Watercolors and Getting Started

Get yourself a set of Winsor Newton Travel Watercolors, A block of watercolor paper that is Hot Pressed and a #3 Sable brush.

The travel kit of colors have 10 – 12 colors, all you need to start designing your enameled project. A block of watercolor paper is just that. The stack of paper’s edges are glued together, because when it gets wet in normal conditions of painting with water the paper would warp , and it prevents that. Hot press is more likely to warp but it is a smoother paper than cold pressed. Great for small painting of detail. And I find a #3 sable brush is a good size to get the job done without spending on several brushes.

Now get busy and start playing!

Cloisonne

In designing you cloisonne fine jewelry here is something to keep in mind. I want to show you what happens in cloisonne as wires attract heat and cause the base meal to distort.

This is a cloisonne piece I am currently working on and thought it          

would be a good opportunity to show how things can move.

If you are prepared for this you can make it work to your advantage.

There is a concentration of wires in the top left of my design. As I am layering in my enamels the cloisonne jewel starts to bow up in this area.

Here you can see the top left of the enamel piece is higher, and the right base of the enamel piece is bowing. This is common in Cloisonne. And can cause several problems if not dealt with. One, as you have planned your warm colors in the high area you could sand it all off while trying to make a nice even dome. Second in setting the right side will be higher and maybe your bezel will not cover the same as on the left side.

And the farther you go without knowing and planning more can go wrong. The counter enamel also likes the heat and will pool under this area, and can cause the enamel jewel to start sinking.

As the points of my piece are lifting and the center starts going down I know I have reached the limits of layering in the enamels.

Happy Enameling!

Light Up Your Watercolors by Linda Stevens Moyer

Great book on watercolors. She uses the white of the paper to stay bright as we would use our fine silver. Adding warm colors and light to make the information come forward and shadows to help you see the layering.

I wanted to add here if you get this book and do the exercise she has for you, it helps you understand more about layering colors to achieve bright colors. Afterwards practice layering in enamels. Yes make color plates and layer some colors as she did. But enamels have to layer in a different order.

Water colors can layer yellows first then reds and pinks followed by the darker colors, like blues and greens. In enameling our warm color burn out so we need to leave them toward the end. So you just have to apply this in reverse. I start with the darkest colors first. Then medium and light colors. As I layer and fire I leave out the darkest color and continue with the medium and light colors. And finally have my lightest color last.

So enamelist add fluxes to the last layers to fill the cell. I have had this get cloudy on me so I continue with color just very light. The warm colors you can start adding about half way through the project using flux for several layers then jumping into the yellows oranges and reds.

Soon, I will photo color charts and discuss this more! Check back.

Great Book!

Shading in Enamels

Hi Patsy
Just enjoyed viewing all of your designs! Do you have any suggestions on shading within the cells of your cloisonne or know of any publications I could read to help me out?

thank you,
Wendy Edwards

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for visiting and I am happy to try to help. I can not recommend one book for this but I can say for me it took time. I was a Fine Arts Major in school and only used pin and ink. My love was drawing. When I first saw cloisonne I was hooked forever and begin a quest to learn colors.
I photographed everything that was of interest to me. When diving, hiking, walking, always carrying a camera. With these photo I made albums to use as resources. I would take a month or so at a time and draw and paint till I got the impact I needed in my art. It takes time to look and see the colors.There is more than one or two whites in a white flower petal.

The Huma Huma on the front of the site has 29 colors from blue to green. My color plate of pinks has at least 20 colors on it. Now I know this is way too much for many artist but if I lay these colors next to each other I can create a beautiful image.

A book of watercolors I used is “Light Up Your Watercolors” by Linda Stevens Moyer. She has a couple of exercises you can try, and she uses her warm colors to bring the information forward. Also try “Colored Pencil Fast Techniques” by Bet Borgenson. She teaches Juxtaposing Color which is great for color impact. You can use her exercises in watercolors as well.

And come join us in Mendocino Art Center this July as we will be focusing on color, color impact, and how to get it!I

Happy Enameling! Patsy

Designing

Wendy,

I wanted to mention when you are designing look at these images. Think about the turtle and the pelican. If you squint your eyes and look at either in the photos you took it is easier to see the turtle as it is dark in the middle of the piece = the turtle and the water right around it is light. The pelican is harder to see as it is very close in color value. The pelican and the background.

Also something that helps make a design show up is to use complementary colors to help off set the desired image. As in this color sample.

Happy Enameling!

Patsy

Watercolors

A great way to get a better idea if your

enameling will deliver what you imagined.

I begin my enameling classes with an introduction

to watercolors. Because I enjoy imagery  in my work,

it is not as spontaneous as some. At one time I completed

my jewel to be made in colored pencils.

In searching to improve my artistry I could not find classes

devoted to colored pencils and discovered watercolors.

They use washes and layering. For me the layering is most like enameling, where I apply a layer of enamels and fire before applying another color,  they apply a layer of color and let it dry before applying another.

One book that was useful to me is “Light up your Watercolors” by Linda Stevens Moyers. In her book she starts color with the medium color = value, then going to her warm colors = interest points, and then the cool colors this being her darks. We need to layer in a different order as our warm color would burn out. So I try to apply them in the order of cool colors – my dark color first, and  medium color = value colors and last the warm color to produce the impact of color.

Happy Enameling!