Weapon of choice

Hello my friends,

The first post of this month and already march is almost over. It shows you how busy I have been these last few weeks. No mini-time at all alas. But luckily I had a workshop in my  agenda so that this month is not completely lost for miniatures. Last weekend I attended another Workshop for porcelain painting. I used this day to finish up the four tile tableaux I started in januari. 

So the 'weapon' in this posts title refers to the paint brush! My 'personal weapon of choice  would most probably be the pen, but since I write almost everything I do on the computer I probably pick up brushes more often than pens nowadays... So the brush it is!

In january I ended up with these four  tableaux. The four drawings I prepared in pencil in advance were 'inked' during thAt workshop and the red was already added to the Zonneschut family crest.  When these were fired in the kiln afterwards, the little morcels of Pritt buddies that sticks them on the tile underneath evaporated into a powder. 

So the first job this day was to brush away all that powder, clean the large tile and the 84 little ones, and stick them all back onto the large tile with new pieces of Pritt buddies. that process was going on in the picture below. 

After these preliminary tasks the workshop could begin un earnest for me. We were at Cocky's house with the same group of people as in january. It is a great group of people and we had a lot of fun in between the more serious subjects we discussed around the workshop table. And it happened a few times that we suddenly all fall silent while concentrating on our miniature porcelain. But as soon as it was time for tea, a snack, or a little pause, we resumed the trail(s) of conversation where we had left off.

Just as with the making of the Tableaux of the two princes last year, this time I added colour and shades to fill in the line drawings. This gives them body and some depth. The clouds were difficult to do because they were not drawn previously but had to be made by using a paint brush alone. With one brush you add some small C-scrolls in paint onto the blank sky. Then with a dry wide brush you lightly brush over them to brush them out and lift off some of the paint again. This way I try to make it light and airy. Cocky showed me the method and told it is the same or at least similar method used to paint clouds on antique tiles. It was fun to do, and more importantly, another technique learned. 

At the end of the day The result was as you can see in this picture. Four tableaux waiting to be fired for the last time. The three landscapes are intended for the kitchen and the crest carried by the hounds wil go in the fireplace of the steward's office. 

That is it for now. I end the post like I started it, with another close up. Just remember that when you look at these enlarged, that the 5 tile width of this tableau equals just 5 centimeters or two inches. :-)

The next workshop will be in early June. For now I have made enough tableaux. Next time I will decorate a few plates or a pair of vases.

Hugs, 

Huibrecht