Hello and welcome to my first finished video.
Today before I start the finishes I'm going to just show you the conglomeration of things that I have on my desk ready for doing all the finishes.
Now these are really handy things to have in your little box of tricks that you've got at home.
First of all I've got over here some butter muslin and that's a really good textured material for moving your colours around any areas that you're working on.
So I've got a little pile of that there.
In this little bundle here I have an assortment of wood graining tools.
Now they come in a variation of shapes and sizes and I have one on a handle, one that's just a solid little piece of rubber.
Another couple here that look like cones of different variations.
So any time that you're around and you see any of these they're great to have in your box for whenever you need them.
Over here I have a pile of tissue paper that I'm going to be doing some leather look as we go on.
I have a pile of assorted stencils that I'm going to show you how to use the texture paste and the stencil together.
I have a box of cling wrap.
I have a couple of spatter tools and if you haven't seen these, these are really really good for doing small spatters on your work.
I have a toothbrush which is getting back to the really old fashioned way of doing spatter.
I have a piece of chamois which is lovely to use on backgrounds.
I have a spatula to use with the texture paste.
I have a variety of natural sea sponges here and a larger one if you're going to be working on larger areas.
Here I've just got an assortment of brushes for application of colours.
I've got some over this side.
I have some Josonia glass painting system.
Josonia all purpose sealer.
Texture paste.
Varnish.
Retarder to stop the drying process, slow it down.
Some clear glaze medium.
Some Kleister medium which adds texture and bulk to your paint.
And the two crackle mediums which is decal crackle which is the sandwich crackle that sits between two layers of paint.
And I have the crackle medium which is the fine china crackle which sits on top.
So now we're prepared to start with the faux finish video and I hope you enjoy it.
Our first faux finish that we're going to be doing is just the very simple glad wrap marble.
And I have base coated this board in red earth which is the Josonia earthy colour.
And I'm going to be putting carbon black over the top just so you can see the application of the colour
and the effects that you can get with the different ways of applying the glad wrap.
I've just put some carbon black out onto my palette and into that I'm going to be putting a little bit of Kleister medium.
Just to give it a little bit of texture as I'm using it.
Now I'm using about half and half. Half colour and half Kleister medium.
Now into that I'm just going to mix a little water to make the application easy.
Just using the big brush.
Now if you're using this on a wall or something like that the bagging method would be the method that you would use on a larger piece.
And I will show you the application of doing the bagging at the end of this segment.
Now once you have got your colour mixed get your glad wrap and have it out ready to use.
Now remember this is for smaller applications. You wouldn't be using glad wrap if you were doing a larger area.
So have your glad wrap there. Just set aside ready to pop onto the area.
Now at any time you can go back and add a little bit more water to this.
And I'm just applying this all over the board with my large brush.
If it's a very drying day you can always put a tiny bit of rotata into your paint as well as the Kleister medium.
And it just gives a lovely finish to your work.
Lift up your glad wrap, pop it over the area that you're working and press it down onto that work.
Now don't try and smooth out all these little creases.
You can move more into it by swishing the glad wrap around.
But it's these little creases which give the marbling effect to your piece.
And once you're happy with the effect of the glad wrap on your piece you gently lift it off.
And there is the glad wrap marbling.
Now you can just set that aside to dry and then you can come back and put a little bit of feather work on it.
All sorts of things.
This is a very simple background for boxes, for small pieces, for table tops.
It works really nicely.
And you can put a variety of colours.
Once that's dry, if you want to come back and put a second paler colour over the top,
you can, using the same application with a fresh piece of glad wrap,
and you can continue building up the layers until you're happy with it.
But I'm just going to do this one today and keep it as simple as I can for the start.
As painters you know how difficult it is to get nice gifts for men.
This is a fabulous finish to be using on a box or something as a gift for a man.
If you do your background all over the box with the red earths
and then come back with the black and the Kleister medium and do your glad wrapping,
purchase one of the little brooches that are available, paint it in the red earths,
and using the black put your male's initials onto that medallion,
and when it's dry stick it to the top of the box.
It's a lovely gift for a man.
You can put a gold edging around if necessary, a little gold edging around the brooch,
and you've got the perfect gift for the man in your life.
