Basecoating Techniques

One-Color Solid Basecoating Techniques-

To get a good solid opaque one color basecoat begin with the acrylic color of your choice. Pour a puddle of this color out on to a dry palette that is large enough to accommodate the paint and a puddle of Fini Glazing Medium. You will want to use a large soft brush, such as a 1” Phylbert (available from www.tolemill.com) that you have conditioned in water to saturate the hairs. This will help to keep the paint from collecting and drying in the ferrule. Blot the wet brush very well.

Now load the brush with the Fini Glazing Medium. Work the brush well on the dry palette to force the medium through the brush hairs. Pull a small amount of paint from the color puddle and again work the brush well in the area where you first worked the Fini. You really want to work the brush well front and back using firm pressure against your palette. We want to thin our paint with the Medium but not make it soupy. We are looking for a soft creamy consistency of paint and medium mix.

Apply this mix to the surface of your piece using a lot of pressure in a roughly X motion that overlaps each previous stroke, and forcing the paint to “stretch” as far as it will go. You want to work over the areas where you first began to apply the paint to lift any excess built up paint (ridges) and again stretch this paint outward from where you began. When you have used as much paint as possible from the brush and are confident that there are no paint ridges remaining, return to the palette and reload the brush as we did in the beginning.

When your brush is very well re-loaded, go back to your surface starting about 2” away from where you stopped and apply your color working out in a circle area that will over lap the previous application. Again, use firm pressure and be aware of any ridges that may be formed. Be sure to work in those roughly X shaped strokes that overlap and continue in this manner until your entire piece is covered.

You will want to work in two or three very thinly applied layers as opposed to one heavy thick layer. If you try to get coverage in just one thick layer, your basecoat will have paint ridges and high/low areas that will not be smooth and fully covered. It will take much longer to dry and you will no doubt have to sand the basecoat in order to smooth those ridges down. Normally, sanding will mean that you will need to add another layer of paint to even out the color. So why waste the paint and effort trying to do it once when by using thinned paint and stretching it as far as it will go will make a much nicer layer? Letting this layer dry which will only take a few minutes, and then by applying one more layer in the same manner you will have a beautiful basecoat that is ready to accept your pattern. Just makes sense to me to get it right the first time and not need to sand and do it again anyway. Once you have your basecoats applied and are happy with the coverage and smoothness, let dry very well before transferring your pattern to the surface.

Two-Color Solid Basecoat—

At times we want a single color solid basecoat that is bordered with a second color. This may be a lighter or darker version of the main color or it could be a contrasting color that compliments the main color. The choice is yours of course but a hint to make sure the final art work has a pleasing well thought out color scheme, choose one color from the design for your main background color then another color from the design that is either a lighter or a darker version of the main background color. Another way to choose the second or border background color is to choose one color from the design palette then choose that color’s complement. Remember, a color’s compliment is the hue that is completely opposite on the color wheel. Such as red is the compliment of green. Once you have figured out which is the compliment of your main background color, look at the list of colors in your design and choose the one that is this compliment color.

Let’s give an example of how you can make good choices for the background colors. Say you have a design (your own or a packet from another designer) and the color list includes, Light Buttermilk, Soft Sage Green, Moon Yellow, Petal Pink, Baby Blue, Deep Midnight Blue, Titanium White, Avocado and Black Green. You could choose any one of the above colors as your main background color.

Keep in mind you will need to ask yourself a couple of questions in order to make a good color choice.

1. Do I want a light background or a dark background? (High-key or Low-key painting.)

2. Do I want to use the focal area element’s color or one of the accent colors for my background? (Accentuate the main element or pick up on some of the colors used to support the focal area.)

This time, you decide to choose a light background color that picks up the main color used in the focal element. Light Buttermilk. Now figure out the compliment of Light Buttermilk. In this case Light Buttermilk is a soft white leaning toward yellow so the compliment of yellow is blue. You could choose to go with Deep Midnight Blue or Baby Blue as both would be the compliment of Yellow. So once again you will need to choose. Do you want a soft pastel look to the background and trim or do you want more drama by choosing the dark blue, thus having more contrast?

As you can see, choosing background colors really boils down to personal preference but by choosing colors from the palette of the design you will be more apt to have a pleasing background that will be in harmony with the design itself.

Please keep these suggestions in mind as we talk of other techniques for applying backgrounds. The color suggestions will ring true no matter what technique we use to apply our backgrounds. I will use “main color” and “secondary color” instead of using particular color names as we continue.

Use blue painters tape to tape off areas where you do not want the second color to go. Be sure to rub the edges of the tape well to reduce the amount of bleed under that can occur. Also, apply a thin layer of the original base coat color along the edges of the tape. Let that dry then apply your second color. Any bleed under will be in the original base color and won’t show when you remove the tape.

I like to let my paint dry for about five minutes then using a hair dryer, heat the tape just ahead of where I am slowly lifting it from the surface. This has helped to dramatically reduce the problems I’ve had with the lifting of the under paint when I remove the tape.

Two-Color Sponged Background

First thing you will do is choose the two colors you wish to use to sponge on your surface. (See suggestions above about hints to choosing background colors.)

