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Linda N. BiedermannTDA
Gulf Fritillary ©2001-2003 - Instructions for Oil
468 Franklin Street, Springville, NY 14141-1148

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Details included for first time oil painters.
Satisfying project for all levels of painters
Genesis paint conversions

Surface: Wood, masonite, or canvas approximately 8" x 10".
Palette: Winsor & Newton Oil Paints:
Burnt Umber
Cad Scarlet
Cad Yellow Deep
Cad Yellow Pale
Ivory Black
Prussian Blue
Raw Umber
Sap Green
Titanium White
Yellow Ochre

Delta Ceramcoat Eucalyptus for green background

Brushes: Needed: #2, #8 short flats with excellent chisel edges
detail brush or small (#1 or 2) round with a nice point
small mop brush
I recommend Winsor & Newton Regency Gold 710 or 510 series brushes.

Other Supplies Needed:
3" sponge paint roller
Small piece of cheesecloth
Disposable plastic gloves
Lint free paper towels
2 pieces of Palette Paper suitable for oils
White and gray graphite paper
Wipe-out tool
Metal Ball stylus
Winsor & Newton Glazing Medium
Krylon 1311 Spray
Turpenoid Natural
Tracing Paper

Optional:
J.W. etc. First- Step
J.W. etc. Right Step- Semi Gloss & Gloss
Gold Leafing & Adhesive by Houston Art Inc.
Red Iron Oxide acrylic paint

Trace your design on tracing paper, taking care to copy all details accurately.
It is not recommended that you alter the pattern size as it is realistically sized as it is.
DO NOT put the pattern on until the background is completed and thoroughly dry.
Select your surface, then complete the Background. It is not necessary to seal the wood as the Acrylic Paint has a sealer in it. If you do prefer to seal the wood, I recommend J.W. Etc. brand First Step wood sealer.

Background:
Step One: Sanding
Sand the surface well with coarse sandpaper. (This may cause Masonite to appear to be rough or thready. This will be corrected with subsequent paint coats.) Wipe with a damp cloth.

Step Two: Acrylic Background
Apply three coats of Eucalyptus with a sponge roller to achieve
a smooth finish. Load the roller in the paint on a palette before applying. Cover the surface with paint, rolling in one direction, then roll again in the opposite direction. Be sure to paint the side edges of the board too. Dry between coats and sand lightly with Super Film or brown paper until surface feels smooth. Remove any dust with a used dryer sheet or lint-free
cloth. Do NOT wash the roller until done (unless it will have time to dry thoroughly before the next coat), put it in a plastic bag or saran wrap between coats. Board should be dry (no longer cool to the touch) before proceeding with a new layer of paint.

Step Three: Oil Rouging
Study your photo before starting this step, so you will know what effect you are aiming for. Put a small amount of Sap green, Raw Umber, and Cad Scarlet on a piece of palette paper. (The plastic lid from a margarine tub can be substituted for palette paper in this step.) Using your palette knife mix in a few drops of Turpenoid Natural with the paint until it is a creamy consistency. It should NOT be runny or inky. Put on disposable gloves if you want to avoid getting paint stains on your hands. Put a small amount of sap green on a piece of folded cheese cloth. Rub the cloth here and there on the surface to give it a mottled effect. Avoid rubbing too hard or in circular motions. Just rub gently to diffuse the paint. Fold the cloth to a clean spot and do the same with the Cad Scarlet, keeping it light so it fades into the background. Fold the cloth again and put Raw Umber on it. Rub Raw Umber heavily in the bottom right quarter of the surface so it will be darker behind the leaves and butterfly.

You will now need to dry the background. Whenever I say to dry the background, go outside and spray lightly with Krylon 1311 following the directions on the can. After your surface is dry, check the Raw Umber area. If it is too light, apply a second coat of Raw Umber rouging and dry again.
When the background is thoroughly dry, put the pattern on with graphite paper. Try white first, check to see if it shows, then try gray if it doesn't. Keep the graphite light and don't press too hard. You don't want a dent on the surface. For now, just put on the outline of each object. The details should be left off.