Now onto our second finish, and I have base coated this board in a mix of burgundy and black
just to give that cherry wood colour that you can get.
And on this particular piece I'm going to be showing you how to do the leather look using tissue paper.
Now the first thing we're going to need is all purpose sealer
because this is going to be used as a glue to attach the tissue to the board
and also as a backing to put over the tissue once it's glued onto the board before we put our colour on.
So putting some all purpose sealer out onto my pallet,
get your sheets of tissue paper and crumple them.
And I've got a couple here just so that I have it ready in case I need it.
Once again this can be done with a variety of colours, it doesn't have to be the cherry wood look,
but I really do like this finish.
The next coat that I'll put on I'll put a little bit more burgundy into it to give that nice effect.
Now with one of your brushes, a tad of water on your brush just to move the all purpose sealer around.
And I've been quite liberal putting this sealer on.
I'm not spreading it out too much because remember this is going to be the glue that attaches the tissue paper to my background.
Now with the tissue paper I'm just going to unravel it and press it onto my work.
Once again not taking the large areas of the tissue away too much.
You can lift it up if there's some fairly large creases, just lift it and get rid of them
because you don't want too big a clump in that area.
Now once it's pressed on with your all purpose sealer again come back and put another layer of the all purpose sealer onto your work
to make sure that it is attached, this tissue is attached to the background colour
and it's also setting up a barrier on which your colour will sit when you come to put the next colour over the top.
Just going through, moving that all purpose sealer into all the nooks and crannies that are there.
Now this will dry quite firm.
Don't worry about any of the overhang because once this is dry you can then just go through and cut off any of the tissue that's not necessary.
Just making sure that all of those little nooks and crannies are covered and there's the initial set up for leather lock.
Due to lack of good scissors I'm just going around and pulling off the excess now that the all purpose sealer and the tissue has dried.
Just right on the edge, just flipping the tissue paper off as I'm going around.
Now a pair of good scissors is a necessity when you're doing this but unfortunately I don't have them.
Now into this colour that I've already got on my palette and I'm not going to waste the black that's got the little kleister medium in it.
I'm going to put some burgundy and just mix that into that little black that I have there.
Even though it's leather look you can put any colour on that you wish.
And remember that black and burgundy makes a lovely cherry wood colour.
Now I'm just coming back with this colour and over painting over the dried tissue paper that has the all purpose sealer.
Now remember by using all purpose sealer it is a barrier that you have put down to hold your paint.
So the paint is not going to be penetrating into that tissue, it's just going to sit on the top of it.
Now let your brush work into any of the crevices that are there.
And continue around putting on the colour, making sure that you do have a good coverage through to the end.
Now once again on smaller areas this is a fabulous finish and can be used on virtually any type of background that you wish.
Now that that is finished with the top coat I'm just going to let that dry and then come back and put a little dry brushing of gold over the top of it.
Just so that you can see where the leather look comes in.
Now that this piece is dry I'm going to come back with a little bit of rich gold.
And I really love these china bristle brushes, they're only a cheap brush but they're really good for putting on some dry brushing.
So without wetting this brush I'm just going to go into my rich gold, wipe off any excess on my palette and just gently pull this colour over my dried work here.
Just skimming the surface with the tip of my brush and what's happening is that the nooks and crannies in this particular faux finish is now picking up any of the gold that is on my brush.
And you can see how it's just picking up, don't put your brush down, don't lay it down and what I'm doing is going in different directions with this little dry brush.
Taking off any excess every time that I pick up the colour, lift off any excess onto your towel, that's why I work on a towel, is that it is very handy for wiping off any excess of paint on your brush.
I'm holding my brush upright so that the tip of the brush is skimming the surface of my work.
And just going all around. Now when you're doing this you can use any colour, it doesn't have to be a metallic colour, I've done lovely boxes to look like the sea by having teal green background colour down, coming back with the tissue paper over the top of the teal green.
I've then placed another coat of teal green over the tissue and then I have dried brush with the lovely iridescence that are available and I dry brushed iridescent green and iridescent blue over the top of the piece to give the look of the sea.
And then you can, if you're doing a box once again for a gift, a lovely seashell put onto the top and glued onto the top of the box before you varnish, gives a lovely little gift.
