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Linda N. BiedermannTDA
Gulf Fritillary ©2001-2003 - Instructions for Genesis Heat-Set Artist Oils
468 Franklin Street, Springville, NY 14141-1148

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Complete details for those who would like to try Genesis for the first time

Surface: Wood, masonite, or canvas with approximately 8" x 10" painting surface.
Pine is not recommended because it has a lot of sap which may come out during the drying process

Genesis Paints:

Delta Ceramcoat Eucalyptus for green background
DecoArt Hauser Medium Green + Celery Green mixed in a 1:1 ratio may be substituted.

Brushes: Needed: #2, #8 short flats with excellent chisel edges
detail brush or small (#1 or 2) round with a nice point
small mop brush
I recommend Winsor & Newton Regency Gold 710 or 510 series brushes.

Other Supplies Needed:

3" sponge paint roller
Small piece of cheesecloth
Disposable plastic gloves
Lint free paper towels
Wingate palette (can also use glass, ceramic, or smooth marble palette)
Palette-sized container with lid
White and gray graphite paper
Wipe-out tool
Metal Ball stylus
Turpenoid Natural
Genesis Heat Set Varnish- Satin
Genesis Heat Tool
Optional:
J.W. Etc. Satin Varnish for finish after painting

Note: Throughout the instructions the OIL names of paints will be given. Set up your palette with the following Genesis equivalent mixes & label them with the oil color name before starting the painting. Use a palette knife to blend the paints thoroughly. The percentage of paints used for the mixes is in parentheses after the paints used, for example (1:T) means 1 part of the first paint listed plus a trace of the second paint listed. You need only a small amount of paint. Each pile or "puddle"should be dime sized at most. Since Genesis doesn't dry until you heat set it, these mixes can be saved for other paintings.

Winsor & Newton Oil = Genesis
Ivory Black = Carbon Black 01
White = White
Burnt Umber = Flesh 02
Raw Umber = Raw Umber + Flesh 02 (1:T)
Cad Yellow Pale = Bismuth Yellow + Diarylide Yellow (5:1)
Cad Yellow Deep = Diarylide Yellow
Prussian Blue = Pthalo Blue 01 + Pthalo Green 01 (1:T)
Yellow Ochre = Yellow Ochre + Burnt Sienna (1:T)
Sap Green = Sap Green or mix Permanent Green04 + Flesh 02 (2:1)
Cad Scarlet = Pyrole Red 04 + Pyrole Orange 04 (3:1)

Make a separate leaf mix by adding Cad Yellow Pale to Prussian Blue a small amount at a time until a neutral green is achieved. (approx 1:1).

Trace your design on tracing paper, taking care to copy all details accurately.
It is not recommended that you alter the pattern size as it is realistically sized as it is.
DO NOT put the pattern on until instructed to do so.

Select your surface, then complete the Background. It is not necessary to seal the wood as the Acrylic Paint has a sealer in it. If desired you may prep the wood with Genesis Air Dry Gesso, then sand before painting with acrylic.

Background:

Step One: Removing sap from wood
Sand the surface well with coarse sandpaper. (This may cause Masonite to appear to be rough or thready. This will be corrected with subsequent paint coats.) Wipe with a barely damp cloth. (Do NOT use a tack cloth as it contains oil.) Put the painting surface on a cookie sheet on the middle rack of your oven. Heat your oven to 265 degrees, then leave the piece in it for about 15 minutes. If any oil comes out of the wood, wipe the board with alcohol and let it dry again before proceeding. (This step is a good idea even when painting with oils. Heating the surface gets rid of sap, which could later harm your work.)

Step Two: Acrylic Background
Apply three coats of Eucalyptus with a sponge roller to achieve a smooth finish. Load the roller in the paint on a palette before applying. Be sure to paint the side edges of the board too. Dry between coats and sand lightly with Super Film or brown paper until surface feels smooth. Remove any dust with a used dryer sheet or lint-free cloth. Do NOT wash the roller until done (unless it will have time to dry thoroughly before the next coat), put it in a plastic bag or saran wrap between coats. Board should be dry (no longer cool to the touch) before proceeding with a new layer of paint. Heat in oven again as in Step One above.

