Painted Wood Easel with "DecoArt-Americana"

Hello My Dear Crafty Friends:

Painting in wood is my new adventure!...

and for all of you out there that are a bit skeptic on trying to paint on anything ...let me tell you that it is not as hard as it sounds...
I am VERY VERY far from perfect, I am just a beginner and ...

If I can do it 

you can too!

Look at my 1st attempt!...
I designed my own floral arrangement
 and here it is the result!

Full of imperfections but I am happy...and that is what I want YOU to try...play with paint! is so relaxing and no need to look for perfection!

Everything started last December, when I decided to take "Tole painting" classes and I discovered these acrylic paints from "DecoaArt-Americana";
I became right away a fan of these little bottles!

The paint goes very smoothly, the range of colors is fantastic and very important to all of us, specially when we spend so much in craft supplies, these bottles are very reasonable price...($1;50 USA dollars/bottle).
Here in the USA I found them at my local craft store "Michael's" and at various online sites...and of course at the main webpage of "DecoArt" paints.

I am not looking for perfect strokes, this will take time, practice and they will come later on. For me the important was to start right away experimenting with paint, looking for the enjoyment to play with it and see the result right away.

In class, I made wonderful friends and one of my painter friends gave me this extra easel in wood that she had.
It is wonderful to use to support any project that you will be working on ...

 made by Creative Woodworks; based in San Jose Ca

The easel is called a "tilting painting wheel" it comes in raw wood (see photo).
I decided to painted it and use it now in all my painting classes...
I stapled the wheel with black drawer liner, to make it non slippery.

here are the steps on my new adventure...

First, come up with the floral arrangement;
I draw very simple shapes of flowers;
I draw them in tags for you to see what flowers I used in separate, but in my drawing I interconnected all the flowers and vines...

see the drawing that I made on one side of the easel...using all the basic flowers and leaves that I show you on the tags...

step 1;
Paint all the easel with a base color coat, mine is black  

step 2;
come up with a floral arrangement on tracing/translucent paper,
transfer the drawing that you made or any other  from a catalog, magazine, stamp etc...
draw/transfer your design on the wood with white "Generals" erasable charcoal pencil
Note: in my case I draw directly onto the wood free hand

the right side finished...
working on the front ...

step3;
paint in "jade" green all the leaves, using a round small brush #2
 

step 4;
add a 1st coat of color on all the flowers and berries
- small daisies painted in yellow and red petals with blue centers,
- two daisies with heart petals painted in blue
- and the 3rd one in pink

step 5:
add lines to the flowers....
with a liner brush add fine lines in red for the pink flower, in dark blue for the blue flower and white lines at the edge of the petals...

step 6:
add more lines and dots...
with a round brush # 2 add dark green lines to the leaves on one side
then white lines to the other side of the leaves
add dots in white wherever you want...

TIP: the dots are made with an stylus

Note: erase all the white lines from the initial drawing with a "Kneaded" (or putty rubber, see photos with flowers on tags)  eraser

here is the back

Muy husband added that extra bar that has a magnet on the other side to hold a photo or the design that you are painting from...

see it in the upright position (below);
I will hold a photo or the project instructions for it with a magnet...

close up of one of the sides

I was very pleased with the result...I encourage you to start painting...it sounds hard and intimidating at first! but look what I did with in 1st project...

I believe the hardest thing it to take the decision...so take the plunge and start experimenting with paints and give it a try with "DecoArt" paints!

I will be sharing from now on more projects done with paints and sharing all my "wood" experiences and I hope I gave you the "Bug" to  give it a try! you can start too!!!

so be on the look for more posts using paint

 To be continued....

SUPPLIES

tilting painting wheel from "Creative Woodworks"
DECOART website 
Palette: "DecoaArt-Americana" paints
Greens: "jade green" and "plantation pine";
Reds: "gooseberry pink" and "burgundy wine";
Blues: "french gray blue", "deep midnight blue";
Yellows: "golden Straw", "Antique gold"
"lamp black";
"titanium white"

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