Drawing ribbon

This is a great tips taken from Draw Art in New Zealand.
"Here´s a great tip on drawing ribbon. Take two sharp pointed pencils, tape them together with points even, and then draw curved line for ribbon."
From: http://www.draw-art.co.nz/folkartpages/folkartnews.htm

Coins

Have a range of coins handy to your workspace. These make great drawing aids when you want
to draw circles.

Eggs and ornaments

Use egg cartons to support eggs and ornaments while you are basing and painting them.

Wood Filler

Run out of wood filler? Then try using Deco Arts decorating paste. Allow it to dry, sand it and move on. It does shrink a little so be generous with your filling.

Important Gadgets

Include in your caddy chalk pencils, scissors, craft knife, ruler,eraser, protractor and a compass. The latter is an essential for doing circles. Be sure your chalk pencil will fit into it!

Have some pegs handy

Keep some clothes pegs handy to your painting table. I use these for pinning pages together, and holding small items when I am painting them.
Very useful!

Safe Painting Practices

Safe painting practices!
1. Always work in an area you can clean - plastic table cloth covering a carpeted floor, clean up rag not too far away.
2. Use a dust mask when sanding
3. Use a breathing mask when spraying
4. Never sand or spray indoors. Find a nice spot outside for this.
5. Use antiquing patina in a well ventillated area (Oh but my goodness i love that smell LOL)
6. Dispose of antiquing rags immediately...they can self conbust in the right conditions. Saturate them, bag them up tightly and put them in your bin.
7. Save your clothes and wear a painting shirt ( a shirt you forgot to cover with an apron in the first place) or an apron.
8. Get an adjustable height chair and foot stool. Make sure you are at the right height for the project then use the foot stool to balance where your feet are dangling.
9. Chase down a very bright amber coloured or fluro coloured coffee mug...it´s colour just might protect it from being used as a wash basin for your brush!
10. make sure the entire famiy is OO bfore you begin...we don´t need world war three because a painting session is interrupted (OO ?.......glad you asked...otherwise occupied!)

Painting large round things

Hold large round things steady for painting by supporting them with a wheat bag or pillow. they won´t roll around so much!

Lazy Susan

A Lazy susan is also very useful - useful as the holder of bits and pieces and very useful for painting especially on round plates. It makes turning them very easy!