Bisque Eagle Cross (Click on photo to enlarge it)
S-18 Brown
S-23 Mediterranean
S-22 Magenta
C 104 Base coat
S-4 Jade
S-40 Sage
S-10 White
S-16 Purple
S-11 Yellow
S-17 Blue
S-19 Black
S-21 Mustard
9 Shader brushes (#6 - #2)
3 Shader Brush
Mini Shader & Detailer
Spray Gloss Sealer
Paper Towels
Antiquing Solution
Foil/paint pallet
Blending Medium
Applicator packet
Stylus - Small
Brush on gloss, if flat matte spray is used
6 - 7 Droppers
Pallet knife (plastic)
Wet Ones
Small disposable cups
T-shirt or Viva cloths
Clean & detail greenware. Fire to 03-04.
Pour some C-104 into a small disposable cup. Using a shader, basecoat entire piece with C-104; dry and repeat. (2 coats)
Pour antiquing solution in a different small disposable cup, with another shader load brush and brush the entire piece, reloading as needed.
Any uncovered areas will darken. As you come across any uncoated places, dry with a paper towel and touch up with more C-104. Dry and repeat until there are no spots uncovered.
Clean all brushes at this point and remove water bowls from the table; shape bristles, and lay flat to dry.
With the third shader brush, using S 18, brush on small areas (appx 3inch), and wipe back and do the entire piece, including the back. Be sure to do areas appx 3inches sq or smaller as you work and you do not want the S-18 you have applied to dry out before wiping back. Once the entire piece is completed, place your cloths away from your area, and put your brush on top of the cloths.
Place a drop of S19 Blue, and a drop of blending medium on your pallet. With a small shader, tip the corner of your brush in the blending medium, then take it to the blue, and blend together. Brush this on the tallest mountain, all the way across the horizon, half of the cross, and wipe back. Repeat for the other half of the cross. Place cloth aside and lay your paint brush on top of the cloth.
With a dropper, place two drops of S-16 and one drop of Blending Media. Take your Small Shader and TIP the very end in the blending medium, take to the color spot and mix in. Load just the end of your brush in this mixture, take to your piece and begin to add color to the front mountains, again, doing half the cross, wiping back and repeat for the other half of the cross. Be very careful to only TIP your brush into the blending medium. Too much Blending medium will make your project hard to work with, as everywhere you touch, you will be leaving fingerprints. Set your cloths aside, and lay your brush on top of these cloths.
Pour or dip out, just under a dime size puddle of S-44 on your pallet, and in an area away from this, again, 1 drop of Blending Medium. Tip another Shader in the Blending Medium and just the very TIP corner and again and take this back to the color and mix. Using this mixture, brush on and wipe off small areas in the sky and bring this same color down to the foreground, just below the mountains, where the tiny trees are bunched. After completing this step, set the cloths aside and place your brush on top.
Place just under a dime size spot of S-40 Sage on your pallet. Also, away from the color, place 1 drop of Blending Medium. With a shader, TIP in the corner of the brush into the Blending Medium and go back to the S-40 spot and, mix. Brush this on the ground in the lower portion of the cross, doing a small area at a time (less than 3inches), wiping back as you go. Continue until the entire grassy area is covered. Place your cloths aside, and put your brush on top.
Again, using a dropper, place 2 drops of the S-4 Jade on your pallet. Brush this color on each of the pine trees and one in front, group in the middle and the tiny ones at the base of the mountains brush on, small areas, wipe back as you go. When you finish all the trees, place your cloths aside, and put your brush on top.
Next, Take a wet one and wipe back the ends of the tree branches, where the snow would have fallen to give it a look of freshly fallen snow on the branch ends. Discard wet one and DO NOT LAY IT DOWN IN YOUR WORK AREA as this will remove paint if your cross happens to come in contact with it. Dry your hands before touching your cross again.
Place just under a dime size puddle of S-23 Mediterranean on your pallet, and 1 drop of Blending Medium off to the side, away from the color. TIP the corner of your shader brush into the blending medium, then into the puddle of the paint, mix. Paint the eagle with this mixture, avoiding his head and tail feathers. Brush on and wipe back small areas at a time. Place cloths aside and lay your brush on top.
