I love the Colonial style Pennsylvania Dutch folk art fraktur paintings, but they can be very expensive and hard to find in my area. So, I decided to make a reproduction fraktur painting. Make your own fraktur folk art with this easy to follow tutorial.
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Making Your Own Fraktur:
For this project, we are going to be using some art paper, such as watercolor paper, carbon paper, and watercolor pencils.
Of course, you could draw your own fraktur design if you want. Most of them are designed with some combination of birds and flowers. If you would prefer to reproduce an antique one, find an image that you like, that is in the public domain.
If you look closely at the fraktur designs, you will see that there are commonly imperfections, making it the perfect type of art for me!
Resize it to the size you want.
Before you start transferring the image to your watercolor paper, coffee dye the paper by dipping it into some coffee. The stronger the coffee is, the darker the paper become. Let the paper dry.
Use the carbon paper to transfer the design to the watercolor paper.
To make the design look like it was water color painted, dip the tip of your watercolor pencils into some water and then use the wet pencil to color the design. You might try this on a sample piece of paper first to get the hang of it.
If you want it to be less vibrant, you can use a paintbrush to dab a bit of water onto the design (one color at a time) and dab (don’t rub) it off with a rag. Don’t use the same part of the rag for more than one dab. Be careful doing this as it can smear easily. This can also remove some of the original coffee stain.
After the paint is dry, you can use a fine tip black marker to outline things and add details, based on the original picture.
You might also like our other primitive craft tutorials.
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