How To Do Emboss Painting

For budding painters as well as anyone who likes to see their painting live up the canvas, emboss painting is an excellent art to chart a new path. Not only does it stimulates the creativity but it also excites the visual senses. Embossing gives a partial 3D character to the image which is achieves by raising or depressing the surface. This makes the picture come to life as there is more depth in it. In emboss painting the artist not only creates the image but also the canvas. This requires meticulous detail as the canvas highlights the image, as opposed to the normal canvas whose only role is to act as a surface for the painting to sit. Emboss painting can likewise be done on soft metal to great effect. To help you in creating your own canvass painting, given below are some tips on how you can go about it.

Tips On Emboss Paintings

Materials required

Plywood - 6 mm thickness.
White cotton cloth.
Fevicol, sand paper, arabic gum, chalk power.
Embossing gum.
Flat Brush.
Colored Jaipur Stones.
Gold foil.
Poster Colors.
Rounded Brushes, Black Pen.
Multi colours transparent ink.
Cutter, Ruler, Yellow carbon paper, pencil.
Reference art to trace.

Preparing the canvas

Take a clean cotton cloth that is atleast one inch wider than the plywood on all sides.
Mix one part of fevicol in four parts of water and then filter it. Soak the cloth in this solution for a couple of minutes.
Rinse the cloth gently to remove the paste and spread it on top of the plywood. Smooth the wrinkles and any unevenness. Pull the cloth tight over the plywood and glue together the extra cloth on the sides. Keep it to dry for several hours.
Now mix two parts chalk powder in one part fevicol and one part water. When the canvas has dried, take a flat brush and apply this paste vertically. Leave for drying again and after that apply the paste horizontally. Give atleast three coatings.
Coat two layers of arabic gum to give it a glassy look.
Take sandpaper and gently rub the surface to smooth it. Use a dry brush to remove the flakes.

Design

Using carbon paper trace the design on the canvas. Trace only the outlines. Leave a one inch border on the canvas for framing. If you are a beginner then select a design that is not detailed too much so that embossing it is easier.

Sculpting

Make embossing gum by mixing one part of arabic gum in two part of chalk powder and one part of fevicol. Apply a smooth layer of embossing gum on the design.
Leave it alone for a day.
Now paste the stones and pearls on the design using fevicol.
Keep it for a day.

Decorating

Again apply embossing gum all over the stones and leave it for an hour.
Soak a piece of cotton and remove the extra water and gently rub it on the embossed area.

Improvise

Using a ball point pen trace the design on the embossed area.
Make a mixture of arabic gum, chalk powder and fevicol in the ratio of 2: 2: 1/2 and fill it in a cone. Now fill the filling areas of the design and let it dry.
Take a gold foil and place it over the design. Once you have cut the foil sheet according to the size of the design glue it with the fevicol and water mixture and place it on the design.
Using a pin gently prick a circle around the stones and pearls, and then uncover the foil from them.

Painting

Paint the remaining outlines in poster colors.

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