The subject of watercolor painting techniques is very vast and includes topics like deciding and mixing paints, use of color, glazing and lot many others. Here we’ll focus on brush control, an extremely critical feature of painting. Unless you master control of brush, you will not get the desired results. So, let’s closely look at this aspect of painting.

One technique you would surely like to master is the “Thick and thin” technique. Here, you keep varying the pressure that you are exerting on the brush while painting a straight line. As a result of varying pressure that you apply, the corresponding thickness of the line also changes from thick to thin to thick again and so on. It’s a very simple but very useful technique. Here are some more watercolor painting techniques.

How you attempt capturing certain things affects the ultimate painting. Suppose you were paining grass. In all probability you would apply small but sharp movements. This technique used here is called as “wrist flick”. You will need to spend time and effort learning it. While talking of grass, you would start from the base of the canvas, and move the brush upwards is such a way that blades of glass really seem to be upcoming from the ground. That way you get lifelike images on your canvas.

Another technique employed for watercolor painting is known as “Bands of color”. This is how you can make it work. Using any particular color, draw a curve on the canvas. Now, using a different color, draw another curve parallel to the earlier curve, just below it. It has to be drawn in such a manner that the two are too close to each other, yet the two colors shouldn’t get mixed up. Follow the same procedure for drawing a third and fourth curve and keep going in that fashion till you get an interesting pattern.

Techniques for watercolor painting are quite unique, yet funny at times, at least for a novice. Here is one such. You may get some very exclusive results by just spraying the paint using your brushes. Using your finger tap the brush at its end to spray the paint on your paper. You can have varying results by using different brushes. Like to try your toothbrush! Using paintbrushes of different sizes you may evenly splash paint on paper or cover it with droplets of varying sizes. It will be quite interesting to fist cover the surface with different sized papers in different shapes so that paint won’t cover those areas and then spray the rest of the sheet of paper with colors. You can also try varying the angle and height of brush while applying or spraying paint. Use your imagination and experiment with some of these tricks.

There is a long list of techniques employed for watercolor paining. Here is another important one that the reader will find useful.

So far we have been talking of the techniques of applying paints on paper. Now, we’ll see how to remove colors from paper that has used watercolors. Choose a segment of the painted surface and look around for an appropriate tool for removing part of it by scratching the surface. The ideal tool for the purpose is a penknife. These days you also get brushes that have an inbuilt notch that does the job very well. The ultimate results depend upon the kind of tools used. Be imaginative and think of small useful tools that could be exploited for the purpose. Perhaps a kitchen knife would solve the purpose. Or may be you could use your credit card or even a small thick needle would do the trick!

When thinking on the lines of painting the exteriors of the house, the homeowners need to consider many techniques applicable for painting exteriors. It’s not as simple as just deciding the color to be used. There are factors like temperature, color fastness and weather to be taken in consideration. Moreover, there could be certain restrictions imposed by the local community about the use of colors.

The composition of the building material used also matter here. The walls may comprise of wood shingles, bricks, stucco, vinyl siding, concrete or another material. Some of the surfaces require priming. Sometimes, the surface may require pressure washing or chemical cleaning and may need to be stripped before hand. Unless proper care is taken along these lines, the new paint applied on an inappropriately treated surface will peel off along with the old paint.

Each surface needs a specific applicator. Some could require manual cutting with a brush, but others like stucco could require a particular roller. Spraying is appropriate for certain type of walls and is a very time saving process of painting but necessitates using a paint that is well suited for the sprayer and its components, and moreover spraying also requires specific preparations in advance.

In certain areas you might have to deal with graffiti and such type of sabotage. In such circumstances you will have to use some type of special sealant to protect the painted surface, special in the sense that it should be able to endure stripping agents needed for subsequent cleaning. This is of all the more significance when deciding for an exterior painting technique like using a pattern, mural, or other design motif. By taking into consideration all these factors you’ll be better prepared to get an enduring improvement for the house.

When considering to paint a room of your home, think about using one of the different painting techniques rather than just applying a coat of paint to the entire room. A very interesting technique is the sponging on technique. Sponging on is amongst the easiest ways of painting and anyone can follow it. To avoid breathing of any strong and harmful fumes, try getting non-toxic glazes from your local hardware store.

The best part of sponging on technique is that it allows your room to acquire texture and depth, by simply using a sea sponge that you can get from your local hardware store. Before starting the actual painting, make sure that you tape off all surfaces that you don’t like to get covered with paint. At the outset paint the complete room with whatever color you would like the base coat to be. An excellent neutral base color is a light gray in a satin finish in latex paint. You should allow this coat of paint to get dried overnight. The paint that you intend sponging on needs to be darker in color than the base coat. You may use any color that goes with the light gray. Of course, you may like using a sage green, dark blue, or even a light yellow. You could even mix some liquid glazes into your paint if you so desire. This will give a somewhat different effect.