Now you can see how the gold has attached itself to the nooks and crannies on that particular piece, if you want to come back and put the pale gold here and there over the top, that is not a problem.
Now once that's dry I'll give it a coat of varnish and that will just set everything in concrete and none of your tissue paper will move.
While the leather look piece is drying I'm just going to come back with the glad wrap piece and put a coat of varnish onto the board.
Now I'm using a dry brush with the varnish and I'm using satin varnish over the top. You can see how once you've got a coat of varnish on it just lifts the colour out beautifully and when I'm applying the varnish I always use a dry brush and try not to over brush it too much.
Your first coat you will always have a few streaks in it but when you come back with the second coat of varnish that smooths out any streaks and just gives a lovely finish.
Now I'm just going to swap that board over for the leather look board and a coat of varnish onto this as well.
This just gives a nice protective coating to the leather look and a couple of coats of varnish is sufficient for these pieces.
Now the beauty of this water based varnish is once it's touched dry you can put a second coat on and all of the Josonia products you can use one over the other and they will all cure from underneath through to the top.
So it's not a problem if you're in a hurry to do something that things haven't got a standing time because they will all dry as you layer them up they will all dry from the underneath layer through to the top.
That's the leather piece and the glad wrap piece with one coat of Josonia satin varnish and once these are dry another coat can be applied and have a really nice finish to your work.
Our next faux finish is some sponging and I know everybody knows how to sponge but I'm just going to show you this way that I feel is just a little bit different and you can soften it down.
A lot of the pieces that I see as I travel around the sponged background really overtakes the decoration and I just want to show you how to do the sponging and soften it down so that you get a muted background to your work.
I have base coated this piece in smoked pearl.
I'm just applying a coat of Retarda to my board to give me a little bit of open time to be able to work with the sponge.
And I also have a one inch mop brush for this little bit.
Now out on my palette I'm going to put a little bit of teal green
and pick one of my really interesting sponges that I have here and I'm just moistening that down and wringing out any excess moisture and picking up the colour on my sponge
and working across the piece so that I'm not getting a definite pattern of the sponge coming through.
And by doing it like this move your sponge around so you don't get the marks and a uniform mark coming through on your work.
Moving the sponge, see I'm not using it in any particular manner all the way through.
It's the uniformity when you're sponging that really does spoil your work.
Once you have the colour on then come back with your mop brush and pat the sponging.
And this does mute the colour down.
Now these little mop brushes do mould constantly but don't worry about picking any of that up off your work until it's dry and they will just brush off.
Now you can see by the mop brush and just patting it up and down how it's muting that sponging down so that there's no definite lines and markings there.
There's some nice strong areas but there's other nice muted areas as well.
Now you can probably see the little hairs that are on that work but once it's dry I'll just brush it off with my fingers and those little hairs will come off.
Our next faux finish is black marble and I have base coated the board in white and it's soft white, the Josephsonia background colour soft white.
Now before I prepare the piece ready to go with the paint I'm just going to Constantina a little bit of tissue paper so that I can do fractures across my work when the paint is wet.
So I'm just doing a little Constantina on this tissue paper, make sure that you do press it down with your fingers and by Constantina you can see what I mean.
I also have another little piece of tissue paper here that I'm going to scrunch up ready to dab off any excess once the fractures are done.
This is just being prepared so you haven't got to race around at the last minute collecting things that you need.
I have out on my palette some carbon black and in this little dish I have some retarda which I'm going to pour into that and mix around.
Now I want a watery wash of this carbon black and I'm adding not only the retarda but some water as well.
Just pick up a little bit more of the retarda, pour it in because I have got quite a large puddle of paint there and just adding a little bit more water.
Now not only will it be watery but it will have a slow drying time because there's a retarda in it.
Now I'm just going to apply this over the board. Now if you're working on areas work small areas at a time.
So that you're not going to have it drying too quickly before you're able to come back and do the necessary things to it.
Now once you have that done get your concertina paper and I'm putting the fractures across in what I call drifts across my work.
Now you can put as many of those in as you wish and then with the crumple paper just come back and lift off areas between.
Don't go over all the fractures that you have put in there. An easy way of doing black marble with those fractures through.
And then when this is dry I'm going to just come back and feather some white into the piece.
