Painting designs...somebody school me...

Folks, I'm a hopin' you can help...for the past two years I've entered W'crafts Santa contest and when it comes time to finish my creation I struggle with the carving being to plain...I've got the initial painting and antiqueing downpat but just need to find some resource ideas on painting patterns on a Santa such as what you would see along the edge of his coat, etc (Nancy_G has some good examples of this in the gallery). So folks where does one get ideas for patterns to paint on a Santa? :-/

Thanks,
Tony

Go to wallyworld, and K-mart and wherever else you can think of and look at their xmas decorations......many, many ideas there!!

Another source you can do from where you're at right now is go to ebay and do a search for hand carved russian santas. they have a ton of them and if you look at them every few days, there's always the same ones/style. My opinion is they're machine produced, but some of them look very nice!

If you're looking for a border design - one to go along the edge of a Santa robe ......... well, I just make mine up :

On 1/4' graph paper draw something --- let's say a heart. Then draw a diamond above the V shape at the top of the heart. Draw a sprig of holly on each side of the heart. Make certain the sprigs are exactly the same size on each side and exactly the same distance from the heart. (Doesn't hurt to use tracing paper here). Then repeat the design over and over .... add some lines to tie it together and dots to fill in spaces and it's done.
I'll try to do a quickie, scan it and put it on our PictureTrail site to show you what I'm trying to say.

Beautiful borders can be found just about anywhere -- cross stitch, ads, magazines, there are even Dover books on border designs.

I did that quickie and posted it
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...&members=1
What I'm trying to show is you can take one item and sort of build around it to arrive at a border. Using the graph paper keeps everything the same size and in-line.

For my own stuff I just make a graph paper design 3 or 4 'blocks' long, color the back with pencil graphite to make carbon paper and transfer it to the wood. Then I wood burn the design but that wouldn't be necessary.

Questions welcome

[Teri_Embrey]

That's cool, Nancy. Good idea. If you're shy about painting, you might also try woodburning various patterns along the edges of the robe - crosshatching, woven look, bunches of lines going in one direction, then another....anything like that that adds 'texture' can make a plain robe look great.

Teri

...I was right in asking you (that's obvious by your work)...that definitely helps. The pieces I carve are generally on the smallish side (under 8')...I would most likely use fine point paint pens since Berol puts out some good ones...thanks for the info and Nancy nice work on the design, next time i'll just have to break out the graph paper...

[Callynne]

Wow Nancy! Thanks for sharing that tip, I would never have thought to draw it out on graph paper!
Tony, her borders are WONDERFUL! What you wouldn't believe if you saw them in person is how tiny she can paint them. I'd have that Santa against the tip of my nose, trying to see what I was doing....oh...that's probably my problem...I need a smaller nose!
And, of course, for scenes on Santas, Teri is the absolute expert!! Isn't it great, we can come here and learn from people who are masters of this craft!! Callynne

...I have to second that thought Calleyne...

...its amazing how simple ideas can improve ones abilities...as far as the nose thing goes my heritage does not allow for smaller....but like I said check out paint pens by Berol at your local Art store (most craft stores only carry thicker pens) where they carry minute pens even in gold...these could be useful for just this purpose...

I buy graph paper in BULK . I draw all my patterns on graph paper because it makes matching the front and side patterns exactly so much easier.

If I'm going to need an unbroken border around the hem of a robe (there's no fur center line or anything to break the design), the design MUST be an exact size or it won't fit perfectly. (who's anal :-[?). So I measure the hem with a little strip of 1/4' graph paper to determine the exact circumference. Then I fold that strip in half, in half again, in half again, in half again, as many times as I can. Each fold line shows me how much space I have for a 'block' of a design.
Did I make any sense?
Does anybody care?

Just you wait until I try to tell you how I make beards.