This skull had been the largest ceramic piece I had ever done. It was a cast that was available at a local ceramic painting business. As soon as I saw it I knew it was something I wanted to work with, cause who doesn’t want to paint a skull?!
I started out by drawing the designs on the top of the head and the teeth with pencil, weaving and flowing the designs with as much symmetry as I could. Beautiful thing about pencil is that it ends up burning off in the kiln during the firing process.
For the grey designs, I started out with a light gray base coat. Using a darker shade I then added up to 4 layers of the root-like designs to give an organic feel to the rest of the skull. Ceramic paint requires multiple layers to increase the level of opacity. All organic designs were free handed.
A tricky aspect about ceramic paint is that the colour can be quite different before firing, but is also very exciting in that regard. The true colours vibrantly come to life after the glazing and firing process, like opening a gift on Christmas morning.