Before getting started with sponging, it will do you good to practice on some sort of board first. If you start painting straightaway, you may not like the final results that you get. Of course, it’s only paint and you can paint it all over again, but why waste your paint, time and effort. Once After sufficient practice you will get a feel of this technique and then you can go ahead. One very helpful tip when using a sea sponge is to brush the paint onto the sponge, instead of dipping the sponge into the tin of paint. Now you may start sponging the paint onto the wall. Don’t apply too much pressure on the wall. Keep a light pressure only so that the sponge pattern still remains.

Further, you should keep the sponge rotating while working with that. That allows you to change the pattern appearing on the wall. Overlapping your blotting also helps keeping your wall from having a consistent pattern. The intention of using sponging on is to keep the paint on the wall in a totally haphazard collection. On feeling that the sponge is getting overloaded with paint, wash the sponge and restart the process. Though it might be unlike working with raku glazes, actually it’s not so much different.

Spray painting of car necessarily involves three things: the paint, the tools employed for the purpose and of course the car. The result you get at the end ultimately depends on these three.

It is understood that you have your tools in tact. You get better results if you know how to handle a spray gun. If you intend using custom colors, you need to first mix your different spray paints. For a plane color like black, you just have to make your car ready for spraying.

Anyhow, you start by cleaning your car to get rid of all the dust particles accumulated on its body. Shift your car to an open area to facilitate adequate ventilation. The process of spray painting demands air so that one coat is dried before the application of the second coat.

There are quite a few guidelines on how to spray car paint, the way professionals do. These are rather simple and easy to follow. In case the paint on your car is already getting peeled off, use a 300 grit sand paper to get rid of the spray paint from the body. This is essentially needed to make the primer to bond effectively. After sanding, clean the particles with micro fiber cloth to get a clean and smooth surface.

Following sand papering of the rusty surface, use a masking tape and cover the areas where you won’t like the spray paint to reach.

You are now ready to lightly spray the parts with primer. After you have lightly applied the primer, make sure that the surface becomes dry before applying any additional coat. Slow and steady application of spraying primer gives better results than heavy spray that comes promptly.

After applying a few light primer coats, wet sand once again using 800 grit sand paper. Subsequently wipe again with micro fiber cloth.

Now, we come to the last and most delicate step of spray-painting the car effectively. Try keeping your movement smooth and even while spraying. If you stay for a bit too long at any point, the paint would appear heavier there. Bear in mind that applying a few lighter sprays is better than having a one time heavy spray. Continue to press and release the lever of the spray gun for uniform results.

If you are pleased with the spray paint output, you should once again wet sand with 800 grit paper before you spray the clear coat. Spraying of clear coat is carried the same way as the spray paint and you need to be extra careful, as this being the outermost layer is most visible. Make sure not to leave any fingerprints thereon. You may need a second coat at times, and once again, allow the earlier coat to get dried.

Though a painting brush may look like a very simple tool, its different parts have a role to play while painting in oil or acrylic.

The most significant part of an artist’s brush is its head. No other part of the brush plays any significant role in painting techniques. Some artists make use of the handle of a brush while painting a canvas but that’s not a very common practice.

There are no standards for brush parts, though brush sizes vary from 10/0 (which is minute) to 30 in size. You may have brushes as small as 30/0 but the most regular artist brush sizes vary from 000 to 20.

The different shapes of brushes are: round, pointed, Egberts, fans, stippled, Brights and liners. Each kind of brush head serves a different purpose and can produce a different sort of line. For example a brush with a stippled tip is good for a painting technique called pointillism, which is largely seen, in expressionist or impressionist works. Fans are employed in watercolor to produce airy effects like clouds, sky, or reflections on water.

Brushes are usually classified by shape or type. The material generally used for watercolor brushes is sable or nylon. Oil painting may also need the use of sable brushes. Acrylic brushes are by and large made from nylon. Nylon is the most common material used for making synthetic bristles.

Watercolor brushes are most often made using non-synthetic materials like squirrel hair, badger hair or sable. That’s because these animal hairs have a natural characteristic to retain water.

The other non-synthetic materials used for making brushes include squirrel, pony hair, goat hair, camel hair, and ox hair. Brushes using hog bristle (also known as China bristle brushes) are firmer and do not absorb a large amount water.

The commonly used materials for making handles of brushes are wood or molded plastic. Though most of them employ raw wood, the more expensive variety of paintbrushes may be lacquered or painted. The reason for doing so is not to make the brush look attractive, but to protect wood from getting swollen due water or cracked as it becomes very dry on being exposed to turpentine.

