Christmas Santa Plaque

Christmas Santa Plaque

Use the pattern for this project, and the suggested colors to make a one of a kind Santa plaque.

What you need

Wood plaque
Paint brushes
Tack Cloth

Instructions

Paints – Delta Ceramcoat
Black 2506
White 2505
Bright Red 2503
Blue Jay 2059
Navy Blue 2089
Village Green 2447
Leprechaun 2422
Forest Green 2010
Butter Yellow 2102
Empire Gold 2412
Pigskin 2093
Black Cherry 2484
Hammered Iron 2094
Drizzle Grey 2452
Rain Grey 2543
Santa’s Flesh 2472
Pink Angle 2061
Medium Flesh 2126

Delta Ceramcoat is the brand used by this artist and is provided to you as a guideline however you can use any craft paints to complete this project

Brushes
assorted shaders or flat brushes,
sizes #4 to #10
#8 round
2/0 liner
old scruffy round brush for stippling fur and eyebrows
1/4″ mop brush
1/8″ filbert rake for beard and cat fur

Surface: I used a small wooden sled with a painting surface area of about 4 x 5-1/2″ which I picked up at a local shop; however, this pattern would be suitable for many surfaces – just enlarge or reduce the line drawing on a copy machine (or in your graphics program) to fit any surface you choose.

Right-click (or click and hold for Mac users) on the image above and save it to your hard drive. Open the image in any graphics program and print. This should print out the correct size for the project (approximately 4 x 5-1/2 inches). Repeat the same process for the image of the finished sled if desired for reference. Click here to print only the text instructions.

Base coat entire sled with Navy Blue.

Transfer the design to the sled.

Base coating

Using appropriate sized flat shaders, base coat all areas first, before doing any further shading or highlighting.

Santa’s coat and hat, holly berries & ribbon on yellow package – Bright Red
Santa’s boots and kitty – Hammered Iron
Santa’s face and mouth- Santa’s Flesh
Fur trim on coat, hat, beard, mustache, eyebrows & spool on ribbon – Drizzle Grey
Holly leaves – Leprechaun
Jingle Bell on Santa’s hat, yellow package and ribbon on green package – Butter Yellow
Green package – Village Green
Gloves – Blue Jay
Holly Leaves and Berries

Using a small flat shader side-loaded with Forest Green, shade along the vein of the leaves and at the points on the sides of the leaves. Accentuate the vein if needed using Forest Green on a liner brush. Float highlights along one side the vein with Village Green. Using a liner brush loaded with White, put a comma stroke in the upper right quadrant of each berry. You can also add accents of holly leaves and berries to the sides of your sled if space is available.

Boots
Using a small flat shader side-loaded with black, shade beneath the top fold of the boots, below each “crease” and along the sole. Now side-load the same flat brush with Rain Grey and float some highlights above each crease, along the top and bottom of the fold of the boot and across the toe. Add the buckle using black with a liner brush.

Gloves
Using a small flat shader side-loaded with Navy Blue, shade the gloves along the cuff and along each finger. Use a liner brush loaded with Navy blue to accentuate the finger folds if needed.

Coat, Pants & Hat
Using a small flat shader sided-loaded with Black Cherry, shade along the bottom, left side and upper edge of pants. Do the same along the bottom edge of the coat, each side of the sleeves, the top of the shoulder, along the cuffs, down the coat opening, around the neckline beneath the beard and along the fur-side of the hat. Accentuate the lines if needed with Black Cherry loaded on a small liner brush. Add black buttons and belt buckle with a liner or small round brush.

Packages/Jingle Bell
Using a #10 flat shader, place a thin wash of Forest Green on the left front side of the green package. Pull the brush straight down from top to bottom (you can go over kitty’s nose with Hammered Iron later if needed). Repeat this step if necessary until satisfied with amount of shading. Once you have the shaded side of the package finished, side load a flat brush with Forest Green and add a small amount of shadow along the backside of the top portion of the package. Using Forest Green on a liner brush, add the green wrapping paper stars. Using thinned Forest Green on a liner brush, accentuate the package lines.

Using a #10 flat shader, repeat the same process as above on the yellow package, except use a 1:1 mix of Empire Gold and Pigskin for your shading. Add package lines with thinned Pigskin on a liner brush. Also at this time, shade the bottom of the jingle bell on Santa’s hat with the 1:1 mix of Empire Gold and Pigskin. Add black marks in the jingle bell with Black on a liner brush.

Fur / Eyebrows
For the fur on Santa’s hat, cuffs and coat bottom, as well as his eyebrows, use an old scruffy round or flat bush and lightly stipple using white. Stipple to just outside the lines to create the fur effect. Continue this process until the fur appears mostly white, without much of the grey basecoating showing through.

Mustache / Beard
Load a 1/8″ filbert rake brush with thinned white and begin “combing” in Santa’s beard and mustache. For the rake brush to work properly, you must use a very light stroke (touching just the tips of the bristles to your surface) and you must not have the brush too heavily loaded. Repeat raking in the beard with white until you have a good mixture of white and grey. If you go too far and have too much white in the beard, you can reload the rake brush with Drizzle Grey and go over the white. When finished raking, side-load a small flat shader with Drizzle Grey and float some shadow on the underside of the mustache and underneath the mouth.

Eyes
Using a small liner brush, base in the eyes with white and add the pupils using Blue Jay. Again using the liner brush, outline the eyes with slightly thinned Rain Grey. Add eye creases at the outside corners of his eyes with the thinned Rain Grey. Add tiny white dots to the pupils.

Face
Using a small flat shader side-loaded with Medium Flesh, shade along each side of Santa’s nose, along the bottom of his cheeks and mouth and along the crease beneath his eyes. Using the same paint on a liner brush, add his nostrils and a line along the back of his ear. Side-load a small flat brush with Pink Angel with just a small amount of Bright Red added and float some color onto the bottom of Santa’s cheeks and the tip of his nose. Add a tiny more bit of Bright Red and, using a small mop brush, dry brush some more “rose” onto Santa’s cheeks and nose if needed and add a line along the bottom of his lip with a liner brush.

Ribbon
Since the light source in this project is coming from the upper right, side-load a small flat shader and highlight the outer surfaces of the red ribbon loops with a ribbon float or back-to-back float. Use a side-load of Black Cherry to shade the inside, lower surfaces of the ribbon loops. Using a small flat or round, place a wash of Black Cherry on the left hand ribbon wrapped around the package.

For the yellow ribbon, repeat the same procedure, using white for the highlights and a 1:1 mixture of Pigskin and Empire Gold for the shading. Use this mixture on a liner brush to place the lines of the ribbon on the spool. Side-load a small flat brush with black and shade the left side of the top ribbon spool and along the inside of the bottom ribbon spool where it meets the ribbon.

Kitty
Side-load a flat shader with black and shade around the outside of the kitty, under his belly, and along his left back leg. Using thinned Black, and then Rain Grey, “comb” the kitty’s fur in using your 1/8″ filbert rake. You can use Blending Gel Medium to achieve a softer effect for the fur. Accentuate shading with a soft float of black on a small flat brush if needed. Add the kitty’s eye, nose and whiskers with black on a liner brush.

To finish, spray with two coats of satin-finish or matte spray varnish, allowing ample drying time between coats.

This project was contributed by Tole Expressions for more free decorative painting projects and supplies please visit their website.

What do you think of this project? Let us know!