Painting a Tray in the Zhostovo Folk Style

1. Sketch flowers in a composition. There are two options: do it right on the tray with chalk or drawing on tracing paper, then transfer.

2. Lay the first coat: sketch the composition with a flit-brush.

3. Here the most difficult begins. Overlay shadows with glazes (called tenezhka). And then lay paint thicker revealling the volume of flowers and leaves. More details for central buds.

4. Tenezhka and thick layers of paint of all the colors on the tray. Then put the tray in a dryer.

5. The thick layers. At this stage, you make more detail, that is, paint light places with paint. Then highlights — white strokes clarifying the volume. And finish with "drawings" and "bindings" — their lines go along the contour of leaf and petal, underlining the elegance and liveliness of the flower. And twigs, "binding", smooth the transition to the background.

6. Continue the work.

7. The stage — the completion of tracing all flowers. This photo shows the binding well, small blades of grass fill the empty space, gather the composition.

8. The pictorial composition is finished.

9. The item is ready! Finishing — 2-3 coats of varnish with intermediate drying are applied, drying needs a certain temperature and takes two hours and cleaning of each layer before applying varnish.