Here are a few tips that will make your painting work a little easier and hopefully, help you to achieve your art goals.

Floating Tips

When you use DecoArt Brush-N-Blend Extender or any Medium for your floating, try to work on getting just the right amount in your brush. What you want is a good load that goes all the way through the hairs but isn't sloppy on the brush.

If you use water be sure to have a damp paper towel folded in fourths laying near your painting station. Dip the brush in the water then gently blot the brush on the damp towel. You want to see the high shine disappear but not remove all of the water in your brush. In time you will automatically know when the moisture content is correct but at the beginning you will need to make a concious effort to get the load "just right".

When you dip the corner of the brush in the color, only pick up a tiny amount of paint then blend on the dry palette (I like a Styrofoam plate best) be very sure that the clean corner is touching the palette a fraction of a second before the paint corner does. Then repeat this blending motion over and over again. It could take four blends or fourteen. Look at what is happening on your palette as you blend, what you see there is what you will get on your surface. Look at the brush and make sure that the color has traveled only half way across the hairs. Now gently pinch out the clean corner just a tiny bit. Don't pinch hard, it's more of a swipe to remove any color that has traveled over to the clean corner.

Now go to the surface and use some pressure to apply the color where you want the float to go. Use short, overlapping strokes to go the length of the floated area. Blot the brush on that wet towel and with the softest lightest touch and one long stroke go through the floated area once.

Let this layer dry as you work on other areas of your design then go back and do the float one more time just exactly as you did before. This second layer will make all the difference in the world to your painting.

Note: When you're in a class and the teacher comes and shows you how to improve your float, the difference may very well be that she's doing a second layer and that is why it looks so good. So just plan to do a second or maybe even a third layer on your floats. Just be certain that each layer is well dried before you apply the next layer.

More to come.............................