THIRD FIRE

Put a medium wash on the background around the main design with Mauve/Black. Again, taper this as it goes down to the bottom of the piece. You don't want the background to be as strong at the bottom as you do at the top. Be sure that this color is washed over the stems and the dark shadow leaf.

Fire 014 or 015

This is for the design with the band on it.

Decide how wide you want your band and how far it should be from the edge. Mix Mauve/Rose Leaf Green with enough turpentine to make a soupy consistency. Don't get it so wet that it will run. With this mixture, make the band using a banding wheel. Carefully wipe out the design from the band. Be sure that your brush is dry so the turpentine wont bleed into the band. Also, be sure that you leave the band color in the gaps in the background. If you don't, this will be the first thing to draw the eye away from the design.

Fire 014 or 015.

FOURTH FIRE

For the next two fires, we will only be adding color in the darkest depths. In other words, we will be enhancing the color, not shading it, although that is what we will call it. You will be wiping out the highlights again but since they should be very well established in the preceding fires, all you want to do is lighten the color on the soft highlights and keep the sharp ones strong. The strong highlights can be a little softer than in the first two fires so that there are no hard edges on them, but they must be a lot stronger than the soft highlights.

Again, the instruction for the leaves and the grapes will be the same. The background will be for only the design with the background.

Put a medium wash of Mauve/Black over the background behind the design and taper it down. Lighten as you go around the piece so that the bottom will be very light.

Put Black over the dark shadow leaf and wipe back the stem. Mix Black with Rich Brown and put this in the darkest shadows of the two leaves that are under the main design. Add touches of Mauve/Black to the turn-back on the left leaf and add some Rich Brown or Rose Leaf Green to the top of the turn-back on the right one. Wash a little Mauve/Rose Leaf Green over the tips of the left leaf.

Mix Chocolate Brown and Yellow Brown for the shadows on the yellow grapes. Add a touch of Mauve/Black to the darkest ones. Wipe out the highlights and then put a very light wash of Mauve/Black over the grapes that are the farthest back to gray them and make them seem even farther behind the others.

Mix a bit more Black to the Mauve/Black and paint the darkest grapes. Add a little less Black to the Mauve/Black mix and work the mid distance grapes and use Mauve/Black alone on the upper grapes. This is done on all the grapes and use Mauve/Black alone on the upper grapes. This is done on all the grapes whether they were originally Blue Violet or Mauve. Wipe out only the strongest highlights unless you have added more color to the soft highlights and then these must be softened. Gently go over the reflected lights so that you won't lose them but don't make them as strong as the highlights. You will only need a hint of light to keep the roundness and also to divide the grapes. Add a very light touch of Baby Blue to the weaker highlights of the grapes with a blue cast and Mauve to the ones with a redder cast.

Use Chocolate Brown on the darkest shadows on the yellow leaf on the left side. Add a touch of Mauve/Black to Rich Brown for the darker shadows on the right yellow leaf. Use Rich Brown mixed with a little Black for the darkest shadows on the topmost leaf. Use Mauve/Black very lightly for just a hint of shadows on the weird leaf.

Strengthen the main stem with a little Rich Brown and Black in the darkest areas only.

Fire 014, 015 or 016

FIFTH FIRE

This fire is only for touch-ups, which should only be in the cast shadows and the extra color in the highlight areas. Add a bit of depth on the yellow grapes using a mix of Mauve/Black with some Rich Brown mixed on the brush. Use Black alone for the dark, dark shadows on the rest of the grapes and anywhere it is needed in the deepest shadows on the leaves. Be sure you don't get it real heavy or it will overpower your design. Lightly wash Baby Blue on the highlights that have a bluish hint to them and Mauve on the ones with a purple tint to the highlights. If you need any more color anywhere, put it where necessary.

This should finish your grapes designs. If you need more color after they are fired, add more anywhere it is needed, using the same colors that were used in this lesson.

Fire 014, 015, or 016.

NOTE: I decided that I didn't like the way I did the right half shadow leaf on the piece with the background so I washed Mauve/Black over it to push it into the distance. It should have looked more like the leaf on the other piece but since I goofed, I tried to hide the mistake this way.

BACK TO FIRST FIRE

BACK TO SECOND FIRE