A painted lampshade - Part 2 - Perfecting your design

Part 2 - Perfecting Your Design

Follow along with me as I plan the design for my lampshade using the practice panel. It's a great opportunity to develop your ideas and test out different colours and motifs.

YOU WILL NEED:

• A flat panel that is the same size and shape as your lampshade
• Can be cut from any thick card
• Pencil
• Ideally a 2H pencil
• Inspiration references
• This could be any photographs or books you love, as well as examples of motifs you've already practised
• Either emulsion or acrylic paints in colours of your choice
• Paint palette
• A selection of thin paintbrushes
• A flat or angled brush to paint the trim
• 2-3 water jars filled with water
• Depending on the colours you are using

Step 1

Gather your references and get your practice panel ready.

Step 2

Begin to sketch out your design using a pencil - it's best to do this very faintly so that it can be rubbed out easily. Don't worry about how your panel looks; it doesn't need to be an exact representation of what your lampshade will look like, and I often test out several designs on one practice panel.

Step 3

When you're ready, you can move on to applying paints to your pencil sketches. You want the consistency of your paint to be quite inky, so add small amounts of water to it on your paint palette - it shouldn't be too watery as this can drip when applied to the real lampshade.

Step 4

Assess how your design is working as you go. Are there any blank spaces forming that need filling? Does the scale of your design feel right for the size of the lampshade? Are the motifs you have chosen working as you intended? This practice panel stage is all about design development, so it's a great time to change anything that you don't like.

Step 5

I do use the dry brush when applying a colour wash to furniture, but less frequently - it helps to blend and move the paint around to achieve the coverage you want.

Step 6

With your design coming together, it's time to decide on the colour of your trim. You can test out a few different colours on your scrap pieces of paper, taking it onto your practice panel when you're ready. Use a flat brush or angle brush to achieve a straight line.