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Decorative Painting
Tips
I’m not proprietary about my painting
techniques, so if you want to know how I did something, feel
free to ask. I can’t offer many tips on design, mainly
because I usually play around with stuff in my sketchbook
until it looks “right.” Some of what I do breaks the “laws” of
design, and other things fall into place. There are
plenty of good books on design (I recommend the fine art
books); A Painter’s Guide to Design and Composition
by
Margot Schulzke is excellent. My only real tip on
designing for furniture is sometimes you have to live with it
until a design “speaks” to you. I have a number of pieces
hanging around the shop. If I walk past them enough suddenly a
concept will spring to mind and then I break out my
paints.
Anyway, onto the
tips.
Brushes.
Buy the best brushes you can afford. I’m firmly believe that
your paint job can only be as good as the brushes you use.
Quality brushes aren’t cheap; however, if you value your work,
you should use quality tools. I recently bought a 1”
brush for $33. At the store I hemmed and hawed about it, until
I figured how many smooth base coats and varnish jobs it would
accomplish (making finishing work so much easier). I haven’t
been sorry.
Properly cared
for, brushes will last you a long time, and if it is a
good brush, even after it is too worn for detail work you can
re-purpose it. If they shed hair at all, ditch them. All
brushes, when you get them, will shed a few hairs (I usually
give them a soapy bath to remove the sizing and loose hairs
before I use them); if they continue to lose hair, scrap
them. It’s very frustrating to try to pick hairs out of
a finish.
Paints. On
the subject of paints, I use paints which have light
fastness ratings on them. What’s the point in
carefully selecting colors if it will only change hue when
exposed to sunlight a few years down the road? With every
piece I paint, I aim to create an heirloom.
Signing Work. Sign
all of your work, even the less than stellar pieces.
It’s fascinating to look back and see the progress from piece
to piece. This especially helps if you feel like the
piece you’re working on is sub par. Take a look and you
will see that you’ve made a lot of progress since you’re first
pieces. Let that piece sit for awhile out of sight.
Then, next time you bring the piece out, a solution to the
problem might become self-evident. That’s one of those
light-bulb moments. Sometimes it is a quick fix, and
other times it becomes evident that you need to break out the
sander and start over. It’s only paint. It’s not sacred.
Inspiration. Accept the
fact that there are some days when you just won’t have “it.”
Sometimes nothing goes right when you’re painting, no
matter how much you want to paint or how hard you try. Rather
than get frustrated, put your project away, get out some
poster board, and just play with your paints (you already
have your paints and brushes out, right?) You can learn a lot
about how your paints work together (color theory,
etc.). It’s not a wasted session if you glean just one
bit of info from the session. You may discover that the
color you love just won’t work in mixes because it is too
transparent, so you decide to glaze with it instead.
Look for inspiration in
unlikely places. You may find an excellent color scheme in an
ad in People magazine rather than House Beautiful. Cut it out
and add it to your morgue. Be sure to note why you liked
it (it might not be as obvious months down the road).
Varnishing. Unless you
have a climate controlled studio, don’t even try to varnish
when it’s humid out. We recently had about 2 months of
rain, and although it wasn’t hot out, I had to turn on the air
conditioning because my varnished pieces were taking hours to
dry. Usually the polyurethane varnish starts to tack up within
a few minutes, but there were still puddles a few hours
later. The longer it stays wet, the more likely dust and
hair will drift onto it. (Incidentally, that was a frustrating
couple of months).
Borders. Need a crisp
border? Painter’s tape is an excellent tool, but here’s a tip
I picked up that really simplified matters. Apply your
tape, then burnish the edge that will be painted over. Now,
rather than coming over your tape with the second color, take
either some of your basecoat color or an acrylic medium and go
over the edge. This way, if any paint does seep under the
tape, it won’t show. After this is dry, then proceed with your
next color. Don’t leave the painters tape on too long
after the paint dries, as it might pull up the basecoat. Also,
rather than pulling straight up on the tape, pull it up at an
angle. I find that this also helps to minimize damage.
Painting on old
furniture.
If you buy a piece of furniture that’s already painted, make
sure you know what kind of paint they used. I
almost bought a beautiful dresser that was already painted blue.
Upon closer inspection, I saw green paint under the blue
on the corners; however, instead of being “distressed”, I noticed that
the blue paint was beginning to peel at the corners, which led
me to believe that the green paint was probably oil
based and the blue was latex.
Wet
Palette. I recommend the use of a wet palette
to store your paint mixes. I purchased an old Tupperware
cake carrier at the local thrift shop for under $1.00. I
place damp paper towels in the bottom of it (not sopping wet!
Paint will run) and then put my paint mixes on top of
it. You can use special wet palette paper, but it’s not
necessary. I painted a bureau and dressing table to match, and
months later I was able to come back and use the same paint
mixes to paint the headboard to match. It won’t last
indefinitely without getting moldy, but if you’re working on a
project that you have to mix special colors for, you won’t be
sorry to have it.
Reference Photos.
If you plan on doing a lot of painting, keep a photo
“morgue.” This is a collection of reference photos that
might give you inspiration or help you with your detail
work. The best photos are the ones you take yourself,
because then there aren’t copyright issues. Either keep
the pictures in a photo album or an index card file by subject
(I find it easier to add to a subject this way rather than an
album).
Messy
Painting.
Face the fact that you probably
will end up wearing a lot of paint. I’m not
a messy painter, but I still have a lot of
clothes with paint splotches on them. I consider them part
of my work “uniform.” If it bothers you, get an apron.
A lab coat would work wonders too. You can wear latex gloves
as well, but I find they tend to get sticky,
especially if I’m using glazing medium.
Color
Schemes. Unsure of a color scheme for your project?
You can always use a grisaille technique on the project, and
glaze color on later. Grisaille is a classical technique where
the painting is laid out in various values of gray. Once the
values are correct, you can glaze color over them. As
you work the color scheme may become obvious. Also, use
a coat of glazing medium between paint layers. This will
protect the previous layer, so if you decide the color is
wrong you can wipe it out. You may have to experiment with
your glaze medium, because some basecoat colors can get cloudy
with multiple layers, particularly dark colors.
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