You can lift off as much or as little as you wish.
And you can see the fractures where the concertina paper has gone across.
If you want to pull a couple more across you can do that because it's still workable.
And while ever you can work it and while ever you have got the ability to be able to lift paint off you can work with the concertina paper or the crumple paper to lift off the colour.
Now that the black marble is dry I've just got my feather which I had to search everywhere for and all the time that I've been doing this I thought I had a great supply of feathers but I don't.
And what I've done is just moisten that into the water and I'm going to run the edge through the titanium white to be able to come through and put in the feathering.
Now when I'm doing feathering it's like having a nervous hand.
And I am coming in what I call drifts across the work.
And just putting in some feather which are really artificial cracks in there.
You can have as many of these as you wish but try not to over do it too much and you can just darken some of it up if it's just a little pale.
You are only using the edge of your feather so don't be tempted to use it on the side because you won't get the same effect. It's just the edging that you're using to create the fractures in the marble.
Now while I've got that just drying I'm just going to bring over my sponged effect and I'm going to work it on my palette here so you can see the amount of bristles that actually came out of my brush.
Now this is quite normal with my brushes and you can see that it doesn't make a mark by waiting until it's dry before you do get rid of all of those little bristles and it hasn't affected the background at all.
So that's the sponged background and the black marble.
Now we're going to be working on some stenciling and I'm going to show you stenciling using texture paste.
Now there's such a variety of stencils on the market at the moment. There's borders and there's bows and there's flowers, there's little people. You can have an assortment of so many things.
So what I'm using today is a bow and I'm just going to tape it across the top of my work here with some magic tape using the magic tape so it's not going to pull off any background.
And I've also taped off a couple of sections here that I'm going to show you other use of the texture paste.
So here I have the Joe Sonia texture paste and I have one of those cheap spatulas that you can buy at the supermarket.
And this is what I'm going to apply the texture paste with.
Now I'm just going to lift up a small amount onto the end of my brush and just, or end of my spatula I should say, and just apply it to the area where the stencil is.
Now as I said, make sure that you do tape your stencil down. Now I'm just going to smooth off any excess with my spatula.
By using one of these larger spatulas it's much easier to remove the excess than what it is if you're just using a little palette knife.
Now once you have lifted off the excess, just lift off your magic tape and please don't wait until this is dry before you lift the stencil off
because you will be left with large area stuck to the stencil and it won't be easy to lift off.
Now if you want to do a border, you can go around with your stencil and continue this method all the way around.
Now once that's dry, you can paint over the top of it with a colour and dry brush it and I'm going to show you that as we continue on.
Now another thing that you can do with texture paste, which is really lovely on the edge of frames or mirrors that are only small, apply a coat of your texture paste to the area that you want to put a finish on.
Now you can put it as thick or as thin as you wish. I like to have a little bit of paste there to work with.
Just smooth it out.
Now with your spatula, you can then come back and put markings into that texture paste, which gives you little hills and hollows
and gives you a nice finish around the edge. Now once this is dry, it's a little bit thick just down this end, so I'm just going to lift a little bit off with the spatula
and I'm just tapping with that spatula into that area. You can go over it and continue going over it until you're happy with the effect that you've got.
Now once that's dry, it can be painted over with your colour of preference and then you can dry brush any colour over the top of that, which once again hits the little nooks and crannies that you have there and it works very well.
Anything that can make a mark into your work can be used. I'm just going to apply another little section here.
Just spreading that out. Now you can trowel it on. You can do little movements with your palette knife, which doesn't give the same type of finish as the patting.
And that gives an interesting effect as well. Now I'm just going to lift the magic tape off between the two finishes, which will make them stand out so that you can see them.
Now all of these, once they are dry, can be over painted with colour and dry brushed with any colour that you wish. And this is just three of the applications of texture paste. You can use it in many ways, but these two work particularly well on frames and mirror frames.
And this one is a stencil around the side of a box or across, can be done around a room, which looks fantastic. And the drying time on this is probably 24 hours before you can come back and over paint it.
A word of warning, if you are doing a frame or something like that, make sure that you lay it flat to dry, because this is heavy that you are putting on. The texture paste is heavy.