You need to be very careful while cleaning brushes. You should not be using acrylic or synthetic brushes for painting with oils, as turpentine will damage the bristles of the paintbrush.

You surely can give the looks of a Tuscan villa or a Renaissance palace to your room by following some faux paining techniques. Primarily, it needs adding a glaze to any prepared surface. A glaze is basically a thin layer of paint that produces just about transparent coating. On a colored base, you may apply different layers of glaze to create a subtle and deep color and textured effect. It can be so applied to a surface that different colors are visibly stronger at different points.

Color Washing: One of the oldest and most successful paint techniques involves color washing. Different colors are applied in an almost haphazard manner (or ‘free form’) in a ‘wiping’ motion, to get a temperamental, cloudy effect. Here, you may use a rag or a brush; depending on how softly a textured result is desired.

Color is generally applied from light to dark. The exact effect depends a lot on the specifications and number of colors employed. Earthy colors may be used to get a soft, tired timeworn effect. Light colors are used to create the impression of spaciousness and freedom. The simplest is to give a wash of one color on a base, followed by more colors to enhance the intensity and drama of the finish.

Textured Effects: A lot of faux painting can be achieved by adding texture in some way or the other. If you wish to divert attention from uneven surfaces, yet like to have a more or less monochrome color scheme, there are different methods of getting textured effects and bring in visual interest.

Slowly pulling a comb through recently applied glaze is one way of getting this effect. You may have it as bold or as faint as you like, depending on the type of space and style you may like to get. A woven effect could be achieved using a comb or, as in the French ‘strie’ technique, by means of a fine brush. Dragging and rolling are other methods for getting textured finishes.

Apart from different available techniques for applying paint, you may also incorporate texturing by reproducing the appearance of different materials, frequently called trompe l’oeil. Faux moldings, painted to replicate low relief, make one example; faux exposed brickwork showing through flaking plaster makes another.

Stenciling: An incredible variety of stencils are there in the market these days which may be used for having a decorative effect on an entire surface or just for use as border or trim. A lot of them can be reused and you can have them in your specific sizes.

It’s almost obsolete to use old cutout stencils, as much complex designs are available these days. Some of the modern stencils give results close to having transfers. Using different accessories like brush or roller, rag, sponge, or even aerosol it’s possible to create slight differences. Stencils may also be employed to duplicate an exacting finish, such as brickwork laid in a herringbone design.

Other Techniques: faux painting is a very versatile medium. An understanding of the available techniques can replicate almost any finish, making you décor and design ideas a reality.

Venetian plaster is a trendy finish. It can be attained either by applying synthetic Venetian plaster in thin layers like paint, or by replicating the finish in paint.

If you love abstract expressionism you may try splashing paint on the surface by making use of a toothbrush to get a flecked effect. Designs or motifs can be embossed on with the help of cork or craft foam. The possibilities are just about endless and all the time the effects are thrilling.

It’s not unusual to consider changing the color of your room if you have had it for quite some time. Such a change surely gives it a fresh and an interesting look. You may repaint the entire room or just paint afresh one of the walls. There are some easy, very interesting and inexpensive ways of giving a very professional look.

You have many easy options and the easiest one is sponge painting. And, this is what its name says- sponge color onto the existing wall and it is over! Though it’s a very easy way of doing and gives good results, you must use the correct additives to get the desired look. Sponge painting is applied to produce a soft blending of colors together for getting an illusion of color.

The first step for this process is to mix accent paint color with an extender that is available at most hardware or paint stores. This is to extend the drying time and make the paint translucent. Use of this product facilitates getting the desired effect of soft blending of colors together.

Designer note: I make it a point to use a small amount of wall color along with the rest of the colors, and I always limit the number of colors to three. Don’t be fearful of applying one color over the other for this technique, and work in small areas with wet edges.

Another appealing look that I personally like is to make stripes diagonally or horizontally on the wall without using any paint. In this case you just use a polyurethane sealer with a different gloss than the one that’s already on the walls. Usually, I use a shiner gloss, but you may opt to do the opposite if you already have a shiny wall.

Depending upon how wide you want the stripes to be, you suitably tape of the area. Then, you apply polyurethane sealer over alternate stripes, and there you get a finished wall. It is slight but very arresting.
Designer note: Ensure that your lines are straight; it is not too difficult to see if they are not. Be a bit careful when planning the lay out and the size of stripes and try visualizing how they would end up at the corners and at the end of the room.

Painting tip: For getting a perfect edge along the length of the tape, you may apply a small quantity of the polyurethane sealer, using a paintbrush to seal the edges before starting the process of painting.

These methods are sure to change the looks of your room. Moreover, both these are inexpensive and fun to do. You could employ them to the whole room or just highlight one wall.