Step Three: Oil Rouging
Study your photo before starting this step, so you will know what effect you are aiming for. Put a small amount of Sap green, Burnt Umber + Black 2:1, and Cad Scarlet in three separate piles on a piece of palette paper. Using your palette knife mix in a small amount of Genesis Glazing Medium with the paint to make it a creamy consistency. Put on disposable gloves if you want to avoid getting paint stains on your hands. Put a small amount of the diluted sap green on a piece of cheese cloth. Rub the cloth here and there on the surface to give it a mottled effect. Avoid rubbing too hard or in circular motions. Just rub gently to diffuse the paint. Fold the cloth to a clean spot and do the same with the Cad Scarlet, keeping it light so it fades into the background. Fold the cloth again and put Burnt Umber + Black mix on it. Rub this heavily in the bottom right quarter of the surface so it will be darker behind the leaves and butterfly.

You will now need to dry the background. Whenever I say to dry the painting, use your heat gun to dry Genesis. After your surface is dry, check the BurntUmber area in the bottom right corner. If it is too light, apply a second coat of Burnt Umber rouging and dry again.

When the background is thoroughly dry, put the pattern on with graphite paper. Try white first, check to see if it shows, then try gray if it doesn't. Keep the graphite light and don't press too hard. You don't want a dent on the surface. For now, just put on the outline of each object. The details should be left off.

Read the General Painting Instructions page included with this packet before proceeding.

BUTTERFLY:
Using your #8 flat, fill in the butterfly with Cad Scarlet. Put the paint on a little at a time, stretching it out as far as it will go. The paint should only be thick enough to cover the background. Brush mix a tiny bit of Cad Yellow Pale into the Cad Scarlet and blend this color into the top of each wing. Fill in the body and head of the butterfly with Raw Umber, making it darker around the edges. Shade around the body with Burnt Umber. Add a faint hint of Cad Scarlet to the center of the body.

After the shapes are filled in, carefully place your traced pattern back over the butterfly. Trace all the detail lines on the butterfly, using the small end of a metal stylus. Lift the pattern carefully. Your detail lines should show clearly in the paint. Use your stylus to draw parallel lines following the contour of the wings on the hind wings (lower wings) so that the background color shows through.

The lines, and then dots, on the top wing and around the edges of the wings need to be painted in with black, using a detail brush or the point of a small round brush. (You could also use the chisel edge of a #2 flat.) Work slowly to keep the lines even and not too wide. Using a brush mix of Raw Umber and Black: add detail lines on the body, paint the antennae, keeping them very thin, then shade the sides of the body. The edges of the body should be fuzzy, not precise lines. DRY the painting before proceeding.

Outline the stems of the flowers and the three large leaves with Sap Green on a liner brush, keeping the lines thin and barely showing. If necessary, add a very small amount of Genesis Glazing medium or Turpenoid Natural to thin the paint. Fill in the petals of the flowers with a sparse coat of White. Don't worry if the color is not pure. This is just a base coat to secure your pattern. Make sure no graphite lines are showing, then DRY.

BEACH DAISIES:
Use a #8 flat to fill in the daisy petals with white only as necessary to finish covering the background. Use Burnt Umber to shade and indicate flips, using the photo for reference. Clean the brush in white paint and use pure white to add highlights. Don't worry if it doesn't look like the photo. You will add tints and strengthen the highlights as necessary later. Stipple the center of each daisy in with yellow ochre, then shade with Burnt Umber stipples around the edges where the center meets the petals. Highlight with Cad Yellow Pale and then white.

LEAVES:
Use a short flat brush. You will vary the leaf colors by brush mixing Prussian Blue or Cad Yellow Pale with the leaf mix you made earlier. Keep the leaf in the back the darkest and dullest. It should blend into the background. You can even let the background color show through it in spots. Add some black to the leaf green mix and use this to strengthen any areas that need to be darker. Add some Raw Umber and Cad Scarlet tints by applying a small touch of these paints and then blending in around the edges so just a hint of the color is left. (See Photo.) The small leaf brackets around the petals should not be too uniform. They need to keep a windblown effect. Use your #2 flat or detail brush to fill the stems in with your green mix, then shade along the bottom sides with Raw Umber. Highlight the other side of the stems intermittently with a yellow-green mix, then with white. If your stems appear too solid or have too much paint on them, use the tip of the wipe out tool to carefully wipe out the centers of the stems. DRY YOUR PAINTING.