And it can pull away gently from your piece if you have your board sitting up like that. So if you are using texture paste, try and lay it down in the process of the drying and then you won't have any problems.
If you have it a little bit heavier or a little bit thicker in places, it won't lift away with the weight of the texture paste.
Now I feel like one of the chefs on television. I have pre-prepared this piece and I have done the texture paste stencil on it. And I'm just wanting to show you the finishing off of that stencil.
This has dried and it's perfectly dry to work on. Now here I just have some of the oak moss background that I put this particular piece on.
And just getting my brush, a slight amount of water and I'm just going to come back and over paint these little bows with the oak moss.
And I am going to paint the rest of the piece while I'm here. So that I don't have any lines coming through of where the second coat of colour has been applied.
Now I'm just making sure that I've got a coverage and you can see how those stencils are standing out. But I'm going to put a little bit of colour on them anyway.
And I'm just going to wait for this to dry and then place the stencil over what I've already done and do some dry brushing on it.
Now that the piece is dry and the base colour is dry, to go around and try and put a little bit of dry brushing on this just to make it stand out is too difficult.
But if you replace your stencil over the top of what you have already done, make sure that you have got it placed properly. It just makes the dry brushing very easy.
Because you can come back and put any colour that you wish as a little dry brush effect over it. Once again I'm using one of the China bristle brushes that are great for this dry brushing effect.
Just going over the areas where the texture is. And by putting your stencil back over the top of it, you don't have to worry about going in areas that you shouldn't.
And it keeps it confined into that stenciled area. Now once you've finished, just lift it off and there's the difference that the dry brushing of the stenciling makes.
Not only do you have texture, but you have a lovely dry brushed effect.
Now I've base coated our NYX FOE Finish Board ready and the colour that I have base coated is gold oxide. It's the Josonnia tube colour gold oxide.
And I'm going to be doing some wood graining on this using burnt umber and the Josonnia Kleister medium. Which I'm going to be using equal parts.
Just mixing those together. And you can see that I always use my brushes to brush mix everything.
Palette knives are not in my particular repertoire, but I'm always in a hurry to do things.
So into that I'm also going to add just a little bit of retarder because it's a very drying day and I don't want that to dry too quickly before I can lift it off with the graining tool.
Just mixing that in, making sure that everything's mixed together. Getting my brush ready.
I have my graining tools here. There's a few different kinds. I have some combs and I'm going to be showing you both or the lot as I go along.
Wetting my brush slightly and applying a glaze of burnt umber to my piece.
Now I have sanded everything before I started and that really helps you get a good finish and it makes application of colours very, very easy.
Now using the tool, I'm just going to start down the end and pull it through. You can see I'm using a slightly rocking motion to get the areas in.
But that is one use of the graining tool and that's the little flat rubber one that's available.
Now while it's still moist, I'm going to go over it.
And I picked up a dirty brush so I have a little bit of green in this one, which is a nice touch.
And this is the larger one that's available, which has a handle.
And you get the larger grain coming through.
So it just depends on the type of application of this graining that you want.
And that's another way of using the graining tool.
Now I'm just going over the board again because I want to show you the different applications.
The reason I can do that is the little bit of retarda that I put into the piece of paint before I started.
This is a comb and you can get lots of different effects with this. And I'm using the small end of it.
And that's a very subtle look to it.
Coming back.
And this is a rubber one, which does give you some good...
Having that cluster in your paint gives you the ability to be able to do lots of different finishes to your work.
And you can see the interesting effects that you can get.
That was with the smaller side of the rubber tool that I had.
Painting over it again.
And this is the larger edge, which is quite a nice finish.
Now coming across this way.
It's an interesting effect that you can get.
And that's what it's all about, just having interesting things happening to your work.
Anything that will make a mark into your paint can be used.
I'm just going to go back into my paint, smooth it out again.
Remember the basic things for doing this wood graining is your base colour, your cluster medium and your retarder.
That is one side.
Smaller version.
And a larger version.
So that is the three finishes on that particular tool that I had.
But I'm just, as my last one, I'm just going to go back, smooth that out.
And the paint is still workable.
Remember, because it has the cluster and the retarder in it.
And I'm just going to go back to my little rubber tool here.
And there is the wood graining back on.
