Porcelain plate drawing tutorial

I'm very excited to share this tute with you today!  Yes, this is yet another pinterest find of mine - ***Porcelain Painting***  Disclaimer....You don't have to be an artist to make these.  If you know how to trace then you can do this.

The above pictured plates are Christmas gifts for my cousin's family and my brother.  The plate on the left is for my cousin's family and the plate on the right is for my "hard to shop for" brother.

Before I began to make these Christmas gifts, I searched the internet for some info on the process, which lead me to this very helpful tute by Doe-c-doe.  

Here's how I made my plates...

Material list 

(I purchased all of my supplies from Michael's except for the plate, which is from Crate and Barrel)

• Carbon paper or some type of transfer paper
• Porcelain pen (I used Pebeo bullet tip for my cousin's plate and fine tip for my brother's plate) or paint ( I did not like the paint at all! I highly recommend the pen)
• Pencil for tracing
• Porcelain plate
• Tracing paper
• Paper

1.  Trace the shape of the plate onto paper,

2.  Within the circle, draw the picture you want to transfer to the plate.  Or, print a copy of the image you want to transfer. For my brother's plate, I used Duy Huynh's A Chorus from the Brain Forest.  I cut out the key images and taped them in the circle.

3.  Cut out the sketch and tape the sides to the plate.  Leave the bottom and top open for sliding the carbon paper under.  Notice I did not cut out a perfect circle.  Try to cut away any dead space.  This will make it easier to tape to the plate.

4.  Slide the carbon paper under the tracing paper.  The coated side should face the plate. Use a sharp pencil to trace over the image.

5.  As you can see, the image transfers pretty good onto the plate.

6.  Follow the directions on your pen and trace the transferred image.  I found the bullet tip pen flowed very well; where as, the fine tip pen had some issues with it's flow.  However, the bullet tip would have been too thick to have used for my brother's plate.  It's probably a good idea to have both tips on hand.  I did try the paint and it was horrible for what I was trying to accomplish.  The color was more of a blue black and I was unable to produce consistent lines.

7.  According to the instructions on the Pebeo pens, let the the plate dry for 24 hours then bake at 300 degrees for 35 minutes.  If you are using a different brand of porcelain paint be sure to follow the manufacturers directions.

I should also mention that they make ceramic pens for ceramic dishware too.

Cheers,

Jamie