Painted Terra Cotta Tiles

Original Tiles

I purchased two terra cotta tiles, secondhand.
I liked the designs but not the color.
So I painted them.
I would like to share 
this painting process with you,
it is very easy.

The best part of painting this way; :if you don't like it,

•   Paint it one color and start over!
•   Use different colors!
•   Or just keep going until you do like it!

I would suggest practicing on a throw away item or a piece of paper first, just to get the hang of it.
This is so easy, you will not really need to practice.

List of items for project:

1. An item to paint, obviously
2. Paint, I used acrylic, matte & metallic & interior water based house paint 
1. Mixing flat and metallic paints will give your project depth
2. Some house paints can be thick and may need to be watered down a little
3. Paper towels
4. Blot paper, for blotting off the excess paint. I use old advertisement flyers
5. Paper/Plastic plate(s) for paint & a bowl for water
6. Gloves, it's easier to clean up.

Basic Process: Dab, Blot, Paint

1. Squeeze paint onto your plastic/paper plate
2. Wet the paper towel, squeeze out excess water
3. Loosely crumple up the damp towel, creating hills and valleys
4. Get the  paint on the towel
1. Gentle Dab the hills of the towel into the paint
2. Do not press the towel into the paint, just touch the surface
3. You are not trying to completely or evenly coat the towel
• About your Painted Wet Paper Towels:
• Change the towel whenever you feel it's necessarily, no rules.
• You don't want the colors getting muddy.
• Change it when going from a darker color or Black to a lighter color.
• You can use a separate towel for each color
5. Blot the towel on the Blot Paper, making sure you don't have too much paint on it. 
6. Lightly Dab the paint loaded towel on your project
7. I suggest sparingly Dab the paint color in several places on your project
8. Step back and look at it, then decide if you want more paint and where you want it
9. Repeat with the other paint colors
10. Remember to paint the edges of your project

My 1st Example for you, Green, Yellow and Red

               Dab                                       Blot                                        Paint    

I Dab the wet paper towel into the first color, Green.

Blot off excess paint and applied it  randomly to project.

                                                I applied the Yellow              then the Red

I added Yellow and then the Red. I used the same towel from applying the Green, as you can see in the picture.

My 2nd Example is a single wet towel with several colors on it at the same time.

1. Dab different sections of the towel into a different color
2. I didn't Blot my towel
3. There is more Red in this example, because I had a lot of Red on the towel
4. Then repeat Dabbing on your project until you are happy with it.
5. Remember to turn/rotate the towel for a random effect and color placement

A Single Towel 4 colors

My 3rd Example is Blue, then Gold and Black.

Applied in this order Blue Gold Black

My 4th Example, How to fix too much color.

Blue Blob                                         Fixed

I have a blob of Blue in one spot, because I didn't Blot my towel. So after blotting some of the Red paint off, I applied it over the Blue blob. Fixed

My 5th Example in each corner

The same paint colors, but they look different because of the color choices, and how much color was applied and the order the colors are applied.