Watercolor Peacock Plate

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Details

Last Updated: Thursday, 21 February 2013 22:08

1. Begin with properly fired shelf cone 04 bisque.  Moisten a clean sponge and wipe bisque to remove any dust.
2. With a Pencil and AC230 Clay Carbon Paper, trace on the pattern.
3. Using a CB-406 Pointed Round, apply 3 coats of SC-11 Blue Yonder to the head excluding the eye and markings in the face. As you apply the color, “feather" the color out about ⅔ of the way down the neck. Add in a couple of “pressure-point” stroke at the base of the feathered color.
4. Make some “print” strokes using a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round loaded with SC-11 Blue Yonder to the back feathers and some of the wing feathers. Make a sidestroke of the color in the longer wing feathers.
5. Load a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round with SC-11 Blue Yonder and tip the point with SC-76 Cara-bein Blue. Wet shade under and over the markings on the head.   Also shade the edges of the bird head, neck and under the face on the neck creating darker tones to form a shadow to the SC-11 Blue Yonder areas. Do some “print” strokes with the brush loaded with SC-76 Cara-bein Blue on the right side of the bird neck from the head down to where the color feathers out.
6. Load a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round with SC-52 Toad-ily Green and make some “print” strokes at the base of the back feather and in the smaller wing feathers. Add some color to the longer wing feathers as well.
7. Reload the brush now with SC-53 Purple Haze. Apply 2 coats of color to the back feathers in a small “print” stroke. Also add color to the wing feathers as well.
8. To the “eye” in the tail feathers apply 1-2 coats of thinned SC-33 Fruit of the Vine using CB-220 #2 Detail Liner. Keep the color darkest towards the base of the “eye.”   To the area next to the eye, apply thinned SC-11 Blue Yonder keeping the color darker at the base of the area.  Omit any color on the next area on the eye of the feather.
9. Load a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round with water and tip the point only with SC-52 Toad-ily Green.  Start the brush at the base of the vein.  Place the brush on its side with the color next to the center vein and pull the brush up along the vein of the feather.  Color should be darkest next to the vein fading out to nothing to the outer edge of the feather.  Pull the color up around the eye of the feather as well.
10. Load a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round with water and tip the point with SC-33 Fruit of the Vine and then SC-76 Cara-bein Blue.  Make a small “V” shaped print stroke on the crown feathers.
11. Mix some SC-76 Cara-Bein Blue with a bit of SC-15 Tuxedo to darken the color.  Paint in the eye on the peacock face using CB-110 #10/0 Liner.  Avoid painting over the high light in the eye.
12. Load a CB-406 #6 Pointed Round with water and tip the point with SC-5 Tiger Tail and paint in the beak. The darkest part of the color should be next to the blue area on the face and under the top portion of the beak to create a separation of the two sections in the beak.  Place some color in the indentation on the upper beak as well.
13. You can retrace some of the detail in the feathers prior to your next step or simply pencil in some directional lines.  You don’t need to draw in every line but just a few to grasp which way the lines should flow later.  These lines are only a guide and don’t have to be followed exactly when using the SG-401 Detail Liner.  The tendency is while painting and moving the piece around you lose directional flow to the feather detail.
14. Shake and stir SG-401 Detail Liner. Apply the metal tip. To keep the metal tip from clogging, never jam the tip into the ware or move the tip into the color. Practice using the SG-401 Designer Liner on a piece of paper to check the flow and feel before using it on the ware.
15. Completely outline the Peacock and paint in all of the detail as shown in the pattern using the SG-401 Designer Liner.  It is better if you can move quickly when painting the lines in on the bird as it will give you finer lines and a broken line as well. Allow to dry.
16. Using a CB-604 #4 Soft Fan apply 2 coats of S-2101 Crystal Clear Brushing to the entire piece. Allow to dry.
17. Stilt and fire to shelf cone 05/06.