The majolica watercolor technique is very similar to painting a watercolor on paper. Both techniques require that you use soft brushes, mix pigment/stain with water, and apply them to an absorbent surface. While painting on glaze, your colors will absorb instantly and stay where you have dropped the brush stroke.

1 Mix stains on white plates. Group blues and reds to make shades of purples, and group yellows with blues and greens. 2 After applying a wash, fill in the light yellow of the lemon within the pencil lines, working from light to dark.

3 Once the basic shapes of the fruit are defined, it’s time to mix colors for the darker elements like leaves and stems. 4 Start painting the leaves, mixing stain colors on the plate and double loading the brush with greens and yellows.

5 Finish painting the leaves, adding darker shading to the outside edges by double loading darker greens and blues. 6 Shade one edge of the lemon with light green to create a sense of depth and roundness of form.

7 Shade the opposite side of each lemon to create depth, then add a little blue wash to the bottoms for a darker shadow.8 Mix manganese dioxide with water to create a wash, then outline everything using a fine liner brush.

9 Touch up anything that needs extra color, paint a wash on the bottom, and paint the rim.

From the Pottery Making Illustrated July/August 2014 issue.

Topics: Ceramic Decorating Techniques

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