The elements of faux painting aren't difficult but there's always room for error here and there. Keep these important tips in mind and you're half way there.
1. Your end result is only going to be as good as your materials. That applies to paint and brush quality but above all to your surface. Think of it as your canvas. You're about as likely to achieve your aims on a surface coated with flat paint as you would be painting on tissue paper.
To ensure a good result, use a satin or eggshell paint as your base layer. Flat paint inhibits the slow drying that faux painting requires and somehow creates a dull finish. A base coat that dries slowly will also give you time to fix mistakes.
2. A few cents of commonsense is worth dollars of equipment. Don't bother with unnecessary gimmicks. Spend your money on quality paints and brushes instead. You don't need a special sponge applicator - almost any soft sponge will do. You don't need an artist's palette. Ice cube trays are cheap and actually hold more paint.
You can save yourself heaps by using common sense. Dishwashing liquid cuts grease and will even clean some oil-based paints (such as cream stencils), not only water-based paints. Leftover paint can be frozen rather than being left to dry out and hence wasted.
3. Your results depend on the surface you start with. You must fill cracks and cavities before you start, but it doesn't end there. You then need to sand it and seal it with a water-based sealant. To ensure sure that the patch job blends in with the surroundings you need to make sure it is the same colour. Use the original paint if you have it or, alternatively, you can tint the sealant using some acrylic paint of the appropriate color. Don't cut corners on surface preparation - flaws will show through.
4. Remember the old adage: oil and water don't go together. It's easy to skip reading the labels on the tin in your eagerness to get going but it can be a costly error. Know which of your paints are water-based and which are oil paints. Remember that latex paints contain water.
5. Clean conditions help create a neat finish. This applies especially to your brushes, which need to be thoroughly cleaned. If you don't clean them properly you may end up with streaky paint and strange colors. You don't need specialist cleaners but just running brushes under the tap is not enough. Cleaning pads for children's art brushes are available for much less than the professional version.
Paint is designed to spread and spread it will - on shoes and in many other ways too. If you're working for a client, this is a sure way to ruin your reputation. Accidents do happen, but there are ways of dealing with them. Using water or chemical cleaners on carpets is not advisable, since at best it can spread the paint further. You can try trimming the stain with nail scissors when it has dried. If the worst comes to the worst, a product called Goof Off is a useful remedy.
6. Wet and dry don't mix. If you're using glazes you need to make sure that you're not creating areas where wet paint meets dry edges. The dry paint won't spread at the meeting point and the join will show. Plan to paint areas in one session, without a break. That includes, telephone, tea and toilet interludes. The hotter the weather the faster you will need to work before areas of glaze dries.
7. What's your painting style? Style is a product of the way a person habitually applies paint and painting a wall or floor is no exception. If two people paint adjacent areas of the same wall, the difference is likely to be quite obvious. The same applies to a single person's work at different stages of the process. If your faux painting project is a collaborative effort, assign different people to different walls, or at least alternate layers. Plan to complete sections that need to look uniform in one go.
1. Your end result is only going to be as good as your materials. That applies to paint and brush quality but above all to your surface. Think of it as your canvas. You're about as likely to achieve your aims on a surface coated with flat paint as you would be painting on tissue paper.
To ensure a good result, use a satin or eggshell paint as your base layer. Flat paint inhibits the slow drying that faux painting requires and somehow creates a dull finish. A base coat that dries slowly will also give you time to fix mistakes.
2. A few cents of commonsense is worth dollars of equipment. Don't bother with unnecessary gimmicks. Spend your money on quality paints and brushes instead. You don't need a special sponge applicator - almost any soft sponge will do. You don't need an artist's palette. Ice cube trays are cheap and actually hold more paint.
You can save yourself heaps by using common sense. Dishwashing liquid cuts grease and will even clean some oil-based paints (such as cream stencils), not only water-based paints. Leftover paint can be frozen rather than being left to dry out and hence wasted.
3. Your results depend on the surface you start with. You must fill cracks and cavities before you start, but it doesn't end there. You then need to sand it and seal it with a water-based sealant. To ensure sure that the patch job blends in with the surroundings you need to make sure it is the same colour. Use the original paint if you have it or, alternatively, you can tint the sealant using some acrylic paint of the appropriate color. Don't cut corners on surface preparation - flaws will show through.
4. Remember the old adage: oil and water don't go together. It's easy to skip reading the labels on the tin in your eagerness to get going but it can be a costly error. Know which of your paints are water-based and which are oil paints. Remember that latex paints contain water.
5. Clean conditions help create a neat finish. This applies especially to your brushes, which need to be thoroughly cleaned. If you don't clean them properly you may end up with streaky paint and strange colors. You don't need specialist cleaners but just running brushes under the tap is not enough. Cleaning pads for children's art brushes are available for much less than the professional version.
Paint is designed to spread and spread it will - on shoes and in many other ways too. If you're working for a client, this is a sure way to ruin your reputation. Accidents do happen, but there are ways of dealing with them. Using water or chemical cleaners on carpets is not advisable, since at best it can spread the paint further. You can try trimming the stain with nail scissors when it has dried. If the worst comes to the worst, a product called Goof Off is a useful remedy.
6. Wet and dry don't mix. If you're using glazes you need to make sure that you're not creating areas where wet paint meets dry edges. The dry paint won't spread at the meeting point and the join will show. Plan to paint areas in one session, without a break. That includes, telephone, tea and toilet interludes. The hotter the weather the faster you will need to work before areas of glaze dries.
7. What's your painting style? Style is a product of the way a person habitually applies paint and painting a wall or floor is no exception. If two people paint adjacent areas of the same wall, the difference is likely to be quite obvious. The same applies to a single person's work at different stages of the process. If your faux painting project is a collaborative effort, assign different people to different walls, or at least alternate layers. Plan to complete sections that need to look uniform in one go.
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