This particular faux finish is called French Porphyry and it's done by using spatter brushes in different colours.
The background that I have on here is Indian Red Oxide.
And I have put on a pair of gloves so that I don't get paint everywhere.
And I'm going to be using the three methods of doing spatter in.
Now the colours that I'm using in this particular piece is a mix first off of Burgundy, Napthol Red Light and Phthalo Blue.
Now I'm just brush mixing those colours together and then I'm just going to tip or wet my brush, my toothbrush, into the water.
Picking up the colour.
And then running my thumb along the toothbrush to bring out the spattering.
Now you can control the amount of spatter that you have on this, but it is a little messy doing it.
Pick up a little bit more water on your brush if it's getting a little...
And we have a blob there. Just lift that off.
Just lift it off with a clean brush so that I haven't got too much of a mark.
Now this can happen if you are using the toothbrush for spattering.
So just be a little careful.
Now this is all over, but I'm not going to continue with that because I want to show you the spatter brush.
It has a little metal...this is where I end up with it all on my face because I'm just using it first off.
I can never decide which way to roll it.
And that is the right way.
Just all over with this.
Now if you want a larger spatter, get your brush, little bit of water on your brush, and another brush to tap it on.
And this gives a larger type spatter.
So these are the methods that you can spatter your work with.
And I'm just starting with the first one and this is all over.
Now that is the mixture of burgundy, napthal red light and phthalo blue.
Now I'm going to give a spatter of carbon black.
Now remember this is called French porphyry, this spatter.
Small amount of black.
And I am using the tapping method because I do need to have slightly stronger spatter as I go.
The next colour that we are going to be using is rose pink and it's just a light spatter of the rose which starts to bring in the colour.
You can see by this tapping method I really feel it's probably the most successful because you can regulate the amount of paint that you actually put on in the spatter process.
And the last one is going to be the burnished copper which is a really lovely colour as a finish.
And this little exercise is just to show you the spattering and the different effects that you can get with it.
There is what we call French porphyry and it's done with the different colours of the palette and bring in the different colours.
And that's really pretty on pieces on boxes, for sides of boxes and things like that.
Now this faux finish is called lace tortoise shell and it's a really interesting procedure with this.
And I am using Joe Sonia Saturn Varnish and mixing the colour into that varnish.
But before I do I have some 90% alcohol here and I am just going to put it into one of my little containers ready to be able to do some spatter onto my work with that alcohol.
If you do have the Joe Sonia glass and tile painting system you can use the glass and tile painting part A as your alcohol in this as well.
So I am just going to put that aside for the moment and I have got the alcohol in my little container.
Now with the Joe Sonia varnish I am just going to mix that into my burnt umber for the first step of this process.
Now my background colour is rich gold so I am just applying a coat of the burnt umber and varnish, the Saturn Varnish mixture.
Make sure that you do the edges, I will just smooth it out.
Now I am just going to lay that flat, stand up and with the alcohol on my brush and my little tapping brush here I am just going to tap on some of the alcohol.
So you can see how the alcohol reacts with the paint and varnish and I am getting blooms coming out.
Now you can put as many or as few on this stage because there are going to be three steps that we are going to be doing with this.
Now you can see the start of the bloom and the gold coming through and before we can proceed with this particular background I am just going to dry this off before we do the second part.
The next colour that I am using is Brown Earth, once again mixing that with the Joe Sonia Saturn Varnish and applying a coat of this over the top of the burnt umber.
Straight over the top once that is dry.
Work small areas at a time if it is drying weather with your alcohol and your brush back again having the blooms coming through again in this colour.
Using this method of application of the hitting your brush you will find it is a really easy way of getting nice bigger blooms in this piece.
And there is the second lot of blooms coming through with the next colour.
Now we dry this off before we proceed with the third layer.
The next colour which is the next layer is Raw Sienna.
So I am just putting some of that out on my palette.
Mixing once again the varnish into the colour. Mixing the varnish into the colour itself for the application.
And the Raw Sienna painted over the top of the dried second layer.
And to make sure that you get the large blooms in your piece it is the more alcohol that you pick up and spatter is going to be the larger the bloom.
You can see the blooms coming out in this now.
Remember you are working while that application of colour is still wet.
The colour and the varnish is still wet.
