Schlepitchka - Scenic Artists' Tips and Tricks

Have you ever needed to create a quick background for wallpaper or greenery? Has it been difficult to find the exact technique to accomplish this?

What you probably want is schlepitchka. This technique uses a feather duster to create the background for the wanted scenery. If you'd like to create your background fairly quickly, you are going to need the following things.

• A feather duster (it is said that ostrich feathers work best)
• Scenic Paint
• Scrap Plywood

Now you can get started:

1. Pick your three base colors of paint. These will most likely be in the same color family, but that will be up to you and the design that you want.
2. Start by dipping your feather duster into the darkest color paint
3. Flog the duster on the scrap plywood two or three times to remove excess paint.
4. Apply the feather duster to the scenery by lightly dropping or dainbbing the feathers onto the background and turning the feather duster in your hand each time you drop it and each time you pick it up.
5. Make sure that you move the feather duster to a different spot each time.
6. Cover as much of the scenery as wanted and needed.
7. If you only have one feather duster, you may want to wash it.
8. When done with the darkest color, repeat steps 1-7, with the middle color.
9. When done with the middle color, repeat steps 1-7 with the lightest color.
10. Let your scenery dry.
11. Once dry, you should have scenery that has the start of your wallpaper or plant background.

You can see the technique in the following video.

Schlepitchka from Jeff McLaughlin on Vimeo.

You can read more about using the technique of schlepitchka at this article by Jamie Clausius at Rosco Spectrum.

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