Unfinished Bisque To A Finished Piece!

Recently I posted about a few adorable kitchen wall decor pieces available for purchase in unfinished bisque, well I decided that I wanted to paint a few of these for my own kitchen, so I wanted to share with you how you can finish your piece in just a few easy steps.

This really cute piece features a Watermelon, Pears, Apple and Grapes. This is how the piece looks in its unfinished state. 

 After a basecoat of Burnt Sienna and then drybrushing a few different colors, your piece will look something like this!

  Okay first let's start with shades of paint that I used and remember you can change to any colors you might have on hand.

Ceramcoat Burnt Sienna, Apple Barrels's English Ivy Green, Kiwi, Celery Green, Canary Yellow, Bright Yellow, Americana Mistletoe, White and Folk Art  Lipstick, and Black for sealing the piece I used Americana DuraClear Gloss Varnish. For brushes I used a nice flat brush to base coat and for dry brushing I used an assortment of stiff flat and round brushes. All of these items are readily available at your local Arts and Crafts Store. 

Alright lets start painting, first step is to basecoat the entire piece with Brunt Sienna, you will need to apply 2 coats, if you still find the white showing apply another coat, you don't want any white showing. After the piece has dried you are going to start dry brushing your piece. Now drybrushing is just how it sounds, dry brush, when you dip your brush into the color, you will then want to take most of the color back off the brush by brushing back and forth on  a paper towel. Let's start with the Watermelon, start by drybrushing  English Ivy along the outside of the Watermelon, continue until you have desired amount of color, now we are going to build more color since a watermelon is not just one shade of green, so to do this we are now going to drybrush Mistletoe you now see that you have a two tone green going on, a little dark and a little light now to give the Watermelon another dimensions of realism just ad light streaks of black, inside of the watermelon is done with Red Lipstick and with red still on your brush dip the brush into your white to give it a blush shade, the seeds are done in black.

Now the Apple is Lipstick Red, highlights of Canary Yellow and Mistletoe for the leaves, black for the stem, the Pears are done using Bright Yellow, then Canary Yellow with a blush of Lipstick Red mixed with white, and then the Grapes I started with English Ivy Green, Mistletoe, Celery then high light with Kiwi, I used Black for the grape stem and Pear Stems. I let the piece dry for 24 hours before applying 2 coats of sealer.

Well thats all there is to it, you will find with drybrushing you can change color, add more color and continue playing until you have the look you want and if you want to start over not a problem, just base coat and start again.

I think if you give this technique a try you will find it very relaxing and fun, so I hope you give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by

Donna

The Bisqueware Barn