AUTUMN LEAVES...CLASS PROJECT

Select bright, strong, clear colors. Prepare them so that you can get a smooth full load on a large brush. Lay these colors on in a random fashion. Meld the colors into each other but do not get them muddy. That will ruin the piece.

You want light and medium coverage so you can shade the leaves and still have good color and a place to wipe back for highlights. See first pictures of just random colors.

Fire 016

Collect a variety of interesting leaf shapes, different types and sizes. I looked on Google under autumn leaf photos, pinterest, and facebook. There are an unending supply of color pictures of different types of leaves. Trace leaves & tape them over the colors that are fired. Design the piece so that you have large, medium and small leaves, some overlapping, and you have large, medium and small interesting negative spaces. Trace and pen in the leaf shapes and some vein work.

Fire 016

Shading the leaves is where all the moaning begins. There will not be a green leaf to shade, there will be a green, yellow and red leaf to figure out how to shade. Some places will need brightening, some placed in more shadow. I had to do my shading two times before I was satisfied with the combinations.

Fire at 016

if your reds will hold true at this firing, if you are afraid they will brown, cool it off to 017.

After you have resisted all of the leaves it is time to wet ground the back ground. There are numerous methods of doing this, I will give you instructions on how I do mine.

Powder paint, black or rich brown. Silk screen oil, heavy copaiba or fat oil can all be used as the main oil. I will be using silk screen oil. Mix dry paint with silk screen oil to a consistency wetter than you would paint with, but not runny. Thin this down with a little lavender oil. Spread this out thin on a tile. Use the large pink sponges and dab into the paint. Pounce GENTLY and do not race to finish. Move back and forth, in and out of an area before you move to a new area. You cannot just dab this on, you literally have to work it gently to keep from having too much texture or paint in any one area. Be under good light so you can see if you are getting buildup. This will work for you in one firing if you apply it carefully, no buildup, no sloppy dabbing. Pull the resist off carefully and clean out any areas that ran under the resist, or with a small brush, repair any mess ups that may occur. I do not let it air dry before pulling the resist because it is too hard to do repairs if it has already dried. Air dry the piece until it has a Matt appearance.

Fire at 016 very slowly!

I double the low and medium time for the kiln to warm up, with lid propped open to allow the smoke out. Then turn to high and check it an hour or so later to be sure it went off. Those of you with computer controlled kilns have to just fire and hope. The last fire it optional, I like to accent and outline the leaves in roman burnish gold.

If you have any questions email me at shirleydyerweston@yahoo.com or call 

me at 405-919-0312.

I'm always happy to help in any way I can. Enjoy!