Painting eggs is a nice Easter tradition, it becomes so much more festive when the eggs on the Easter table are painted. We usually paint boiled eggs that are then to be eaten for Easter lunch or Easter dinner. It is very nice to set the table with an egg cup and a painted egg for each person or simply put all the painted eggs in a basket and let everyone help themselves.
When it comes to painting boiled eggs that are to be eaten, choose non-toxic paints (like watercolor), no felt-tip pens or other strong paints.
If you paint blown-out eggs to hang in the twigs, well then it's a completely different matter.
I'm not Lars Lerin but I do the best I can and here are my best tips for nice Easter eggs.
- Invest in good brushes. Good brushes that are taken care of last a long time. Some of my brushes are 30 years old and well-used. I use sable hair in sizes 1 to 8.
- NEVER leave a brush standing in a glass of water with the bristles down, it ruins the brushes immediately.
- I'm not a snob when it comes to paint but I choose non-toxic paints called watercolor. If it says water-based paint on the package, the quality is probably a little too low to be able to work with the colors.
- Let the white in the eggshell work, think contrasts in light and dark and also in color. Keeping track of the complementary colors can pay off.
- I try to think a bit like when you look at a painting by Bruno Liljefors, a lot of "fluff" and nice colors and then a few parts with sharp details. No, it doesn't become Bruno Liljefors level for that but it becomes quite nice eggs.
- If you paint flowers and plants, try to think that each plant has its own rhythm - see my egg with the austere angelica and the egg with the more "dancing" poppy.