Want to look into a fairy-tale? See firsthand how an ordinary stone turns into a warm cosy house for a fluffy squirrel, luxuriously decorated with lush clusters of vermilion ashberry and leaves of real gold? Today I'm happy to share with you the technique of creating a pendant with painting decorated with gold leaves in the technique of Fedoskino lacquer miniature.

Like any form of art, coming from inspiration, the final result was unknown to me in the process of making, but the idea to paint a fluffy hostess of the autumn forest gave me a hint to choose a white and reddish agate stone for the base. I picked up a photo of a cute squirrel which is preparing for the first winter frost. And to give the picture the picturesque colouring of golden autumn days, I decided to use gold leaves of the highest standard, as well as warm shades of oil paints.

It's quite difficult to shot each stage of painting qualitatively, my camera cannot transmit all nuances of shades and brush strokes, so I tried to compensate the shortcomings of the optics for the clear description. You are unlikely to learn how to draw miniatures in this tutorial because miniature painting is a thorough work, much practice, patience and perseverance, which make art, but you will succeed in understanding the technology of this craft. I hope that those who will be inspired to create a similar Fedoskino lacquer miniature pendant, you will find much useful in my tutorial!

In conclusion, the painting technique I use was passed to me by my dear teacher — Svetlana Belovodova (she is the first who started to paint stones in the technique of lacquer miniature). As far as I know, today different artists use their special favourite materials and techniques, but I will try to explain the main points used by the majority.

Materials:

1. Agate stone for the pendant.

2. Oil paint (Leningrad Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Transparent Mars Orange, Madder Lake Red Deep, Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Lemon, Titanium White).

3. Linseed oil for painting.

4. Brushes:

- synthetic 2, 2,5;

- kolinsky 0, 1, 2.

5. Two-component machine varnish for topcoat, PF-283.

6. Needle file with diamond coating, 1200 sandaper.

7. Gold leaf.

8. Golden acrylic paint.

9. Bale for pendant.

10. Auxiliary materials: palette, сloth for wiping brushes, tracing paper, paper, photography, thinner for washing brushes.

1. Preparatory work

Print a picture of the squirrel of the size you need; draw the outline of the pendant on tracing paper with pencil. When painting, I prefer relying on the photo that is stored on my phone or tablet (so that you could enlarge the details and see the colours better, if necessary), and the printed image helps to preserve the proportions.

2. Outline the squirrel on the tracing paper trying to accurately convey all details. I wanted to vivify the picture, so I draw the leaves and clusters of berries of mountain ash in detail.

3. Grind the agate pendant from all sides (including the sides) in circular motion with the needle file for better adhesion of paint with varnish. Apply a drop of linseed oil to the surface of the pendant where you will draw with your finger and evenly spread it. There should be enough oil for comfortable drawing, but not too much. Then turn the tracing on the reverse side and outline the pattern using colours close to the picture with the tip of a thin brush — thus, you get a pounce.

4. To remove extra paint from the pounce, imprint the countour against a blank sheet of paper a couple of times, and then carefully transfer the outline to the stone.

5. Proceed to the stage of painting called zamalyovok (underpainting)

Paint the white breast with сlear, short dabs using the tip of brush 1. On the palette, mix burnt and raw umber and draw the eye, outline the nose and mouth, ears, and feet. For the legs and face, I used cadmium orange and mars orange transparent. In those places where you need to put more paint, I add a little white or burnt umber to the main colour (depending on the shades you have). Paint the tail with longer and more gentle strokes, use lighter coluourr closer to the tip of the tail.

There where the fur is grey and where you can see folds on the body and the contours of the legs, I applied a little white paint mixed with raw umber (a light grey colour came out) to preserve the colour of the stone and make the drawing translucent. Gently spread the paint throughout the body of the squirrel slightly dabbing it with dry synthetic brush 2 in soft circular motions; but try to keep the visible lines of hairs on the tail when flicking.

After that, work out the branches and the edges of the leaves of the mountain ash in detail; add new leaves with white and orange cadmium, which have 'asked permission' to decorate the stone. Cadmium red light matched the ashberries prefectly. When the composition is finished, dry it in the oven at 65º C for not less than 6 hours.

6. Cover the pendant with varnish for the finishing coating using synthetic brush 2,5 and then send it in the preheated oven for 1 hour. After a short grinding of the painting with sandpaper 1200 up to smooth matt surface, proceed to the next step of miniature painting — peremalyovok (overpainting).

7. Overpainting

Those parts of the image where you are going to paint golden leaves with the thin brush should be covered with varnish PF-283. Wait until varnish languishes a little and then put small pieces of gold with dry brush. To perfect the shape of the leaf, use a wooden toothpick - it will help to 'regrind' the extra details. In 15 minutes, carefully wash off all extra pieces of gold with soap and water and leave the pendant to dry out in the oven for at least 1 hour.

8. Slightly oil the stone and begin to refine the squirrel. Use the colours that are as close as possible to the picture ones; make the elements in the background darker, in the foreground — lighter, and remember about light reflexes on the ears, tail and body contour. Give more detail to fur with short thin strokes, use smooth long strokes for the tail. Remember to preserve the transparency of the work so that the squirrel amd the stone seemed indivisible, not like some sticker on te surface.

9. Having added volume and shades to the ashberries and slightly detailed sprigs with shadows and highlights, I got down to the leaves. Before working with gold leaf, you can dry the whole painting in the oven, cover it with varnish and only then start painting, so that when an error occurs you could wash off the paint without damaging the shining surface. You can paint right over the gold if you are confident in your skills (what I did in this case). As it's better to use translucent paints over gold, I draw the outline of the leaves with a thick paint (mixture of white with various yellow and orange colours) — so I enlarged the size of the leaves and 'undermined' their shape. Next what you do is getting inspired with the flight of your fancy — feel free to use any warm colour where you find blank spaces near the gold strokes, also paint over gold with glazing paints. Due to this, the leaves would come out very picturesque — the rays of the sun are shining, and the image fascinates with rich shades.

An important detail — I painted the weed, on which the heroine is standing, with short and smooth strokes at the same time, and after complete 6 hours drying in the oven, I added a fallen gold leaf to the leg of the squirrel with acrylic paint. After that, dry the painting for 1 hour and varnish. One more 1 hour drying, polishing with cloth, oiling and proceeding to the final step of painting — blikovka (highlighting).

10. Highlighting

In my opinion, one of the most interesting types of miniature painting decor is 'cloud'. It can be done on the step of highlighting. Apply a thin, layer of thin mixed white, orange and yellow paint, flick and then drip on it with thinner chaotically. Interesting, fluffy stains come out. Then refine the highlights and shadows with more dense strokes, add shades where you wish, put a highlight on the squirrel's eye, paint the whiskers, gently paint the detailed reflections on the fur and outline of the body. Work the gold leaf lying on the ground in more detail, if you wish, add gold acrylic paint on the sprigs of the mountain ash. Dry the paint, varnish, and then make the finishing topcoat in two layers from all sides of the stone. After the final coating, drying for at least 6 hours in the oven is required.

11. Here is how the finished pendant with the bale looks like. It doesn't need any polishing as it shines brightly and no dust or bubble has got in the coating. In my opinion, the painting is very cute, warm and beautiful, with noble gold rays of the sun flickering. Perfect for fans of boho style and all unusual.

Wish everyone sunny mood and much thanks to you for your attention! If you liked this tutorial, I would be grateful for clicking Like!

Love,

Anna Zimorodok