"love your mistakes, and the adventures that follow"
- Kim Mackay
TIPS TO MAKE THE PERFECT DOT
- Holding the tool
- Hold the tool close to the end you are using, to increase precision.
- Dipping
- Dip the dotting tool into the paint after each dot for perfection, or after every 2 dots.
- You only need to dip the tip in.
- If you get too much paint on it, do not try to scrape it off, it will still produce a perfect circle.
- Surface - (ie stone, canvas etc)
- Try and pick a stone that does not have holes or a rough surface.
- There is no need to seal the stone or prep the stone before using (when using acrylic paint).
- The smoother the surface the better the circle. Gentle polished stones provide a better surface than a raw stone.
- Be warned that highly polished stones make the dots look great, but are prone to the paint (and sometimes) the sealant chipping and breaking.
- If you are using canvas make sure you gesso it before painting or buy it pre-prepared or paint the background to ensure the paint doesn't bleed or spread.
- Certain paper will have the same effect. (ie Watercolour paper)
- Paint
- The best paint to use on stones is acrylic paint.
- Make sure your paint is thin enough (use extra water in the paint if thick).
- How to test the paint consistency? Tip the paint container, if it easily pours out, then it is thin enough.
- If the paint is too thick then the paint will not be applied evenly. It also will have a 'peak' on it.
- Sealing
- To seal the stones, please use either Mod Podge or a spray sealant.
- Cleaning
- Clean the tool to ensure old paint on the tool does not change the circular shape. See how to clean the tools.
- Patience
- If adding another dot on top of the first layer, make sure you wait for the paint to dry completely, before applying a top layer.
- If you lift the dotting tool off the surface too quickly, paint can splash out of the circle. Just slow down your application speed.
TIPS FOR MISTAKES - SMALL
- Dot is too small?
- Just add a larger dotting tool size over the top.
- The dots are not in an even pattern
- see Step by Step Instructions for tips.
- Ensure you start from the middle and work your way out.
- Often our mistakes are very obvious to us, and not to others. If you continue with this pattern, you will not notice one little mistake in the beautiful design.
- Use a pencil outline (protractor, dinner plate, pot) if you have a large canvas.
- The dots are not a perfect circle
- See above tips to make a perfect circle
- See How to Dot for the correct application.
- I made a mistake when following a pattern
- The best creativity happens when you veer off the pattern. Just embrace the mistake and make the pattern your own.
- I slipped and now one dot is odd shaped
- You do not need to make the design entirely of perfect circles, maybe use oblong shapes, lines, cone shaped, etc to hide it.
TIPS FOR MISTAKES - LARGE
- Wipe the area with water before it drys and hardens. If you have a polished stone, then this will be easy.
- Made a huge major mistake? Then just cover to whole area/stone with black and start again!
"Life isn't perfect and neither should your art be."
