Tear drops and swirls....

I have been having a hard time perfecting my tear drops & swirls. Somtimes they look awesome and some time not at all. I have been practicing quite a bit and times I start off on fire and others not so much the my biggest problem is getting a consistent look to my tear drops in particular. Any particular techniques or brushes I should try?

Gina,
I like using "American painter " brushes for tear drops and sabel brushes for the swirls. I will usually load both types of brushes and hold them in my left hand, if a designs uses both tear drops and swirls I just switch to the brush that I need. I have a much harder time doing swirls with a synthetic brush.
To get a nice tear drop - loading your brush with a back and forth motion. This will flatten out the brush - begin you tear drop with the thin side of the brush and push down and then lift up. If you go to silly farm I think Heather has a video on how to get nice tear drops.

How are you doing the teardrops? If you do the fat end first and trail off on the "tail", a springy synthetic works best. If you are doing the tail first and pressing down into the fat end, a sable works best.

I'm currently trying to learn the "fat end first" method, because I do love the way it looks, but it's hard to get used to! I've not perfected the whole "twist at the end" thing... It's still a bit awkward and I have to think about it.

The sable brush with "tail first" is my preferred way of doing it, and with tons and tons of practice it now comes more naturally to me. The brush has to be well loaded (but not drippy). For long teardrops it's best if you are moving your brush in the proper direction before even dragging it onto the skin. (Like an airplane landing.) Just do it over and over and over again. Try with more paint, with less paint, with more pressure or with a lighter hand. It really is just a matter of practicing.

And even once you've gotten it down and "perfected" the teardrop, you'll still have times when a really funky one will pop out for whatever reason, and you'll think "Whoa... that looked terrible!". As far as I can tell, we never grow out of the occasional "crap day".

I'm doing the whole press down lift off method but I dont think i have been loading my brush back and forth I will try that. I have bee tyring to do mine like Heather from Silly Farm does. My swirls are okay I think I just havent found that happy medium with either enough paint or to much on the brush i have a few sable but some mine are synthetic too.

I agree with Angie on her entire post.

I learned tear drops going skinny to fat with sables, but I bought some synthetic brushes that I love and I learned how to do the fat to skinny ones.

So sometimes I do skinny to fat- for example on double dipped flowers or on the nose when the fat part is on the bottom and the skinny part is up top. And sometimes I do fat to skinny- on the outside of the eyes etc. But I try to only use 1 brush for details to cut down on time, so I only use my synthetic do lines, teardrops, dots etc.

That's how I am this month anyway!!

Best tip for practicing teardrops- start them from large to small and centered around a dot; sort of like a swirly fan or daisy with maaaaaany petals going from biggest to smallest.

And also when you can do 100 teardrops perfectly, in a row, then you are good to go. It is taking me a long to to be able to get 100 perfect in a row- I can do maybe 25 right now w/o messing up and having to start all over again!! But you gets lots of practice in that way. Do it in white so it is easier to wash off!!

My favorite swirl practice is on the Snazaroo Pictures site in the step by steps and also watching those YouTube videos in the beginning was very helpful. Also, swirls don't have to be perfect to look good : ) Just do them with confidence and don't linger over them for too long.

And my favorite brush right now is the synthetic brush on silly farm labeled Mark Reid's favorite brush. A sucker for marketing? That's me : ) But I do enjoy those brushes!

Have fun practicing!
~Michelle Heffner
Bright & Shining Face Painting
Columbia, MD

I think i have that same mark reid brush I know i got the paradise combo pack when i first started and have added a brush here and there over the last couple of months. I will try the 100 tear drops method though my attention span will be surely tested on that one I can tell you. LOL

Art Instructors were told by our trainers that any painter cannot become one with their brush for up to 20 minutes after they start painting, so do the easy simple stuff first, then suddenly you realize perfect strokes literally fall off your brush.
Before I go to a gig, I 'play' with a few simple strokes, repeating them for about 10 minutes, then leave for the gig. I start with simple designs and within a few minutes, I am one with my brushes for great strokes!
Dont be so hard on yourselves untill you give yourself time to become one with your brushes.
I use all synthetic brushes for FP that come in a tube of 20 (#0-10 rounds & flats - I use mostly #4-7 rounds) at Michaels for under five bucks with a coupon and Donna Dewberry #10-16, & 3/4" brushes for one stroking with my homemade rainbow cakes. I like the synthetic 'spring' in the brush that makes my swirls & teardrops for me.
Happy Painting,
Susan
Fantasy Faces For You!
www.SusanLeeBillings.com

The best & cheapest way to practice teardrops, swirls, etc is on a paper grocery bag or a dark piece of construction paper using only water, not paint.
The stroke shows up clearly & you dont have to waste paint to practice ; )

What a great tip Susan! Thanks!

Thankyou! Glad you liked it ; D

I go both ways... And honestly, how well I can do them depends on the alignment of the planets, which direction I am facing, if a black cat crossed my path in the last week...

Im with Shannon on that! Some days perfection some days, unreal!
Gotta remember the one about the planets

I like to do it both ways, depending on what I want the tear drop to look like.. I'm a bit of a swirl and teardrop painting nut though.. haha.

My best advice???

Think of your brush like a plane coming in for a landing, and as you lower your landing gear, you gently touch ground and then gradually come to a stop. then you lift up your brush. Tear drop done!

yay airplane analogy!


also, practice like it's goin out of style.

AngieAnders wrote:How are you doing the teardrops? If you do the fat end first and trail off on the "tail", a springy synthetic works best. If you are doing the tail first and pressing down into the fat end, a sable works best.

Angie, thanks for this tidbit! I tried it last night and I was crankin' out pretty decent fat-first tear drops! Who knew! I've been trying to do everything with the same (sable) brush for speed but my thick-to-thin teardrops were looking like I'd accidentally dropped my brush all over my arm! thin-to-thick, I get pretty good after a few minutes, but thick-to-thin...never. Last night was a moment of revelation for me as they just "sprang" off my synthetic brush! So thanks for clearing that up for me.!

In Heather's new video she is doing lots of tear drops. I need to practice the thick to thin. I think you get better placement and softer tear drops using thick to thin.