First select the right brush for the job. If you’re going to do nice long tendrils and scrolls, you need a liner brush that can hold enough water. For this quick lesson, a #1 Script Liner was used. Next, it’s really important that you render the paint to an inky consistency. The paint needs to flow freely from the brush tip, so it needs to be thinned with just the right amount of water. Too much water and the lines are way too transparent, and not enough water means the brush runs out of paint too soon. If anything, we’ve found that students tend to use paint that’s too thick. A good guide is 60% paint to 40% water; but remember, this is a just a guide. How much water you add depends on the thickness and transparency of the paint to begin with.
Now hold the brush at a perpendicular angle to the surface…in other words pointing straight up from your surface. Hold the brush between your thumb and index finger, supporting the ferrule with your middle finger. Rest your pinkie down on the surface without leaning on your wrist.
The brush tip should touch the painting surface with minimal pressure. Be sure to hold the brush where the wooden handle meets the metal ferrule. Pull the brush while maintaining even pressure on the tip. You will use your arm rather than using wrist action to move the brush along. So it’s important to keep the wrist off the surface. Practice this correct brush positioning while doing swirls and tendrils…and keep on practicing. In no time at all you’ll be painting like a pro!
FREE CHRISTMAS PATTERN!Just in case you missed it, here's a link to a free pattern for an ornament!Jodi salvaged a burned out light bulb and made the cutest Santa ornament. Here's where you can get that
FREE CHRISTMAS PATTERN
YOUR FAVORITE THINGS
We just love to hear about your new or old favorite things. Every painter we know just swears by a product or a brand they couldn’t live without.
Are you passionate about something in your painting kit or studio? We want to hear all about it. We’d love to print what you have to say on this subject. Don’t worry about grammar and spelling, we’ll take care of that…and if you don’t want your name in print, we’ll take care of that too. One of Cheryl’s favorite things is her All My Memories Tote-Ally Cool Tote by The M.O.M. Team. It holds EVERYTHING and it is so pretty! Besides having room for regular painting things, there’s space for a cell phone (not to be used in a classroom), a place for money, reading glasses… there’s even a magnetic turntable at the base so you can swivel the tote to reach for what you need! Truly a must-have if you’re going from class to class. Anyway, this one was purchased at a local tole painting shop. Perhaps your shop can order them in or you could shop online. So now, drop us a line and
tell us all about YOUR favorite things!
SHARE YOUR FAVORITE TIPS!
Here’s another section we’re sure will get lots of input. We want to hear all about your tips and tricks! Nothing is too far out or weird… as teachers, we’ve seen a LOT of interesting things.
Here’s a real simple little tip. We especially love doing this when we’re floating color. Use a spray bottle filled with clean water to mist your palette. The little beads of water that puddle there are great for re-loading water into your brush. No need to get the whole brush wet every time you need a little extra moisture. Cool huh? Here's a great tip we received from Donna Wessel from St. Louis, MO, USA. She gave us great advice for making a hanger for our painted light bulb ornament featured in this issue. She writes: For hangers on light bulbs I have used an ice pick (or awl) to poke a hole through the metal screw top on either side and then threaded a piece of wire, leather, ribbon, etc. to form the hanger. Works great and you don't have to worry about the ribbon or string slipping off the twisty part and the bulb dropping to the floor. In cases where a sock, or knitted glove finger is used for the hat (glued on, of course) the ribbon or thread can be put through the knitted fabric eliminating the need to poke a hole. Just a couple suggestions for your tip file. So now we want to hear about a little tip or a real neat trick that you’re fond of. We’d love to print what you have to say on this subject. Don’t worry about grammar and spelling, we’ll take care of that…and if you don’t want you name in print, we’ll take care of that too.
Recycling"Artists are Environmentally Friendly”In this section we want to feature your "green" ideas. How and what do you recycle when you're being creative?As you know, we've turned burned out light bulbs into delightful ornaments! You all probably already make use of styrofoam meat trays. As a mixed media artist, Cheryl will even go as far as imbedding shed snake skin into her paintings... but that's a whole 'nuther story!
Send us your best ideas for re-using and recycling.
As we've mentioned above, don’t worry about grammar and spelling, we’ll take care of that…and if you don’t want you name in print, we’ll take care of that too.
QUICK 'N EASY RECIPE
ORANGE STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE Makes 10 servings at 339 calories each serving (but who's counting?) This is an impressive but really easy cake to make. It's perfect as a hostess gift, especially this time of year. You might as well make a bunch of copies of the recipe because everyone will ask for it... just take our word for it. INGREDIENTS 2 cups sifted flour 1/2 cup sugar 2-1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt grated peel of one orange 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup orange juice 1/3 cup vegetable oil STREUSEL TOPPING: 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup sugar 2 tbsp grated orange peel 2 tbsp butter - Sift together first 4 ingredients. Then add the grated peel. - Make a well in the dry mixture and add the remaining ingredients. Mix just enough to moisten the flour.... it'll be lumpy and that's a good thing. - Pour the mess into a greased 9" square pan. - For the topping just mix all the ingredients together until they're crumbly. - Have fun sprinkling all over the top of the cake. - Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 30 minutes or until gorgeously golden. Easy!
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Load the brush by dragging it through the inky puddle. Take advantage of the length of the bristles by loading up to the ferrule. You’ll have more success if you try to avoid twisting the hairs, but rather tap the bristles gently back into a pointed shape.
