Today I will share with you the process of making one of my lacquered miniatures.

Can easel painting be transformed in a miniature? Of course, it can! :) This is very popular, because we can keep old traditions using a new technology of our century, we can rework and present works of easel painting in a new perspective, making them smaller and more decorative, rediscovering these works for ourselves and others.

I will use an easel painting of the famous English painter George Dunlop Leslie. I will work with a decorative applied item, a papier-mache jewelry box for storing sachets. The picture is called "Pot-Pourri". The painting depicts a domestic genre, two charming girls, sorting the petals of dried plants. I chose this story because it is very suitable for this box, which will contain four pouches with herbs (scented sachets).

Tools and materials:

A box blank

• Brushes:

- a synthetic round brush № 2, 3, 4, 7 for underpainting;

- a synthetic round brush № 1-4 for repainting and glaring;

- a synthetic thin brush № 1-2 for painting small details;

- a squirrel round and flat brush № 4, 8 for flicking;

- a synthetic brush № 22 for lacquering.

• A palette
• Sandpaper from № 400 to № 1200
• A drafting pen
• A diverging pattern
• A pencil, an eraser, a ruler
• Tracing paper
• Turpentine
• Flax seed oil
• Oil paints
• Tempera paints
• Gold powder (paste)
• Aluminium powder
• Lacquers: PF283 and Sinteko
• Cotton fabric
• Polish

Box is custom made of papier-mache by an artisan. The product can be different, it all depends on the imagination of the artist. I chose a traditional square box with borders.

The size of the box: height — 8cm, width — 20.5 cm, length — 20.5 cm.

First you need to pull out the iron hinge of the mountings of the box. It is easier to prepare the body of the box for painting and lacquering without it. Sometimes it is quite difficult to take out the hinge from the mountings of the box, so you can use pliers.

Polish the body of the box with sandpaper to get a matte surface. Use medium-grain sandpaper No. 600 in order not to scratch the surface. It is more convenient to wrap a wooden block with sandpaper, so the surface is polished with the same pressure and more evenly.

Then remove dust from the surface with a damp cloth.

Apply PF283 lacquer on the dried body of the box using a synthetic brush and when the lacquer becomes sticky make the pounce.

Then let the product dry and remove all the excess powder under running warm water. You can use a sponge.

You need to cover the whole black body of the box with paint, except the place for painting. I picked the most suitable color based on the color of the painting.

For a tint I took polyvinyl acetate tempera paints: cobalt blue, cadmium yellow medium, light ochre and titanium white. I mixed them together in a jar with a small amount of water and covered the body of the box with a brush and a sponge. Tempera paints dry quickly, you can secure the painted surface with Sinteko lacquer.

You also need to cover the upper part of the box for painting (not less than 3 layers with drying and polishing).

Next you need to polish all the surfaces covered with lacquer. Polish them to a matte condition with sandpaper and a small amount of water.

Transfer the pattern on tracing paper. Tracing paper is placed on the drawing. Use a pencil to draw the background, shapes, clothes, the table and vases... If the pattern can not be seen clearly through the tracing paper, you can oil it a little, it will become more transparent. After the drawing is transferred to tracing paper, turn it with the side where there is no pencil, and prime with oil paint (natural umber) in those places where there is a pattern. Apply the painted side of the tracing paper to the surface of the box so that the mountings are on top, and the drawing is in the middle of the surface of the box. The picture should look harmonious on the surface of the box, it shouldn't be too offset to the right or to the left. Using a diverging pattern transfer the pattern on the surface of the product. After the pattern is transferred to the surface, you can begin making the background.

The next stage is called underpainting, the first layer of painting. Underpainting fixes the main color, the overall volumes, common shapes, shadows are painted without details. I made the main color spots.

After the underpainting is made, let it dry completely for several days in a warm room or in a drying oven. Cover the dried painting with Sinteko lacquer using a flat synthetic brush in several layers with drying. Polish the surface until it becomes matte. Move on! :)

Let's proceed to the next stage — repainting. Repainting process includes deepening of shadows and brightening of the light, making the foreground, painting faces, hands, dresses, tables, vases and the floor.

We repeat the same process as before, dry the painting, lacquer it, dry again and make it matte.

The next stage is called glaring. During this process I paint shadows with transparent paints, make thick, juicy glares, paint faces and the foreground in detail. Sign the work.

Dry the painting and cover it with Sinteko lacquer using a flat synthetic brush in several layers with drying. Polish the surface of the box with a fine-grained sandpaper №800 or №1000 and water so that the surface becomes matte and smooth.

I decorate the body of the box.

I make a tartan geometric pattern on the body of the box. For this you will need oil paints and gold paste. Dilute oil paint and gold paste with flax seed oil to a liquid state and fill a drafting pen with it, then make thin straight lines, for convenience, you can use a ruler. Dry the product in a drying oven.

You can cover the dried body of the box with Sinteko lacquer, make an even layer using a flat synthetic brush, there must be several layers with drying. During covering with lacquer the paste and the paint should be dry and not lubricated. The entire body of the box is covered about 15 times with drying between layers.

When the surface is dry, it must be polished with fine-grained sandpaper №2000, with the addition of water and flax seed oil.

Then polish the body until it gets a mirror shine. It is usually polished with "chrome oxide" oil paint with the help of felt or a cotton pad. You can use car polish.

Insert the hinge. The hinge needs to be polished a little with fine-grained sandpaper so that it goes easier in the loops. The box is ready! :)

In painting it is important to follow the step-by step guide.

This work, made in a lacquer miniature Fedoskino, is perfect as a gift and will serve as a wonderful functional everyday object, as well as an interior decoration.