Welcome to the iartsupplies blog, from iartsupplies.co.uk; where you will find hints and tips about the artists’ materials and crafting supplies that we sell, all made by Royal Talens in Holland.
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As a cupcake addict and always baking cupcakes with my daughter or on my own, I soon decided that I should take this addiction of cupcakes and produce through art and craft rather than adding on the calories myself. As I am an Artist and Cardmaker I have the skills and passion to create beautiful things I enjoy, plus I have the access to various art materials which I love to experiment with. I came up with the idea of creating a nice cupcake on canvas and decided I would use the Decorfin Glass Paints, making something more fun and for all those cupcake addicts out there.
I started off sketching a couple of cupcakes looking at images of cupcakes from magazines, recipe books, table mats and so on.
Below shows my sketches to give you an idea how I started off.
I kept it simple and defined shapes to allow me to work with Glass Paints. The simple shapes in the sketch gives it quite a modern feel, allowing it to make it easier for me to transfer this image to canvas. I used Talens Van Gogh (Artist Level) Sketching Pencils to sketch this cupcake. Below is just another cupcake sketch I intend to transfer into Glass Art.
From here, I took the first sketch and transferred the cupcake to canvas by copying it over with my sketch graphic pencils. See below.
I then went over the lines of the sketch with the Decorfin Relief Paint using colour Light Gold no.802. Once the firt layer was dry I went over the lines for the 2nd time to make the lines thicker, allowing more paint to used. Once dry, it looked like this below.
From here, I then chose the colours I wanted to use; Fushcia no.350, Yellow no.200, Light Brown no.401, Blue Violet n0.548, Olive Green n0.620 and White opaque no.126. I chose to use tone down each colour to create a pastel tonal cupcake making it very girly and pretty yet, I did use the Blue Violet around the frame of the canvas and, Fushcia for the cherry as this is rather dark pink, almost close to a red used straight from the jar onto canvas. You will see below a few images on different angles showing you the frosting and sponge of the cupcake.
I made the frosting Pink and toned the shade down to lighten creating some depth. The yellow was mixed with the Opaque White to produce the sponge of the cupcake. The circles that are left white (above picture) are the sprinkles which I have painted, just this is how it looked before painted in. I added on additional sprinkles using an array of sequins and beads to give some dazzle!
Below, you will see the cupcake with the painted sprinkles. Here I used the Blue Violet no.548 and mixed with the White Opaque to lighten. Also in this photo below you will see that I have framed the image on the canvas with a outline of relief paint, Light Gold no.802, to frame the whole design. I did this for two reasons; one, beause it frames the image itself and means that you do not have to put a frame around he canvas and two, because it acts as a slip itself that you would normally sometimes have in between the frame and the canvas to finish off. Some people prefer unframed paintings and others do not so, this was my idea of a painted frame around the outer edge of the canvas.
I painted the cupcake case using the Light Brown no.401 and mixed with White Opaque to lighten and the strips between the brown I painted the same as the sponge colour, giving definition and depth.
Above is the final Glass painted canvas. You will see that I have created spots in the background to finish the design off, rather than keeping it plain. I did not want to leave plain as I felt it needed something to give a bit of decorativeness. I feel the cupcake really pops out now, now that the image is framed with the Blue Violet straight from the jar and, the spots being there in the background. Around the spots I painted white with the white opaque, again straight from the jar. This just adds to the glossiness of the whole design and evens it all out as a whole. I am really pleased with this Glass Art project and have more designs in mind that I am already sketching out .
Look below for a few more pictures of this project on different angles.
Below, a close up of the cupcake frosting. Along with the cherry on the top.
Flowers – Glass Art
I really enjoy working on canvasses, using the Decorfin Glass Paints. It is really intriguing to see how the Glass paints turn out when used on the Royal Talens Stretched Cotton canvasses and, watching the glass paint turn from wet to dry and leaving a gorgeous smooth glazed finish.
Below you will see I have uploaded stages of this project – Flowers as my choice of subject – and see the outlining of each flower done with Gold Relief Paint. I had drawn out each flower lightly in pencil then, went over each with the out liner and, allowed to dry overnight before pressing on with the Glass Painting.
Once the relief paint was dry I started to use the fuchsia (350) and yellow(200) glass paint 50ml to fill in the empty spaces of the flowers. I started off using the fuchsia and used a thick Decorfin brush to get started but, I then used a very fine Decorfin brush, thick enough to fill around by the edges, and filled in by the edges to complete the petals. I left over night and allowed to dry before using the yellow glass paint. The next day,I then filled in the outer parts of each flower and used the Yellow glass paint. Again used a thick brush and a fine brush too so, could keep it tidy and perfect. Once filled in with the yellow I again left to dry overnight.
