Betty Gerstner's China Painting Information on the Web - Goldfinch with Berries

This painting was done entirely in Lusters but, unlike most of the other luster paintings I had done previously, the subjects were not outlined in gold. Only the base and neck of the pillow vase were trimmed with Liquid Bright Gold.

For the first fire, I traced the two goldfinches onto the vase. Then I went over the graphite outline with the black Stabilo pen. Next, I used the same pen to draw on the vines, leaves and branches of the berry bushes in a random pattern all around the vase. I also drew the pussywillow branches that the one Goldfinch is perched on. Using a scrolling pen and Brown Luster, I outlined the birds, berry bushes and pussywillow branches. Then I fired the vase to Cone 018.

For the Second Fire, I painted the goldfinches, using Black Luster and Yellow Luster. The leaves were done in a variety of luster colors, Blue, Turquoise, Green, Pumpkin, Amber. I used Brown Luster and Amber Luster for the berry and pussywillow branches. Rose, Carmine, Blue, Sapphire and Turquoise Lusters were used to paint in the berries. Again I fired the vase to Cone 018.

On the Third Fire, I used some of the same luster colors as before for the leaves, but often I painted a different color over the Second Fire color to create yet another hue. On some of the leaves, using a dry-brush technique, I painted shadows, leaving the Second Fire color to come through for hightlights. I sculpted the roundness of the berries by painting a darker shade around each of the seed fruit of the berry. I painted more brown on some of the farther back branches, leaving the forward ones lighter. More Yellow Luster was added to the Goldfinches. Since I had no Gray Luster, I thinned some of the Black Luster with Luster Essense and applied that color to the inside of the Goldfinch wings. I added Black Luster as needed to darken the Black on the birds from the Second Fire. I fired the vase to cone 018.

The final fire consisted only of painting the Liquid Bright Gold on the base and the neck of the vase. As a guideline for the gold on the base of the vase, I used striping tape as a "resist" edge for the gold so I would have an even line. I removed the tape before I fired the vase to Cone 018.

I gave this vase to my youngest son, Steve.