I was getting pretty frustrated with the broken tile markers. I kept trying the calligraphy ink and they just weren't turning out. I went back to Sharpie markers and that wasn't the look I wanted. So, I got out a small can of sample enamel house paint in black. I started painting one of the tiles and it was looking pretty good but the smell was toxic. I just kept thinking, I don't know if I'm going to pass out mid paint...
The enamel paint was getting all over the place so I moved to the floor and laid out some extra newspaper and continued trying the black paint. It was too messy, smelly, and thick. It wouldn't dry completely so it got all over my hand but it would dry too quickly on the brush so that my stokes ended up uneven and bulky. It was a complete mess. So I grabbed the trusty acrylic paint kit, a paper cup filled with water and some paper towels. I squeeze out a little crimson, considering that it had worked so well on the sign, and start painting. I stop to take a look at what I've done and it just felt like a child's finger painting. It was too bold not fake enough or realistic enough. Plus, it turns out that acrylic is water soluble when used on tile. May be either way but I didn't think so. I continue sitting on the floor just look at all the samples I've piled up. None of which would work. None of which were up to par. I sigh deeply and got frustrated and started to put all my tools away when I thought, NAIL POLISH! It's waterproof and I think I have most of the colors I'll need. OH MY GOD! I even have a black nail polish pen for the words!!
I ran to the bathroom and grabbed the nail polish colors, pen, and some acetone for mistakes. I started with the radish plant marker. It looked good. I was even able to add a little shadow on the radishes with the polish pen. Then, I moved on to the carrots. I happened to have this neon orange and I wasn't sure that it would look very good but orange isn't a popular nail color so it had to. I started with the triangles and used Go Aboard by Essie for the greens. They looked great but were missing a little something... adding the little ridges on a carrot in the black polish pen made the carrots. It was officially my favorite. It was on to the sweet potato. This one was going to be tough. I didn't have a true brown color so I improvised with a purplish brown mauve color and a coral for the interior. I figured the only way they would be slightly recognizable was if I made them sliced. So I painted in the body then the coral cross section slice and added some eyes. It was okay... the words made it look even better because they filled in what the oval pots. couldn't. This was finally going well, it was 3 down and 2 to go. The peppers were easy but I made them red even though jalapenos are usually green. I used red because I love the Go Overboard color and didn't want to waste it all (@ $8/bottle) on the marker. Then I moved on to the strawberries and was able to get the tops relatively right. They looked good and amazing after I added all the seeds. I didn't account for the word so "Strawberry" would have to do over "Strawberries." Now, the Spinach. Well what can I say spinach is really hard to paint, draw, copy, & etc. It would have been a green blob and my Essie would have been empty... I decide that I wouldn't make one for the spinach, 1) because it is in a container and the tile would most likely squash it 2) if it wasn't placed in the container it would be placed on the ground and might cut someones bare foot and 3) I'm only using one of that type of container so I know what it is. No need to mark it.
I am so excited that the nail polish worked and that the markers look good! I was getting extremely frustrated and was not willing to give up on the tile pieces. Thank goodness for nail polish!!!! I'll be putting them out tomorrow along with the decorative tiles... I'll explain about those later when I have them out.
No comments:
Post a Comment