(Below, you will see the soft smooth glazed finish of the Glass Paint once dry). No medium was added on top of the glass paint here as I used really thickly and just shows you do not need a decorfin glass medium to make it look this way. Glass Medium does allow for the colour to become more transparent and less concentrated while it leaves a coat on top of the colour to finish for protecting decoration, varnish!
The images just give you an idea of how the glass paint really does become so smooth and reflective and allows you to see the glazing effect it leaves once dry and, this is without any medium put on top to give a glaze.
If the paint goes over the out-liner please do not worry about it as you can touch up with the relief paint again once paint is dry. If it is another colour blending into another colour though, then that’s a completely different matter. You really do need to watch when painting the edges and ALWAYS remember to use a very fine brush, the finest that you have.
Above, shows you the Decorfin Red Glass paintused and, to look at on first glimpse you would not know it was Glass paint but, it truly is and you see this once you see the sheen where the light hits it. Above just allows you to see the colour used within the shapes of relief paint. You can see that I lost a little control and the red glass paint went over one or two of the lines but, at the end I went back and went over that line again with relief paint to finish.
Below, shows you one of the flowers, all 3 flowers were painted by this point, and you can see that I have painted on little flowers for embellishing. this was to bring in some detail to each of the 3 flowers. I have used the Rembrandt Acrylic Pearle-scent paints for all these little flowers and varied placement of each little flower in different pearlescent colours; red, blue, purple, green & yellow. I used a fine brush for these but not too fine and found this therapeutic. I did the same on each of the 3 flowers. Then afterwards I filled in the edges of the flowers using the orange glass paint and allowed to dry. Once dry I came back and tidied up any little areas that were need finishing off to meet my needs of perfection of glass painting.
Below – From another angle.
Below, are photos of the project not completed but, not far from it as I have paper roses to make for the centres.
You will see that the canvas below uses the Glass Paint Yellow (200) for the outer edges of the flowers. Also, the background of the canvas here – which is really hard to capture by the capture – I used the Pearle-scent Yellow ( 818) Rembrandt Acrylic 40ml but, because of ts pearlessence you can not really the colour but, when the light hits it in the room the colour shimmers away just beautifully and, sets of well alongside the glazed effect of the glass paint.
Above, Close up of one of the flowers. You can see all the little pearlescent flowers I hand painted myself with the Rembrandt Acrylic Pearlescent paints, also you will see the fine white dots done using Opaque White Relief Paint.
The various angles of photos of my canvas allows you to see the effect when the light is hitting it, natural light.
I plan on developing my design ideas and turning some into actual scenes somewhere done th line. I love glass painting and seems to be quite unique what I am doing, especially on my hand-crafted cards.
I urge those who enjoy art and craft to try these glass paints out and let us see how you get on.
Natalie Jane x
I feel like we have skipped spring and hopped straight into Summer what with the beautiful sunshine we have had for weeks now.
Flowers have flowered and many I see are about to bloom in our garden. there is nothing quite like a pretty and colourful garden while the sun is blazing down on us.
Our Nelson (cat) has been adventuring around our garden for a few weeks now and loving it and prods about over our beds of flowers. It makes such a difference to get outside and enjoy the sun and colour in the and what more, the colours and textures soon inspire us to get creative in art and craft. Makes me smile 
.
I am beginning to get the inclination and urge to pull my brushes out along with my glass paints and watercolour paints and get going. I just do not know what to do as my next project so, going to go think what to do and jot down ideas. if you have any ideas to help me please do leave a comment with any ideas here. Thanks!
Happy Painting and Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter Weekend!
Natalie x
A quick catch up from “Get Crafty” a craft group based in North London. The sun is beginning to shine and it certainly brings out the colours of the glass paints – people are getting inspired! It’s been great to see just how creative folk are beginning to get! The vase above was painted by one of our members who a year ago had never done any glass painting, she suffers from depression and getting out of the house, picking up a brush and using the Decorfin range of paints has been really theraputic.
I love the card designs you’ve posted, we are looking to do some more card making after Easter. Thanks for all the support and inspiration – Phil
It has been some time since I have been on here and, I am ready to come back and create and share the many makes I make this year using some of our products.
Plan to experiment with the Ecoline Inks – as never used in all honesty – and get back to the Glass Paints and Watercolours too, might have to use the Van Gogh Watercolours as well as the rembrandt watercolours so, I can talk about the differences of their pigments.
I hope to see Artists or card makers, craft people in general too, who buy from us using the products and showing us your work. We would LOVE to see what you paint and create using the Royal Talens products.
I do have a project which I have not finished and plan to finish when I can so, that I can share the canvas make I started last year. Just not had chance to get back to it and, when my Mum said my DD Ava pulled It out to show my Mum I thought to myself “I really really must get that finished!”.