With another, clean wet one, wipe the head and tail feathers of your eagle back to an ivory color. (If you choose to do your eagle like mine, in the picture, also wipe back the wing tips and I discovered after I did this that eagles have solid brown wings, but most people dont even realize that) If you choose to do brown wings, without the white, then do NOT wipe the wing tips back.
Put a drop of S-11 yellow on your pallet with a mini shader, pick up just a touch of this color, wipe the excess off on your clean cloth, and start at the horizon, by the eagle's head and pull yellow streaks out, like the early morning sun shine. Blend this slightly with either a blending sponge, blending tool from your applicator pack, or your cloth. As you blend, leave more color at the horizon than out in the sky. Do an area, just enough to represent a little peek of the sun coming up. Lay your cloth aside, with your brush on top.
You will be Wet Brushing in this step. Place 3 drops of S-10 on your pallet, (add more as needed). With your small shader brush, load the full flat side of the brush with this white color, flip your brush and load the other side. Take to a clean spot on your pallet, and pat lightly on each side. When you take this brush to your piece, you will want the Flat Side of your brush to lay white color on the tops of your piece. Somewhat similar to dry brushing, except that you are applying more paint to the piece at a time. ALWAYS USE THE SAME MOTION WITH EACH TOUCH OF THE BRUSH. If you brush from right to left in an area, do that every time your brush touches the piece. If you are doing the left to right motion, do this every time your brush touches the piece. DO NOT BRUSH BACK AND FORTH You are keeping your brush at a side angle, (horizontal) and using the full flat side of your brush as you touch the piece. Example, doing the tree tips, you will start at the top of each tree and stroke down to the bottom, only the ends of the tree branches. Continue this process until you get the color you would like. Pat lightly with your clean cloth to remove any excess paint.
Taking this same white, paint the eagle's head and tail feathers (& if you want white tips to the wing feathers, use the wet brush method described above to apply the white to the tips of the wings. Pat slightly with a clean cloth. With the white area on this cloth, go to the very tips of the mountains and very lightly highlight the tops, and the left side of these mountains only keep your highlighting on one side of the mountains. It does not show so much in this picture, but it is ever so slightly there. Lay your cloths aside and place your brush on top.
With your pallet knife, tip into your S-21 Mustard and place this on your pallet. With a mini detailer, pick up a tiny bit of this color and paint in the beak and the feet on the eagle. Pat with a clean cloth. Lay aside cloth, with brush on top.
Put just a drop of S-22 Magenta on your pallet. With a clean cloth, pick up just a tiny bit of this color. Rub together with a clean spot on the cloth. Go to your piece, between the word Isaiah, and your mountain, where you put in the yellow, ever so slightly add just a very, very light blush of this color to your sky. With this same cloth, add just a touch of this color to the base of the purple mountains. Set cloth aside.
Using another dropper, pick up two drops of S-17 Black and place color on your pallet. With a very small stylus, tip into this black and DOT the eye. And, with a mini detailer, carefully fill in any areas in the letters above that are not clear, so the words can easily be read. Pick up a clean cloth and touch lightly to the black color. Rub this together with a clean spot on your cloth. Take this to the base of the blue mountain in the back, just where they meet the purple mountains - again, as you did in the purple mountains, deepen with a tiny bit of blushing with the black cloth and do this just under the eagle on the base of the purple mountain – just in this one little area. Set cloth aside.
Take a good look at your piece at this point. If you have any spots that need cleaning up, use, first the cloth of the color you want to put on and blush as necessary. If you still are not happy with the results, then use the brush if necessary, in a Dry-brushing type motion. DO NOT PICK UP FRESH PAINT. If you pick up fresh paint and take it to your piece, you will only lighten the spot, as fresh color applied, lightens.
Check for finger prints and smudges. Your brush has dried at the same rate as your piece, so it is safe to use it to touch up with… just NO FRESH PAINT.
Once you are happy with your piece, Spray seal with the spray of your choice. Fashenhues Matte Spray is a beautiful matte spray and brings out the color well. If you use the Matte Spray, be sure to use Brush on Gloss Glaze over the eye and beak of the eagle. (For my sample I chose a Super Gloss Spray for the entire piece.)
CME wishes to thank Ruth Ann Jackson Perkins for her contribution of this beautiful project.
One source for bisque of this item is Jonie Keyser @ www.Facebook.com/Jonie'sCreationsPotterystudio
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