Terracotta Decorating Tips!…

This is intended as a guide for people who might like to brighten up terracotta, as there is a market for this as well as just enjoying it in its regular form.

You can have a lot of fun doing this and really, it is quite easy to do. So, what items do you require for this? A black felt tipped pen, scissors, a soft pencil, masking tape, tracing paper, cartridge paper and some poster paint markers, which are fine nibbed, plus another one with an extra broad nib.

Poster paints are such a handy and useful item to use for creativity. Well, for instance, you can use them on material and wood, not only on terracotta, and they produce a good finish. They permanently mark any porous surface.

I would not chance washing them though! If you use plastic, rubber, glass or surfaces that are non absorbent you can change your design, but they would not be permanent. So, this does give you freedom, somewhat.

Say you have a surface that is a non porous one, you could, in this scenario, achieve a permanant finish by applying a covering of acrylic varnish.

So, let’s begin on working out your designs! To do this, use the cartridge paper and poster paint markers. Get experimenting with whatever colours you may have and your chosen shapes. You will most likely need to do quite a few designs to make your choice from.

Before you get around to painting your chosen design, first look at your design against the terracotta. Remember, it has to fit a certain space. The next step then being to get your tracing paper and draw the outlines of your design with your black felt tipped pen. Position them on your article, but make sure that you leave a space around the outside of your design.

These need keeping in place with doubled over masking tape. Then you can move them around to your hearts content. So, now this is it, drawing your design on to the terracotta. Remove all your motifs and draw them freehand.

So, now say you have finished doing all your outlines, the next step is to get out the colour markers and start filling in. It is all too easy to smudge your work with your hand whilst doing this, so beware! Luckily enough, the markers do dry quickly.

Take a quick look at your sketches and, with a fine nibbed paint marker, fill in the insides of your sketches. From then it is possible to fill in your motifs with a second colour. Use the broad nibbed pen to fill in your backgrounds, but just take care when you are anywhere near the motifs.

Ensure that you leave a small area all round each motif that is not painted and when you paint your background there is no need to take your paint right to the top or bottom edge, but you can enhance your work by adding some kind of fancy edge.