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I mentioned earlier about having a 'Canvas' for your 'Clay Painting'. Your canvas is just that; a 'canvas' that you will be clay 'painting' your design on. The canvas must be one of the stiffer clays mentioned and must be conditioned very well, rolled out on a #3 setting of your pasta machine and cut into a square, rectangle, circle, etc... whatever best suits your design. Before cutting your canvas shape, it is best to place the rolled out clay onto a flat metal baking sheet or flat tile. After cutting, cover it with wax paper (to keep the dust off) and allow it to 'set up' for about 12 to 24 hours. You will be leaving the canvas on the baking sheet/tile throughout the entire 'painting' process. The actions of layering , blending and adding final detail will push the canvas a little out of shape. Therefore, you will be doing one final cutting of your canvas right before baking. The canvas can be a background such as in 'Eagle' (black Premo) or 'Sea-Dragon' (black & blue mix Premo) where the image stands alone against a backdrop of neutral color.  <   Or the background can
be part or all of the image itself. In the 'Lion' (orange-gold mix Premo)
and 'Green Eyes' (pearl Premo), I used the Base colors of the lion and the
white cat as my canvas because the images were going to fill the entire
canvas. And in the 'Baby Harp Seal', I used a white Premo canvas because
it served not only as the perfect base for the Harp Seal but also for the
snow and the sky.   Preliminary layout:
I have drawn a white line all along the outline of this template. This white line represents the preliminary lines that are drawn directly onto the 'Canvas' using the 'pointed stylus'. Ignore the white template and try to imagine a drawn 'outline' of this same template upon the black 'Canvas'. This is your preliminary guide-line of your image and the 'Base' color will be spread out to cover the entire inside area of this 'outline'. You will then have your 'Base or Bottom' color for the image. So instead of cutting out a piece of clay template or molding a design as in sculpting; you are creating the design by actually 'Clay Painting' it onto your canvas. Image Base over 'Canvas':  So in observing this next picture, imagine you are spreading the Base/Bottom color of your image all within the confines of your stylus drawn 'outline'. Pay particular attention to the edges of your image as you want these to be nice and crisp unless they fade into the background. If you want this look, blend the very tips of the edges into the background with minute touches of the spade tool. >  This 'fading' technique works wonderfully with water. Any areas around the edges that are blended into the background, give the appearance of being underwater. In 'Water Lilies' I used this technique and also enhanced the 'watery look' by brushing a small amount of 'Verathane' on these areas after it was baked. We have now covered the basics of color layering and 'Clay Painting'. This next segment will share some tips and suggestions.
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Mary Lamoray
©2007
http://www.marylexhibit.com
We want to thank Mary for sharing this wonderful technique tutorial with Polymer Clay Central. If you have a lesson or tutorial, or something you would like to share with PCC, please email Leigh or Stephen and we will help you prepare your project for the PCC Website!