Choose a sponge that will give you the texture effect that you prefer. I personally love natural sea sponges for large projects and faux finishes. Soft foam rubber makes a very nice blended sponged background on smaller projects that would be overwhelmed by the look of too much texture. You may also use simple kitchen sponges, car wash sponges or any other type of sponge as long as it will give you the “look” you desire. Dampen your sponge well especially sea sponges as they may still contain bits of seashells and sea salts. (I love rinsing out a new sea sponge! Brings back memories of when I lived near the ocean.) Once you are sure that your sponge is clean and well moistened, wrap it in a double layer of paper towels and blot well. Leave the sponge in the toweling until you are ready to load it with paint. This will keep it from drying out before you are ready to use it.

Choose a large palette to hold your paint and medium. Have a second dry palette ready for pounced blending your loaded sponge. (I wash and save the large meat trays that the “family pack” meats come on. They are large, easily stored and disposable. Use them once and throw away. Saves clean up and recycles too.) Place puddles of your two colors, side by side with a small space in between, on the dry palette. Place a puddle of Fini Glazing Medium off to one side of your palette. Unwrap your sponge and load with a small amount of Fini and the “main color” of your choice. Usually this will be the lightest of the two colors. Now pounce the sponge on your second dry palette. Be sure to work in straight up and down motion, try not to twist or swirl you sponge while it is in contact with the palette. Your aim is to force the paint up into the sponge and get it well loaded. You do not want to have big blobs of color hanging from the sponge but you do want the sponge well saturated with this first color.

Now dip one edge/corner of the sponge into your secondary color and go back to the blending palette and pounce blend again. Do not try to carry this secondary color across the entire sponge. This is similar to double loading a brush but in this case we are double loading our sponge.

When you feel you have a good double load going on your sponge and there is sufficient paint to begin, go to your surface and begin to pounce apply this color to your surface. Work quickly and continue to sponge over the same spot several times to get good coverage. Use a firm bounce to get a soft blended look of the two colors or a more gentle bounce to leave more of a textured look to the colors. As you get good coverage move over a bit and continue to pounce on your paint.

There are many ways you can change the look of a sponged background. You may choose to keep the secondary color toward the outside edge of the surface thus giving a framed effect with the lighter color toward the center of the piece. You can reverse this and keep the main color toward the outside edges and end up with a halo like effect or you may allow the sponge to change directions on the up portion of the pounce and allow both colors to commingle on the surface.

If you feel the colors are getting too dark just pick up more Fini and the lighter color, then pounce blend and go over what you have done. Do the reverse if the colors are too light for your preference. I like to work wet in wet but you may also pounce on just one color, allow it to dry and then come back and pounce on a second color. If you choose the “layered method” make certain to not cover the first color completely or you will lose the two-color look to your background.

Play with sponging, you can even use more than two colors if you like. Layering several colors is very nice but be careful to not get the background so ‘busy’ that it will compete with your design.

You may do sponging using any applicator that will pick up paint. Try using plastic shopping bags. Bunch the bag up in to a roughly ball shape (turn any printing to the inside). Load with paint that you have thinned first with a bit of Fini. Pounce over a solid basecoat color.

Try pouncing using different textured towels, paper or cloth. Try it with Saran Wrap for a lovely texture effect. Crumpled paper bags work well too. Experiment with what ever you have around the house. (Be sure to send me picture too. LOL)

Ragging a Background

To get a lovely background, try Ragging. Apply an opaque color base of your choice. Let dry well. Thin your ragging color with Fini Glazing Medium. Use a ratio of about one ounce of paint to 8 ounces of Fini. Adjust this ratio to suit your preference in the opaqueness of the glaze mix.

Dampen the cloth of choice with water and ring out as dry as you can. Dip the towel into a small amount of the glaze mix and begin to wipe it on your surface in a random irregular motion. Be sure to twist and turn the direction of the cloth as you move along.

Experiment with different textured cloths and try using more than one color of glazing mix. You can layer as many glaze colors as you like. You can apply each layer over a dry layer or try working wet-in-wet for a softer more blended appearance.

Ragging a Stone Look for your Background

For the look of stone, use several shades of gray, earthy browns and reds for your Ragged Glazes. While the last layer of glaze is still wet, spatter on a very dark gray or very dark black/brown over the surface. The wet glaze will let the spatters to bleed out a little and will give the impression of natural stone. You may even wet the surface with Fini Glazing Medium and then add the spattering while the medium is still wet. If you have a very dark glazed background try using a light grayo or off white spattering.

This is very effective over Frescolina Texture Paste that you have applied with a trowel onto your surface and allowed to dry. You can even cause natural cracks in the Frescolina by using a hair dryer on it while it is still wet. Apply your glazes and allow them to dry. Apply one coat of Final Coat Low-Gloss Acrylic Varnish and let it dry. Now make up a glaze with Fini and a very dark brown or black. Wipe this on your glazed background rather heavily. While still wet use a clean towel to wipe away the excess. This will antique your surface and accentuate the cracks. This background is very effective behind Country and Southwest themed designs.

Do experiment using different combinations of colors to achieve various types of stone. Have fun!

Free Pattern copyright:
This design may be saved, printed and used for your personal painting pleasure and education. You may sell the finished painted project but please do not exceed 50 items. Please do not print and copy the pattern for your friends or students. They are very welcome to visit this site and save the design and instructions for themselves. Instructors, please contact me for quantity discounts on pattern packets with color photos and complete instructions for your classroom. Thank you! Brenda S. Rickman"