Watermelon with Ants Painted Wooden Chair Directions

I put this painted chair by the front door as extra seating and a spot of color. I found the chair at a garage sale for a $1 and painted it with gesso. I would have sanded it to remove the glossy finish if it still had one. Gesso is an excellent surface to paint on and seals the item at the same time.

I blocked in the green and white areas with acrylic paint. There is a soft line along the hard melon edge that was done by side loading a brush. To side load a flat brush you take a brush that was loaded with water, lightly squeeze the bristles to remove the excess and dunk one corner in the paint. When you stroke on the paint the water that remains in the brush allows the paint to float out gradually. This takes a little practice to get the technique down. If you make a mistake you can wipe it off with a damp paper towel.


The light green areas were sponge painted with a small piece of sea sponge. I sponge painted the melon flesh with 3 colors on a palette and and had bits of the all of the colors on the sponge at the same time. The colors mix slightly and it gives the paint a more translucent appearance.

The ants are painted with simple black shapes and some of the ants are carrying bits of melon. The ants were made by dunking the handles of stencil brushes in black paint and dabbing on dots. The reason the ants were made with dots is it's easier and the dots keep the sizes relatively uniform. I elongated the shape of the ant's tail with a brush and brushed on the antenna and legs.

The watermelon seeds are black and with thinned brown paint used to make subtle lines. If you look closely at a watermelon seed they are not solid black.