Sunday, December 21, 2008

Crackle Effect





First try in doing crackle effect. My first victim to the new transformation is a ordinary looking mini flower stand. What I did...first I applied sealer to the flower stand, let the sealer dry. And then apply the background color...I used white as I like white as a background color. But for the upper surface, I applied dark pink color to make contrast with the white.

I applied 2 techniques here to decorate the flower stand, 1) decoupage technique and 2) decorative painting.

The new face


3 basic step crackling process

1) Apply basecoat color (pink), let dry
2) Apply crackle medium, let dry
3) Apply contrasting topcoat color (in my case it's white, topcoat must be applied for cracking to occur)

The crackling will show when paint dries.



Close up


Tips

1) Apply a thin coat of medium for fine cracks, moderate coat of medium for medium cracks and thick coat of medium for large cracks.

2) Do not brush back over previously applied medium that has started to dry as doing so, may cause the crackle medium to lift.

3) When applying the topcoat, do it in one direction n evenly to get best crackle effect. Actually, we also can use sponge/dabbing techniques and we call it as Sponge Crackle. The technique I was using is Brush Crackle.


Crackle on the frame




My reference book, Decorative Painting Techniques by Di Singleton

Folksy Rose


It is a very long time since the last entry, been a bit busy lately. My time packed with household chores. This is not a new project. It was completed 1 and half month ago. It's called Folksy Rose. Based on my new reference book...Decorative Painting by Aniza, Norana n Zaiton. They are the most popular Malaysian decorative painting artists. I wish I have more time to learn decorative painting from them...in person. Their paintings are stunning and beautiful.



The worksheet





TADAAAAA....... the result of my painting





The side of the box



Actually I like to make a lace .....but I couldn't get it right. So, I need to practice a lot to get it right.