Natalie x
“Ballerina Wall hanging”
I have created this handcrafted card for a particular person, bearing in mind what this person likes. I am still creating this simple butterfly shape for my cards as it is very easy and quick to do. I used silver relief paint as the outline and once dry I used the following Glass Paints Fuchsia with Opaque White, mixed to give a pastel shade of pink, and Olive Green with Opaque White, again mixed to give a pastel shade of green. I could however, use acrylic paints to create this butterfly, re-creating what I have here, or even use watercolour paints to create a more delicate & fine butterfly. I keep saying this kind of thing but, never actually do so, maybe I ought to just to show you what you can more in card-making by using artists materials.
“BirthdayWallhanging”
I was commissioned to make a Birthday card recently and, above is what I have created for the recipient.
As much as I would have liked to use particular images that I knew I could use I decided to use my skills and use the Talens Glass Paints as part of the card design. I ahve produced the most simplest Butterfly toppers and adhered the smaller of the two on top using foam squares creating dimension. I used Olive Green with Opaque White and, Fuchsia with Opaque White to get the most beautiful soft pastel shades to balance with the Papermania Rose Garden paper chosen. I used Light Gold Relief Paint as the outline and left to dry for a couple hours, until tacky so that I could press on with it. Now I would have loved to create other glass painted toppers as embellishments but, never had the time.
I then used a range of patterned floral papers and, layered between card to create a bit of depth and interest. I then finished by embellishing with various paper roses, ribbons and gems. I added on the name of the person and a Birthday Wishes Die cut sentiment as didn’t have much room left to make my own one. I added on last the little die cut butterflies and relief-ed with foam squares to give them height as if flying into the centre.
Looking at this now makes me want to go and produce a BIG canvas and create something either the same or similar using the Amsterdam Acrylics and Rembrandt Pearlescent Paints and paint the whole design here. But, this would take me months to do. You know what?…I think I might just try and translate this into a canvas using paints and see what happens.
This is the back of the wall-hanging for the person to their message.
“Fairy Wishes”
Having the use to so many Artists and Hobby Craft Materials in our house and, having the skill to use various materials I have the joy to create artworks and cards using the wide range of supplies that we have in stock, at an arms length away too.
My love of watercolour painting has been a love of mine since I was a young teenager and, I have worked with various brands of Water colour. But, for me Royal Talens Rembrandt Watercoloursare by far the best I have come across. The purity and richness of colour is striking and very vivid making them so lovely to work with. You can see the richness of the colours in the stamped fairy I have painted in with my WC paints. I woul;d never dream of using Winsor & Newton, Galleria or any other brand again. Talens paints really do take over from the other brands and the quality is far better as well as price too. You sure do gte your moneys worth.
You do not necessarily have to use WC paints to paint images. You could opt to use the Liquid Ecoline Inks as these are quite similar to watercolours just, that they are in Ink form and are water based. They are designed for graphic artists, illustrators and graphic artists also. Ideal for card-making I think too. The fluidity of them, from which I have seen, is just something else. I have not yet used them but, have a bag filled with the full range. Really need to sort my shelves out and get them on show and hopefully encourage me to use and apply in my card-making! Ecoline Liquid Inks are very popular on our website and we have sold many plus, Ecoline sets, overseas.
Butterfly – Happy Birthday
This card I have made was more of an experiment than anything else. I wanted to make an aperture and have my glass painted butterfly topper overlaying the aperture in some way. I created the Butterfly topper using colours 350 Fuschia and 126 White Opaque, each colour used on a different size of butterfly. I used Gold Relief paint as the outline of the topper. I painted the toper with the glass paint thickly, straight from the jar. As you acn see the glass paint colours are extremely rich and pure.
I worked the butterfly with some yummy delicate papermania red hot papers and created an aperture allowing to see the patterned papers on the inside of the card, giving more interest. I overlay the butterfly on the layered rectangle sitting over the aperture creating the effect of the glass painted butterfly, as if about to flutter off the card. I used lots of pretty paper flowers and a couple of die cut sentiments also and decorated the inside. You could also, though, use acrylic paints to craete this butterfly if you would like or any other painting medium.
Well it was meant to be a gentle start back to a new term of our glass painting classes but our new glass paints are proving very popular and word has spread! The aim was to use up the last of the supplies of our old glass paints but now that folk have seen the quality of the Decorfin range, they don’t want to use the old stuff! The range of colours and the finish compared to our old supplies really does make a difference. We are also discovering that a little goes a long way!
Our craft class really is a mixed bunch – from over 60′s (indeed some over 90′s!), some guys from a hostel next door and local folk, like Rolanda in the picture above, a local mum who just wanted something to do and who has proved to be quite an expert! Today in our session, we introduced the Decorfin relief paint (outliner) for the first time and found them really easy to use. My only problem is that everyone wanted to use them and I only ordered 5 as a starter to try them out! Thanks for the prompt delivery… I shall be ordering more soon… otherwise I’ll get trampled in the stampede!
Thanks again for the help and support in giving the classes a “new term” boost.
