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Texas Defined

Decorative technique

Pouncing

A dotted charcoal transfer used to move a design onto a wall or ceiling.

Quick answer

What is pouncing?

Pouncing transfers a drawing through tiny perforations. Charcoal is rubbed over holes along a pattern's outline, leaving a dotted guide on the surface. The artist then removes the pattern and paints along the transferred dots.

Process

How the technique works

  1. 1.The design is perforated with small holes along its outline.
  2. 2.Charcoal or pigment is rubbed through the holes onto the surface.
  3. 3.The resulting dotted line guides hand painting after the pattern is removed.

Field guide

What to look for in a church

  • Hand-filled repeated ornament
  • Complex motifs too detailed for direct stencil painting
  • Historic conservation evidence of dotted transfer lines where exposed

Documented examples

Churches connected to this technique

Source evidence

Why Texas Defined uses this definition

Technique definitions are grounded in a named decorative-painting source. Church relationships are a separate evidence claim and are withheld when a specific attribution is not strong enough.

Austin PBS — Decorative Painting Techniques

Related techniques

StencilingInfill painting