Read the General Painting Instructions page included with this packet before proceeding.

Set up a clean palette with a small amount (dime size) of each oil paint, then make a separate leaf green mix by mixing Prussian Blue with Cad Yellow Pale (1:1). Keep the paints about 2 inches apart around the edge of the palette paper.

BUTTERFLY:
Using your #8 flat, fill in the butterfly with Cad Scarlet. Put the paint on a little at a time, stretching it out as far as it will go. The paint should only be thick enough to cover the background. Brush mix a tiny bit of Cad Yellow Pale into the Cad Scarlet and blend this color into the top of each wing. Fill in the body and head of the butterfly with Raw Umber. Add a faint hint of Cad Scarlet to the center of the body.

After the shapes are filled in, carefully place your traced pattern back over the butterfly. Trace all the detail lines on the butterfly, using the small end of a metal stylus. Lift the pattern carefully. Your detail lines should show clearly in the paint. Use your stylus to draw parallel lines following the contour of the wings on the hindwings (bottom wings) so that the background color shows through.

The lines on the top wing and around the edges of the wings need to be painted in with black, using a detail or small round brush. (You could also use the chisel edge of a #2 flat.) Work slowly to keep the lines even and not too wide. Using a brush mix of Raw Umber and Black: add detail lines on the body, paint the antennae- keeping them very thin, then shade the sides of the body. The edges of the body should be fuzzy, not precise lines.
Being careful not to smudge the butterfly, outline the stems of the flowers and the three large leaves with Sap Green, keeping the lines thin and barely showing. Fill in the petals of the flowers with a sparse coat of White. Don't worry if the color is not pure. This is just a base coat to secure your pattern. Make sure no graphite lines are showing, then DRY the painting before proceeding.

BEACH DAISIES:
Use a #8 flat to fill in the daisy petals with white only as necessary to finish covering the background. Use Burnt Umber to shade and indicate flips, using the photo and chart at the end of the pattern for reference. Clean the brush in white paint and use pure white to add highlights. Don't worry if it doesn't look like the photo. You will add tints and strengthen the highlights as necessary later. Stipple the center of each daisy in with yellow ochre by pouncing the brush on the surface. Shade with Burnt Umber and Cad Scarlet or Cad Yellow Deep stipples around the edges where the center meets the petals. Highlight the top of the flower centers with Cad Yellow Pale and then white.

LEAVES:
Use a short flat brush. You will vary the leaf colors by brush mixing additional Prussian Blue or Cad Yellow Pale with the leaf mix (Prussian Blue + Cad Yellow Pale) you made earlier. Keep the leaf in the back the darkest and dullest. It should blend into the background. You can even let the background color show through it in spots. Add some black to a brush mixed leaf green/blue mix & use this to strengthen any areas that need to be darker. Add some Raw Umber and Cad Scarlet tints by applying a small touch of these paints and then blending in around the edges so just a hint of the color is left. (See photo.) The small leaf brackets around the petals should not be too uniform. They need to keep a windblown effect. Use your #2 flat or detail brush to fill the stems in with your green mix, then shade along the bottom sides with Raw Umber. Highlight the other side of the stems intermittently with a brush blended yellow-green mix, then with white. If your stems appear too solid or have too much paint on them, use the tip of the wipe out tool to carefully wipe out the centers of the stems. DRY YOUR PAINTING.

FINISHING TOUCHES
Put a few drops of WN Glazing Medium on your palette. Load your brush with a small amount of Cad Yellow Deep, then brush it through the glazing medium to dilute it. Using the detail brush, glaze this mix between the black lines at the top of the wing on the left. Hold the painting back and look at it. Using glazing medium, add other highlights to the tops of both wings if needed to make the butterfly look "sun-touched." In addition to Cad Yellow Deep, you can use Cad Scarlet lightened with some Cad Yellow Pale in smaller areas.

Using your #2 flat on the chisel edge add yellow and white highlights to the leaves and stems as needed (Check your photo and hold the painting back. Make it pleasing to YOU!) Add white sun sparkles to the butterfly's wings by dipping the corner of the brush directly into the paint and then touching the corner of the brush to the painting. Add some hints of color to the daisy petals, using the palette colors. Add a small amount of Glazing medium to the paint if it doesn't move easily.

