Craft Painting FAQ

Place tracing paper over the pattern you wish to transfer. Neatly trace the main design lines with a pencil.

Position traced pattern on project, then slip a piece of transfer paper under tracing paper. Retrace the design. Hint: When retracing design lines, you can use a different color pencil or pen for your second tracing so that you can see if you have traced all the lines.

Remove tracing paper and transfer paper to reveal the transferred design.

Cool colors are all the colors on the Green and Blue side of the color wheel. Yellow, Yellow/Green, Green, Blue/Green, Blue, Blue/Purple, Purple are all cool colors. All colors on the color wheel can be both warm and cool except Orange.

Transparent colors are thinned with medium or water to create a wash or a glaze of color that you can see through to the underlying surface.

Warm colors are all the colors on the yellow and red side of the color wheel. Yellow, Yellow/Orange, Orange, Red Orange, Red, Red/Purple, Purple are all warm colors. All colors on the color wheel can be both warm and cool except Orange.

A technique used to clean the brush without rinsing it in water. Place your brush between the folds of the paper towel, press down and gently pull the brush out.

Intensity is the strength or concentration of a color.

Value is a color's lightness or darkness in relation to the black and white gray scale.

Hue is a color or shade of color in a perticular range.

Neutrals are pure earth colors such as grays, tans and browns. These colors tend to be subtle and can be used easily with other colors.

Shade is a color to which black has been added to darken or lower the value of the color.

Tone is the relative lightness or darkness of a color.

Glaze is a transparent or translucent layer of color applied as a wash over another color or surface to slightly alter the tone, temperature or value of an area.

Tint is a gradation of a color made by adding white to it to lessen its saturation.

Glazing is a technique where a transparent layer of color is applied to an area. Use glazing to strengthen highlights or shadows or add slight tints of color.

To Glaze: Mix 1 part FolkArt® Glazing Medium to 1 part FolkArt Acrylic color. Apply glaze over surface using a soft cloth, wipe off excess if desired.

Opaque is color that covers the surface sufficiently so that you cannot see through it.

Reverse painting refers to the technique where painting is done on the back of clear glass (such as a plate) but is seen through the glass from the front. Therefore, the design is painted in reverse, with details first and basecoat last. When you have painted a clear glass plate with this technique, food can be placed onto front of plate.

Scumble is a thin application of opaque color scrubbed over an area to change the tone, temperature or value.

Translucent color is semi-transparent. It has been thinned with medium or water, but is milky, frosted or foggy and can only be seen through partially.