# Outdoor Flicker Candles



## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Years later I gave the candles an update. Decided that an ivory color with some aging would help sell the realism and so consider this an advanced painting class.










Just like cookbooks there are recipe books for paint colors. You could just buy the correct color you need but if you have some basic artists’ colors you could make your own. It’s up to you. For this candle picked a color that looked like the ‘Ivory’ color I was going for. It is made by mixing 3 parts white, 1 part Yellow Oxide and 1 part gray. The book is called (aptly enough) ‘Color Mixing Recipes’.










Picture 1: In the cup you see just the white and yellow mixed up. It does have a vivid color and perhaps too loud and new looking. It needs to be toned down. Gray to the rescue!

Picture 2: So, add in a glop of gray. Ahh, much better.











Thinking the ivory looks much better than the white. I did lose some of the translucency of the wax drips but was a good trade. If you want to keep that than just use an Ivory paint in the first place.










Paint washes should be in your painting arsenal along with drybrushing and tea-staining. This is different because you paint on a watery mix of paint and then immediately wipe it off. The paint that is left is in the crevices. The paint wash made here is with ‘Raw Umber’. It is dried off with paper towels. Raw Umber is an excellent aging paint color for all kinds of things.










Looking at real candles – they are neither flat, nor glossy. But there is a slight sheen to them. Consider using satin or matte topcoats. Used Createx Clear Matte here but any acrylic topcoat brand is fine. The Createx version is more satin than it is flat (or matte, like they say). The topcoat also helps protect your paint job and well as giving it a realistic sheen.

Thanks for looking at my project.


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## pdxhaunter (Oct 12, 2019)

These are fantastic. Great tutorial. I’m going to see if I have time to make some this year.


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