Check your background. Does it need more roughing with palette colors? Does the area around the leaves in the bottom right need to be darker? If so, carefully brush on small amounts of paint and mop to soften until you are satisfied with the look.
Sign your painting, then DRY.

Put your painting in a spot where you will see it frequently during the next few days. Decide whether you like it the way it is or if the highlights need strengthening or the darks deepening, etc. If you keep your palette in an air tight container it will last for a few days. If the paint is dry, use new paint. If you make changes, DRY again.

OPTIONAL GOLD LEAFING OF EDGES
If your painting surface has a routed edge, your painting will be complemented by adding gold leaf to the edge. Base coat the area to be leafed with Red Iron Oxide Acrylic Paint, then follow the instructions on the leafing and adhesive packages. Inexpensive gold leafing can be obtained from Houston Art Inc., which provides detailed instructions. After the leafing process is completed, the edges can be antiqued by using your cheesecloth to rub on some Raw Umber oil paint.

VARNISHING
Oils will not be truly dry for several months after finishing the painting. I recommend that you wait at least three months, then varnish with J.W. Etc. Right-Step Varnish to preserve your work. At least two coats of varnish are recommended. J.W. Etc. has a product sheet called "Varnish For a Great Finish" which I recommend you obtain from them.
If you used gold leafing, the gold leafed part must be varnished with gloss varnish or it will get a tarnished look. If you don't like the glossy look for your painting you can put on a final coat of semi-gloss Right-Step just on the painting surface (not the edges) after two coats of gloss varnish has dried. The gloss varnish is harder and will protect your painting if you use it for the first few coats. If you have any questions, please contact me. Happy Painting and Keep Smiling!

© 2002 Linda Neilson Biedermann

General Painting Instructions for Oils or Genesis:

• You do not need to clean your brush when changing colors. (This is often referred to as painting with a dirty brush.) Just wipe it thoroughly by squeezing it gently between a folded paper towel. If you need to clean a dark color off the brush, dip it in white paint and wipe it on a paper towel until no more paint comes out. Repeat this until the brush seems almost clean, then squeeze it between paper towel again.
• If you get too much paint on the brush, just wipe it between paper towels. You don't want globs that are hard to move around. Remove any globs or big mistakes with a Wipe-out tool.
• If the paint does not seem to be moving well, you may need to stir it with your palette knife, wiping the knife between colors.
• Adjust your brush size if you don't feel comfortable. If a #8 seems hard for you to work with, try a #6.
• Don't dip the brush into the puddle of paint. Load the brush by putting the tip of the flat side down into the edge of a puddle, then pull out some paint to the side of the puddle. This is called a loading zone. This way your main paint puddle stays clean.
• To brush mix two colors together, pull out a loading zone from the lightest color, then load the brush from the loading zone of the darkest color. Go back to the light zone and mix the paint by pulling it through the loading zone only. If too dark, load more light. Too light, load more dark until you are satisfied with the color. Brush mixing, as opposed to pre-mixing values, creates variety in your painting. Just be sure that each object has light, medium, and dark areas to create shape.
• To blend between values within an object, place your brush on the line between the values. Using very gentle pressure, make an x motion, patting back and forth between the values. Wipe your brush often as the paint collects on it. Mop gently if necessary to blend. If it looks like a line or there is a sudden change you have not blended enough. Avoid going too far in from where the values meet so that you lose the value differences.
• If you get too much paint on the surface you can place a piece of one-ply toilet tissue over the area. Then softly mop over the tissue with the mop brush. Lift the paper up gently and you will see the excess paint has stuck to it. It is a good idea to check for excess paint before spraying with Krylon 1311 if using oil paints or heat setting if using Genesis. (Note: Never use Krylon with Genesis.)
• Throughout the painting process, refer to the photo of the painting. It is a good idea to tape it to your painting surface with some painter's tape stuck to it's back.

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