It all started with a wine bottle

My Story

I fell in love with dot painting back in July of 2020.   I was researching ideas on painting empty wine bottles.  I found an artist on youtube who painted her bottle with a toothpick, a cotton swab and a pencil.  She painted a beautiful mandala on it.  And I was like, “I can do that!”

I watched some more videos of working on a canvas so the next day I went to the craft store, got some acrylic paint and small 5” x 5” canvases and went home to create a masterpiece!

I prepped my canvas by painting it black.  I got my toothpick, cotton swap and pencil along with a glue stick from a hot glue gun.

I squirted some paint in the cap as the artist recommended and got to dot painting!

Oh, how relaxing!!  Dip and dot, dip and dot, until....

My masterpiece!! 

Well, maybe not so much, but it looks impressive at first glance.  

Because it was just after the 4th of July, I was still feeling patriotic so I chose red, white and blue for my colors.  These are done in a matte paint (get pictures here of what I used?)  A matte paint dries to a dull finish that doesn’t reflect light.  It looks shiny in the photo because I sprayed it with a glossy clear coat.

My first dot painting inspired me to do more.  I went to the craft store again and this time got me some crochet hooks to use as my dotting tools. (link to tools here)

The Next Day

The next day I created this ------------------------------------------->

These are the colors I want to do my glass bottle in.  These paints have a glossy finish and they can be “baked” on the glass to create a lasting finish that won’t wash off.

Both of these paintings I did when I got home from work so these small mandalas don’t take long to do.  I think it was only about an hour or so.

It was very satisfying to create a beautiful piece of art in just a little bit of time!

Next, I wanted to do a rainbow mandala.  

This is where I got a little frustrated with my yellow paint.  See how you can see right through it?  This paint was just too thin and transparent. 

What the heck?!  This is when I learned about gloss gel and flow medium.  Gloss gel thickens your paint and flow medium thins it.

All paint is not created equal

Air brushing paints are quite a bit thinner as they need to go through the air brush gun nozzle, but I know how to fix that now. <wink>

Look at this gold paint he had in there!  Here’s what I did with that:

I was trying a couple new techniques I learned.  The center orange offsets the dots but when you look at it just right it looks like a swirling pattern.  I also wanted to try my hand at the freestyle technique of the gold swirls.  Another technique I tried here was the line of dots.  Still need some work on those.  (And also that dreaded yellow paint - gotta work on the consistency.)

At this stage, I ordered some stencils from some other dot artists.  You know, so I can be better.

Here is my first design using a stencil.

This pattern is called the torus.  I wanted to work exclusively with using small dots and following the lines.

Dot painting has me so excited about all the things you can paint on.  We had some small trees in the backyard that fell down.  I got out the saw and made these little wooden blanks.  I sanded one down and made this:

But what about that bottle?

<---------------This is what I did:

I spray painted several bottles with these paints.  I took a pattern out of a dot painting how-to book and I used my glossy paints.  I left out the yellow on purpose but used the gold with the gloss gel.  I haven’t baked it or put a finish on it.  I feel like there’s more to add to this project but not sure yet where it’s going to go.  When I update it, I will let you know!

Wine Bottle Dot Painting Wine Bottle Light

Wine Bottle Side View