First fire:

Draw or trace The flower heads, bud and essential stems and leaves onto the china as in the first fire illustration. (The other elements of the design will be added on the next fires.)

Use very small amounts of paint to keep the shadows on the flower petals soft and pale.

Begin by painting the flowers that are in the bottom layer (any flower that has another flower overlapping it). Brush mix soft combinations of Pansy, Chartreuse and Sulltan Green into a gray to shade the petals where one petal goes under another. Add a little shadow color around the base of the yellow trumpet of the flowers. Where indicated, wipe out highlights that show how the petals have a 'pleated' look where the base attaches to the stem under the trumpet. Keep all the edges of these shaded areas soft.

Where the petals are against the white of the china, use a liner or scroller brush (loaded with the same gray used to shade the petals) to establish the outer shape of the petals. Keep this line soft but not fuzzy. You want the outside contours of the flowers to be sharp.

Block in the trumpet areas of the flowers with Mixing Yellow. Brush mix Mixing Yellow and Yellow Brown to shade the insides of the trumpets. Wipe out a few highlights with a slightly oiled brush to indicate ruffles in the trumpets. Side load a brush with Yellow Brown mixed with Yellow Brown #2. Use the dark side of the load to shade the dark side of the trumpet interior. Wiggle the brush to form the ruffled edge of the trumpet. Gently taper this stroke off to nothing as you work your way around the trumpet edge from the dark to the light side of the trumpet interior. To define the light side of the trumpet edge ruffle, load a scroller or liner brush rather heavily with the Yellow Brown/Yellow Brown #2 mixture. With a wiggly stroke, define the light side of the trumpet edge. Blot the excess paint out of your brush and fan it out so that the hairs at the tip of the brush separate. With the fanned brush, gently pull some of the paint toward the center of the trumpet (where the stem would attach to the flower) to soften the inner edge of the ruffle.

The yellow flower is painted with Mixing Yellow and shaded with a mixture of Yellow Brown and Chartreuse or Yellow Brown and Grass Green. The trumpet is painted with a mixture of Yellow Brown and Poppy Red and shaded with a mixture of Yellow Brown #2 and Poppy Red. The deep color in the center of the trumpet is Rich Brown mixed with a little Blood Red. Wipe out soft highlights where necessary to indicate where one petal overlaps another or where sunshine hits the flower.

Use Chartreuse shaded with Grass Green for the neck of the side view flowers. Stems are Grass Green shaded with a mixture of Grass Green and Black Green The 'tissue' on the stems is painted with a very light mixture of Rich Brown mixed with just a touch of Black Green to dull the color somewhat.

Fire to cone .014

Second fire:

Draw or trace the main leaves onto the china. ( If desired, the flowers from the first fire can be coated with resist to keep them clean while the other portions of the design are painted.)

Block in the leaves with brush mixed combinations of the greens, yellows and Sultan. Vary the mixtures from one leaf to the next. Add more yellow to the leaves toward the front of the composition and more blue and bluey greens to the leaves behind the flowers and on the shadow side of the composition. Use long, smooth strokes. If the brush leaves some whitish lines along the length of the leaves leave them there to help indicate veins. Green shaded with a Add a little bit of Mixing Yellow or Yellow Brown to some of the leaves at the very tip. Gently blend the yellow color down into the green of the leaf.

Make sure all edges are sharp and clean. (If resist has been used, remove it before firing.)

Fire to cone .014

Third fire:

Draw or trace the background (or shadow) leaves. Block in the shadow leaves with brush mixed combinations of Pansy, Chartreuse and Sultan Green. Use a generally light load but be sure to put on enough color to hold up against the darkest leaves.

Add more depth to the shadows on the flowers and bud where indicated. Add more color to the trumpets with a wash of Mixing Yellow. Shade the interior of the trumpets with Yellow Brown, Poppy and a little bit of Blood Red. Re-define the ruffle edge where necessary. Add color to the centers of the trumpets (Yellow brown#2 and Autumn Green) and wipe out the stamens and pistils where indicated. Fire to cone .014

Fourth fire:

Wash a light coat of Cornflower Blue mixed with Sultan Green over everything. Working into the wet wash, add a mixture of Pansy and Cornflower Blue at the bottom of the design and gradually work this color toward the tip of the design, softening and fading out the pansy as you get to the top. Clean the background color off the flowers.

Where the side of a trumpet is visible, wash a little Mixing Yellow onto the white petals at the base of the trumpet on the shadow side of the flower.

Add depth to the trumpet interiors and more color to the ruffles of the trumpets where necessary. Add a little color around the stamens and pistils to give them more definition.

Pull a little of the background color over some flower edges to fade them into the background where desired.

Add darks to the leaves concentrating the most contrast around the focal flower. Let these darks blend in with the wash colors as you work.

Fire to cone .015