Brand New Folk Art workshop

The time has finally come! After a few setbacks over the last year, we are excited to finally announce our first brand new painting workshop.  If you came to visit us at the Handmade Fair recently, you will know that we have recently finished teaching a few Skills Workshops at the event and we definitely got a taste for it again.

Avid followers of You Can Folk It will know that we first introduced workshops back in 2016 but we had to take a step back due to personal reasons. That's why, after a bit of re-thinking and re-formulating, we are so excited to come back with a bang.  We have a fabulous new venue at Kempton Park and are excited to meet faces old and new for the fun filled, creative and inspirational day.

After over 20 years of painting, there is not a lot that we don't know! During the workshop, we will be concentrating on teaching each and every one of you have to use a Round Brush to paint three common Folk Art brushstrokes and learn how to put these together (just as you learn letters to put them together to write words) to create beautiful flowers and other designs that are not included in our Round brush series. Whether you are a fan of our kits already or are a complete beginner who has never held a brush before and you fancy learning something new, head on over to our workshop page.

These beautiful sunflowers are just one of the flowers Carol will be teaching on the day

However, the fun won't stop there, we ask that everyone who attends the course brings two small items; new accessories for the home or treasures that you have simply fallen out of love with to transform throughout the day.  These can be wooden, metal, glass or terracotta.  As well as learning the brushstrokes, we will also be taking you through the basics of preparing your project and creating a variety of finishes from using DecoArt's Weathered wood, antiquing and using metallic lustres to compliment your painted design.

We are kicking off our first round of workshops at Kempton Park but if you can't make the 11th November, worry not as we will be announcing more dates and venues for early 2018.  We hope to see you there!

How to... paint poinsettia's in 10 easy steps

Even though I've been painting for 20 years, I know that in my life time I won't learn everything there is to know about Folk Art & Decorative Painting. 

The ethos of You Can Folk It! is that in each series we will teach you a different set of skills and once you've completed lessons from each series (there will be 3 in total) you will have a the basic foundation of most skills. This is because just like cooking a recipe, most designs use a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  

Here I will be showing you how to paint this Poinsettia using skills that you've learnt in both Series No. 1 and Series No. 2. 

Step 1: To start with, print the pattern and start by transferring the leaves and petals marked 1 & 2. 

Step 2: Paint the leaves marked 1 using Avocado (from our series 2 paint palette) and the round brush. 

Using comma strokes, paint from the inside to the tip. (Note use your liner brush for the tip of the leaves if you are struggling to get a fine point). 

Once these are dry, use the white transfer to transfer petals marked 2 over the top of your design. 

                

Step 3: To paint the petals, because red is a transparent colour (any colour that does not have white added tends to be transparent) we need to paint the petals white first.

Step 4: Once the white has dried, add a touch of soft black (part of our Series 2 paint palette) to tomato red and paint the petals again.

Step 5: Again, once this layer has dried, transfer the petals labelled 3 and repeat these steps with just tomato red. 

Step 6: To paint the centre, add soft black to the tomato red until it is slightly darker than your first layer of petals. Fill the middle using your round brush. 

Step 7: We now need to 'shade' any areas that are behind something else in order to create dimension. As this petal is behind one in front we are going to 'float' soft black to create the shade (I teach you how to use this technique on the DVD's contained in our Series No. 2 Babushka and Cupcake kit) 

Here I've used the transfer paper to re-transfer the lines so I know which petals are in front of the others. You can see where I have floated the soft black to create the shade.

Step 8: Now, to create more depth, we need to highlight the petals that are at the front. I have floated a lighter colour (DecoArt's Americana Cadmium Orange) on the edges of the petals. I have also floated some colour on the very tips of the petals that are behind.  

TIP: One of the most common mistakes to make when creating a highlight using floated colour is to use colours that contain a lot of white. Doing this only works if the colour you are highlighting contains white also.  When highlighting tomato red, we do not have a lighter colour in the series 1 & 2 colours that does not contain white which is why orange was used. 

(NOTE: We stock a wide range of DecoArt Americana colours and you can purchase the DecoArt Matte medium and flat brushes separately if you didn't want to invest in a full Flat Brush Starter kit.) 

Step 9: Next, I used the large end of the dotting tool and yellow ochre (from our Series 1 Starter kit) to dot in some large and small dots in the centre. Once dry I placed a smaller soft black dot in the centre of the larger dots. 

Step 10: Once I'd put the dots on, I felt it needed a bit more 'pow' on the highlights - so I side loaded the round brush with Cadmium orange (as taught in the Series 1 Vintage Rose lesson) and applied it along the edge of the top petals. I then used a toothbrush & soft black to splatter the finished design before adding to the greeting card.

Once you've practiced your poinsettia, try painting it into a mount board square. If you are pleased with the result, you can add it to a greetings card, attach it to a gift bag or note book or use it as a gift tag and you have a little something that will mean just a little more than something you bought from the shop. 

Happy Folking,  

Carol xx