Monochromatic Santa
by Penny Nangle

Note from Marci: Penny sent me a picture of this Santa and I absolutely fell in love with him and asked if I could use him for the lessons. Penny captured the twinkle in his eye to perfection and the glow on his face looks like he is standing in front of a fireplace , getting ready to fill some stockings.

Penny wrote: I am sending you a picture of the black and white Santa I did a while back. There isn't much instruction to it. Black, black, black, and black. haha
I love to paint Monochromatic paintings, as they are a great way for anyone to learn to see where shading is applied... I saw this Santa in a magazine article and I just had to paint him in black and white.
Colors: Black-Black-Black and Black (Note from Marci: If you have trouble with your blacks popping off, you might want to add some other color of dark paint into your black....black green, dark blue, dark brown and purple all work well.)
Start with a light wash of black to set up your shadows.
I work my brush into the black paint and then I wipe it off before applying it to the china. This makes a gray color which will be your highlight color in your finished piece.
Paint a small amount of black in these shadow areas each time, until you are satisfied with the effect. (No fair counting how many fires)
Look for where the shadows are and paint only these areas each time. This adds depth with each firing.. Don't paint over the whole painting each time. Sorta like painting all of your painting the first time and three-fourths of it the second and half of it the third time and a forth of it the forth time.
After that, just punch in the darkest shadows as needed.
It took 8 fires to complete. So be patient with yourself.
My layers of paint were put on thin each time to get the soft glow...

Santa Hugs, Penny In Indy