Dewberry - Donna dewberrys essential guide to flower and landscape painting: 50 decorative and one-stroke painting projects

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS
CINCINNATI, OHIO
www.artistsnetwork.com

Plaid FolkArt acrylic colors are high-quality acrylic paints that come in handy 2-oz. (59ml) squeeze bottles. Their rich and creamy formulation and long open time make them perfect for decorative painting. They are offered in a wide range of wonderful pre-mixed colors.

FolkArt Artists Pigments are pure colors that are perfect for mixing your own shades. Their intense colors and creamy consistency are wonderful for blending, shading and highlighting. Because theyre acrylic paints, theyre easy to clean up and have no odor.

FolkArt Enamels are the ultimate one-step, dishwasher-safe paints for glass, ceramics, metal and other slick reflective surfaces. These revolutionary paints are highly pigmented and go on rich and creamy. Dont use water to thin Enamels; use Clear Medium to moisten the bristles and to thin the paint. All Enamels painting must be completed within 24 hours of starting a project. Any paint applied after 24 hours or after baking will note fuse properly and will not have the same durability.

FolkArt Outdoor Opaques and Dimensional paints can be used on a variety of surfaces: unpainted or pained metal, tin, terra cotta, wood, stone and concrete. Outdoor paint is made with a sealer in it. It has been lab tested to withstand normal weather conditions equivalent to 35 years. Do not mix water with this paint. Water will dilute the sealer and cause less durability. Instead, use Outdoor Flow Medium to moisten the brush or thin the paint. For more protection from the weather and sun, use a spray lacquer finish (satin or gloss) on any painted item that will be used in your garden or on an open-air patio or deck.

For all of the landscape paintings, I used FolkArt High Definition (HD) Visual Texture acrylic paint. This paint was specially developed to be thicker and more robust than the usual acrylic paints. It allows artists to create beautifully realistic textures right on the canvas using a variety of tools.

Painting the One-Stroke technique requires the use of flat brushes. Flats are designed with longer bristles and less thickness in the body of the bristles to allow for a much sharper chisel edge. In the instructions for the flower painting projects in this book, I often say begin on the chisel edge or lift back up to the chisel edge. A sharp chisel edge is essential to the success of your one-stroke painting.

A filbert brush is a flat brush with a chisel edge that has been cut into a curve. This brush creates a rounder outer edge on the petals of flowers such as daisies and lilacs. An angular brush is also a flat brush with a chisel edge, but its bristles are trimmed at an angle, making one side longer (the toe) than the other side (heel). The angular brush makes painting comma strokes much easier. The feather brush is a flat brush whose bristles thin out along the chisel edge. I love using this brush to paint feathery blossoms such as bottlebrush and even palm fronds.

Scruffy brushes come in several sizes from very large to very small. I use them to pounce on mosses, wisteria, flower centers, faux finishes and shading textures, among others. Do not use water when painting with scruffy brushes.

A round brush can be used to paint scrolls, flower petals, leaves and lettering. It holds a lot of paint and the roundness eliminates sharp edges, making elegant strokes easy. Liners are round brushes with very thin bristles. Use these with inky paint for curlicues and tendrils, and with regular paint to dot in flower centers.

HD brushes (not pictured) were developed to be used with the High Definition paint. They are larger than the classic One-Stroke brushes and have longer handles and brass ferrules. Loading the HD brushes with paint is the same as for any other brush; however, the bristle area is larger to pick up and hold more paint, which lets you cover large areas of canvas in a few strokes. To remove a color from your brush, just wipe it off on a paper towel. Dont swish it out in water every time you want to change colors. Wait until you are finished painting, then clean them out with cool water and soap or brush cleaner.