FINISHING TOUCHES
Mix a small amount of Genesis Heat Set Satin Varnish with the Cad Scarlet Mix. Using the detail brush, glaze this mix between the black lines at the top of the wing on the left. Hold the painting back and look at it. Add other highlights to the wing if needed to make the butterfly look "sun-touched."

Using your #2 flat on the chisel edge add yellow and white highlights to the leaves and stems as needed. (Check your photo and hold the painting back. Make it pleasing to YOU!) Add white sun sparkles (very small dots applied with the tip of the liner brush) to the butterfly's wings. Add some hints of color to the daisy petals, using the palette colors.

Check your background. Does it need more roughing with palette colors? Does the area around the leaves in the bottom right need to be darker? If so, carefully brush on small amounts of paint and mop to soften until you are satisfied with the look.

Sign your painting, then DRY.

Your Genesis palette will stay moist so you can continue using it. Cover your palette to keep it dust free. A cardboard box, like a small pizza box is ideal as a palette keeper. Do not cover with plastic wrap as Genesis will break down plastic over time. Put your painting in a spot where you will see it frequently during the next few days. Decide whether you like it the way it is or if the highlights need strengthening or the darks deepening, etc. If you make changes, DRY again.

Genesis does not need to be varnished, but if you like the varnished look, for either oil or Genesis, I recommend J.W. ETC satin varnish. You can also use the Genesis Heat Set Varnish that was used in the glazing process.

If you have any questions, please contact me. Keep smiling!
Linda

© 2002 Linda Neilson Biedermann

General Painting Instructions for Oils or Genesis:

• You do not need to clean your brush when changing colors. (This is often referred to as painting with a dirty brush.) Just wipe it thoroughly by squeezing it gently between a folded paper towel. If you need to clean a dark color off the brush, dip it in white paint and wipe it on a paper towel until no more paint comes out. Repeat this until the brush seems almost clean, then squeeze it between paper towel again.
• If you get too much paint on the brush, just wipe it between paper towels. You don't want globs that are hard to move around. Remove any globs or big mistakes with a Wipe-out tool.
• If the paint does not seem to be moving well, you may need to stir it with your palette knife, wiping the knife between colors.
• Adjust your brush size if you don't feel comfortable. If a #8 seems hard for you to work with, try a #6.
• Don't dip the brush into the puddle of paint. Load the brush by putting the tip of the flat side down into the edge of a puddle, then pull out some paint to the side of the puddle. This is called a loading zone. This way your main paint puddle stays clean.
• To brush mix two colors together, pull out a loading zone from the lightest color, then load the brush from the loading zone of the darkest color. Go back to the light zone and mix the paint by pulling it through the loading zone only. If too dark, load more light. Too light, load more dark until you are satisfied with the color. Brush mixing, as opposed to pre-mixing values, creates variety in your painting. Just be sure that each object has light, medium, and dark areas to create shape.
• To blend between values within an object, place your brush on the line between the values. Using very gentle pressure, make an x motion, patting back and forth between the values. Wipe your brush often as the paint collects on it. Mop gently if necessary to blend. If it looks like a line or there is a sudden change you have not blended enough. Avoid going too far in from where the values meet so that you lose the value differences.
• If you get too much paint on the surface you can place a piece of one-ply toilet tissue over the area. Then softly mop over the tissue with the mop brush. Lift the paper up gently and you will see the excess paint has stuck to it. It is a good idea to check for excess paint before spraying with Krylon 1311 if using oil paints or heat setting if using Genesis. (Note: Never use Krylon with Genesis.)
• Throughout the painting process, refer to the photo of the painting. It is a good idea to tape it to your painting surface with some painter's tape stuck to it's back.

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