Folk art flowers in a flash - Painting for school craft stalls for fete or Mother's day

Simple quick and fun designs to paint

These simplistic flowers are done freehand, in a flash using a # 3 or #4 round brush and some acrylic gouache. I used Brilliant violet, Magenta, Yello light and Pine Green. A basic " comma" stroke with some centre stippling is all the technique needed. ( see further instructions below)

All these items cost less than $1.00 as a raw material. Base paint was leftover house paint or acrylic gouache itself. Teenage and tween girls go ga-ga for them, so they could be equally useful as a inexpensive birthday gift (to be teamed with some pencils, erasers, or sweets), or as a $5.00 item in a school fundraiser/ Mother's day craft stall. The fridge magnet can be embellished with any number of sayings appropriate to the target audience: Mum's cafe: Open 24 hours, Girls only.... etc.

 

My second projects are just now cooking in the oven. I used glossies to paint white ceramic ovenware to create a Japanese/Scandinavian effect. Glossies need to be cooked in the oven to make them permanent. 

I hope this simple projects provide some inspiration for your fundraising efforts.

Comma strokes are created with a brush fully loaded in acrylic paint thinned to the consistency of cream with water.  

N.B.It is important to hold the brush straight up at a 90 angle to the project, not as you would a pencil.

  1.Press down on the brush to flatten the bristles, ( right down to the    ferrule if necessary for a wide stroke such as on on teapots shown here)

  2. Pause to allow the bristles to fan out...

3. Gradually lift the brush, (allowing the bristles to come together again) and direct the  brush tip away from you making a tear drop shaped comma stroke. The emphasis is on gradually. If you lift the brush too quickly, the end of the stroke will be blunt and not tapered nicely. 

So remember, press, pause and lift.