So work quickly when you are doing this.
And there is the third application of colour and the blooms coming through again.
Now this is why it is called Lace Tortoiseshell.
Because you have the layering and the blooms coming through on each layer.
Now you are not going to be able to see them that strongly until we put a coat of varnish on it.
So I am going to dry this off before the final layer goes on.
The final coat on this particular piece is Brown Earth and Clear Glaze Medium.
Because you just want it to be a glaze of colour.
Not to overtake the colours that we already have there.
So I am just going to put a little bit of water on my brush.
Just mix that brown into the Clear Glaze.
And the Clear Glaze gives you a lovely transparency.
And I am just going to paint that over the top of all the colours that we already have there.
Now once I dry this off then I am going to give it a coat of varnish.
So you can see the end result.
I am just going to wipe off some of that colour that I have on my brush.
Just so that I can smooth out the colour that is here.
Now there is the coat of Brown Earth with Clear Glaze Medium.
Which is a transparent colour over the top.
And then once this is dry I will come back and put a coat of varnish over the whole thing.
And you can see just how effective this Lace Tortoiseshell is.
For the final coat on the Lace Tortoiseshell I am going to put on some Josonnier Satin Varnish.
Instead of putting it into this assortment of little containers.
I have put it onto my palette and it is running away.
So with a dry brush I am just going to come back and put a coat of this varnish on.
And you will be able to see how it lifts out the colours that you have been doing in layers.
This is a really quite authentic tortoiseshell when you look at it.
It is not overpowering in colour.
But it is just a nice blend of the tones that we have used.
And there we are with the coat of varnish onto the tortoiseshell.
And you can see the blooms of different colour coming through now that the varnish has brought out the colours.
This next background that I am going to be showing you I call a fresco finish.
And the colours I am going to be using are Magenta, Pacific Blue and Pine Green.
I have a sea sponge that is damp and I have a piece of butter muslin that is also damp.
Please don't have it so that it is wringing wet because it is just going to spoil the finish.
You really don't need this much but when you use it you are going to be using it as a clump like that.
I also have some retarder and a brush that I am going to be using.
Before I do that I am going to put the colours out onto my palette that I am going to be using on this piece.
And it is Magenta and Pine Green.
Magenta and Pine Green together give a burnt sienna colour.
So it just depends how far you mix them the colour that you are going to get.
But green is a nice toning colour and I have some Pacific Blue just to give a little blue tint.
And remember if you mix Magenta and Pacific Blue together you are going to get a lavender colour.
So there are lots of possibilities with this background.
With the retarder I am just going through and retarding the piece that I have prepared which is Soft White that I have used as my background colour.
And that is Josonnier Background Colour, Soft White.
Now I am just working that into my board.
I am going to wipe off on my towel a little bit of excess retarder that I have.
And setting that aside.
Then with my sponge I am going to pick up my main colour which is going to be the Magenta.
Pick up a little bit of green as I am going to just tone that colour down.
So you can see immediately that you add the green to your Magenta.
It tones down.
Now don't be really tentative with this.
You are really getting stuck in and putting the colour into this piece.
Picking up with the dirty sponge some Pacific Blue.
And once again I am working in drifts across my piece.
A bit of green and the blue.
And picking up the colour randomly as I go so that I do have some stronger Magenta in there.
And just working across my piece.
Now that I have that working very quickly.
Don't have your muslin with a rounded edge like that because it is not going to work.
Have it clumped so that you can move the colour around.
Now what I am doing is just patting that colour and moving the colour around on this lovely piece.
Now this will mute the colour down.
But still have that variety of colour coming through.
Very quick finish.
And it gives you the ability of putting colours in together that you probably normally wouldn't use.
But it does work very well.
Leave some of it solid.
Or a little bit more solid than what you would.
And don't be tempted to pat it too much once it starts to dry.
Because you will lift the colour off and you will have to start again.
But this is a very effective background.
Especially for paintings.
If you are working on canvas.
This is a nice way of putting a background in with a swirling of colour.
It works well on canvas.
But make sure that you do retard it very well.
So it doesn't dry too quickly.
And if you are working on a canvas make sure that you work small portions at a time.
The next one that I am going to be doing is my version of the Lapis Lazuli.
