Ceramic Painting - A General Introduction

Ceramic Painting - A General Introduction

The term "Porcelain Painting" or, as it is also called, "China Painting", usually refers to the method of painting on white glazed porcelain objects. The paint used is an onglaze (overglaze) paint. This means it is designed to be used on top of already glazed porcelain or bone china (as opposed to underglazes, which are generally painted on the green ware and fired, after which a glaze is applied).

 

 

 

Technique

 

The general method porcelain painter’s use is to paint a light coat of paint on the porcelain or bone china piece. This may involve one or more colours, after which the piece is fired. Then layers of paint are applied and the piece is fired again. This continues, painting and firing, until the artist feels the painting is complete. The reasons for multiple layers, (called "fires" because of the firing operation between each) is to build up the colour as there a possibility that the paint may blister or "pop" if too much paint is applied at once and different pigments need to be fired at different temperatures.

Porcelain Painting has a smoothness, permanency and translucence. It is not meant to be an opaque paint. It is ideal to portray the smoothness of the human skin, the delicacy of the human eye, and hair and animal fur can be made to appear very realistic. 

There are always risks and errors can easily be made, colours and brush strokes must be as accurate as possible.  One mistake many first-time china painters make is to think that they can correct a wrong stroke in a later fire. China Paint has a semi-transparent appearance. Strokes, even if covered by other strokes after the firing, are still visible. Corrections can usually be made before the layer has been fired, but once the layer has been fired, unless the covering paint is very much darker than the layer below, the earlier painting will show through. This means that, unlike oils or acrylics, you must plan your light areas, colours, details ahead of time.  Visualise the finished piece continuously and work back one step at a time.

Materials

China Paints are a dry powder and are mixed with oils and glycerine. There are other special powders and oils for special paint projects, such as enamelling and raised paste for gold. 

The powdered paints can have a flux in them and if not it can be added. Flux is a fusible substance that causes other substances to melt. Its presence in the paint allows the paint to "melt" into the glazed surface of the porcelain piece during the firing. Since the pigments of China Painting are all mineral, they fuse at different temperatures. The flux is combined in each of the colours in such proportions so that they will melt uniformly when exposed to the fire of the kiln.

Gold, Platinum and lustres, also used in china painting, do not melt into the glaze. They adhere to the top surface of the porcelain. That is why you often see an old plate where the gold rim has rubbed off. It is because it did not fuse into the porcelain. These metallic paints are generally fired at a lower temperature than most regular china paints.

China paints, properly fired will never rub off. They also may be the only thing left should you be unfortunate enough to have a fire consume your home, since the heat of the kiln is usually hotter than that of a home fire.  What a marvellous art investment!

Firing the China Pieces

The complete firing time can take about three or more hours but, because of the intense heat, the kiln should not be opened right after it shuts off. A few hours or overnight (depending on your kiln) are required for the kiln and the piece(s) inside to cool off enough to be removed.

Most China Painting is fired in the temperature range of 600 degrees Celsius to 1000 degrees Celsius