I’ve painted several Christmas ornaments in the past but continue to consider them to be odd jobs.
These ornaments were sold specifically to be decorated. First they have to be primed. I use gesso, which might just be the same as flat white house paint but sold in art supply stores as if it is special. When I was experimenting with these new ornaments last year, I tried oil paint without the primer and it still scratches off the surface of the plastic.
By sticking them on the end of a paintbrush, I was able to paint all the way around in one session. It isn’t good for paintbrushes to rest on their bristles, so I was glad that the gesso dried quickly.
Next, I waited for the printed photos to arrive so I could start. This is a little bit too hard for me. Painting on a small sphere might be too hard for anyone with normal to large sized hands in addition to figuring out how to make things look normal on a sphere.
So, I started with the easiest parts – sky and water. This will need several coats of oil paint to get the color and the shapes right.
It was tricky to get them to rest with the wet paint side up. Next time I will need to rig up some sort of a hanging system.
This is going to take awhile. Good thing I started in June.