New Look for an Old Garden Gnome

Save your old, dingy garden gnome decoration, make for him a new style with a bit paint.

You will need to look for the following items

• acrylic paint, preferably weather-resistant
• brushes
• varnish spray (optional)

Prepare your surface by covering with some old newspaper and place your figure on top.

Once you have decided on a colour scheme, you can begin to paint the base coat. Based on my style the gnome wear a jeans with a hoodie.So, I am using grey for the shirt, blue for the jeans.

You just fill in the colours. You are trying to get a nice, opaque covering of each area.

Don't load your brush with too much paint at a time to keep it from flowing outside of the area you're painting. Wipe off any excess paint from your brush on a paper towel or napkin.

Washing is a technique that involves highlighting shadows by allowing a thin mixture of colour that is darker than our base colour to flow into the cracks, creases, and crevices of the figure.

Mixing the darker colour

You will mix some of the base colour with a bit of a darker colour, making a shadow version of the original.

Once the figure has dried and you are happy with the base coat and washing, you come to a technique known as drybrushing. In drybrushing, the idea is to highlight the raised surfaces by applying a very small amount of paint to your brush which is a lighter colour than the painted area that you are drybrushing.

Mixing the highlight colour
To mix a lighter colour than the one that you're highlighting, you will mix with either white or a light colour, such as an ivory or off-white.

You can also add a little spray varnish to give it a nice, glossy look.

With all varnishes, make sure paintings are completely dry. Set work vertically. Shake can vigorously for 2-3 minutes before use. Spray at least 25-30 cm from artwork. Use a slow, even motion to coat the surface.