TUTORIAL: Shading With Luster Dust

So when I was working on my owl set last week, I was trying really hard to work with a certain palette.  It was all kinds shabby chic...and there's a fine line between shabby chic and just plain pastel.

It wasn't as easy as I thought.... so once I had my colors mixed and my cookies decorated...they still didn't look right.  The pastel was just PASTEL and the other colors were much too bright to be shabby.  But I still liked the palette. I needed to do something to fix that.

So I brushed off the cobwebs...and out came the dusts...

Luster and petal dusts I mean of course.

I haven't used them in so long.  In fact the only one I really use consistently are the gold or silver ones...and those are for painting...but I have this whole stash of petal and luster dusts that I swear have never even been opened.

But I had a plan for them today.



So I'm doing these roses and they're looking pretty good.  A little bright but I loved the colors together.  It was perfect for my peach and pink pallet.  And using my airbrush I could give them some definition and color in the center...so they weren't so boring ya know.... but they didn't look shabby chic.  Then it occurred to me that the whole concept of shabby chic is that it's supposed to look old or antiqued.  These flowers looked summery and new.  So I looked up some pics of bouquets in shabby chic weddings....they all had these beautiful dark and silvery leaves.  My leaves were too bright...

So luster dust to the rescue.

I had this dust...Olive Green Luster....haven't used it like....ever.  But it was perfect.  It had a darkness.  It had a golden antiqued sheen.  It was beautiful.  And suddenly those bright green pastel leaves were old and garden.  So shabby.  So chic.

Here's a VIDEO on how I did it.

It occurred to me that luster dusts can be used for so much.  Same as petal dusts actually.  I've never been good at shading using the painting method...not like Arty.  She has it down.  I guess wet medium isn't my forte.  But I did work as a make up artist through college.  Dry dust manipulation...that I know.  And really, to me, using these dusts isn't any different than using eye shadow pigment...and that was something I was familiar with.

Another bonus....these dusts come in a bazillion different shades.  So you aren't as limited as you are with an airbrush or painting.  And it isn't near as messy as an airbrush...easier to clean...not as stain-able...

Speaking of...you really don't want to spill airbrush colors on your carpet....I don't want to talk about it....

Anyone have a strong industrial carpet cleaner they can recommend??