Garden Art Experiment-Gazing Ball-Part 5

At the last blog post I had put a concrete sealer onto the ball.  I have it a day to make sure that it was completely dry.  Then I added a coat of gesso to the ball and gave that time to dry as well.  I am giving it plenty of time because the paint is also sinking down into the pores of the concrete.  I painted one portion and once it was dry turned it over to paint the other section.  Painting on concrete can be a little challenging.  You really have to scrub the paint in to the rough surface.  I found that a soft sable brush worked pretty well.  The abrasive surface tore up the disposable foam brushes and tended to leave little bits of foam adhered to the paint.  I recommend that you use old brushes for this.

After the gesso coat had plenty of time to dry, I added a  base coat of Cerulean Blue for the background.  My plan is to paint the ball with leaves and sunflowers.  Before deciding on this theme, I considered painting it with bronze, copper, or gold metallic paints.  This would have produced a ball similar seen in formal gardens.   With a few coats of exterior gloss polyurethane on top, it would make a reasonable facsimile of a metallic gazing ball.  However, I wanted something different, just because.  Plus, it will give me another chance to work on my painting skills.

So for the moment, all I have to show is a blue ball.  Today I will be working on the placement of the leaves and flowers.   I should have some of it painted on by the next blog post. 

I've also begun research for my next big project.  The time spent on research is cutting into the amount of time I have to spend on painting.  I'll blog more about the new project in about a week or two.