That lovely blue aqua stone.
Which is fantastic.
The vibrancy of the colour.
And I have base coated the board in sapphire.
Josonia tube colour in sapphire.
And because it is such a drying day.
And because I have quite a few colours to go on.
And the colours that are out on my palette.
Just over here prepared to go.
Ultramarine blue.
Teal green.
Aqua.
Yellow oxide.
Diox purple.
And as a paler colour to put into this.
I have half and half of teal green and titanium white.
And I have pale gold.
Now I have got a sponge here.
That is just slightly dampened.
And the first colour that I am going to put on in the drifts.
Is the ultramarine.
Now just pulling it through.
It doesn't have to be too much at this stage.
Picking up a little bit of the green.
Working that in with the dirty sponge.
Picking up the colour as I go.
Picking up a little of the aqua.
Which is a fantastic colour.
Just sponging that in as I go.
Going back into my ultramarine.
Which is going to be my main colour.
Through this.
A little bit of yellow.
Just to break.
Turn your sponge around.
Just so that it is not going to be too strong that yellow.
A little bit of purple.
Getting into my colours now.
Purple is fabulous.
Turn your sponge around.
So that you are actually sponging into the colour.
There is no need to dry or wash your sponge.
Because all the colours are going to be blending as you go.
Go back at any time.
Blend the colour in.
As you want it.
Love the colours in this.
Beautiful stone.
And it works very, very nicely.
You can see the blending of colour by moving your sponge around.
You are not sponging in the same direction all the time.
Just picking up a little bit of the colour here.
I am just going to mix those two colours.
Which are the teal and the white together.
The sapphire blue makes such a good background for these lapis lazuli look.
I can remember when I first started doing faux finishes.
Was when I had my shop.
And one of my friends and I decided that we would do a faux finish in her family room.
And when we went home to tell her husband.
He actually thought that it was lapis lazuli that we were going to be putting all over the walls.
So he was quite pleased when he came home.
And found that we had done it like an alabaster box.
Which was really wonderful.
Except not one piece of furniture went with what we had done.
So these are just the little things in life that can happen.
You can't have everything your own way all the time.
But you can see the fantastic colours coming through this now.
And it's just a matter of working.
Turning your sponge around the whole time.
Very subtle look once you have it done.
And I'm just going to pick up a little bit of pale gold.
And just soften that out with the edge of my brush.
Just bring it down in a drift.
And the same on this side.
Just a little. Soften it in.
I wouldn't recommend doing too much of the pale gold in at this stage.
Because we are going to feather some of that gold in.
Just going back into the blue.
Just to soften the colour in.
And there is the background ready for the feathering with pale gold once it's dry.
Now that the piece has dried.
I have just got my feather that I've saturated in the water.
And just patted off a little bit.
And I'm just loading the edge of the feather with a little bit of the pale gold.
Just to bring in some of the gold coming through.
Very gentle phase that we will do.
And it just has a nice finishing effect to the piece.
And a little bit off here.
Now I'm going to just quickly dry this and put a coat of varnish on it.
So you can see how the varnish is going to lift out the colours.
But I'm sure you'll agree it's a lovely way of working with these beautiful colours that the lapis lazuli has.
But always make sure that you do retard your piece before you start playing with a variety of colours as I have here.
Because if you don't have that retarder on your background before you start sponging.
You won't have the ability to be able to move your colours around the way that I was able to on this small board.
And remember work small portions at a time rather than doing a large area.
You can always just soften colours into one another as you go along in a large area.
But it's very difficult to move them around if they have started to dry.
Now that this piece has dried I'm just going to put a coat of the satin varnish over the top.
Just so that you can see how the varnish brings out the colours.
It's really quite a beautiful finish this.
And looks wonderful with things that are marine.
And I actually did this as a base of a box that I gave for Christmas.
With one of the Italian Renaissance angels that I painted on it.
And it just looked fantastic.
So you can see how that has brought the colours out.
And that's just one coat of the Josonia satin varnish.
And it just lifts the colours out beautifully.
I would put a couple of coats of that varnish over this particular piece because it just finishes it off nicely.
This particular finish is called Imperial Granite.
And I have already base coated the piece in yellow oxide.
And I'm applying a coat of Retarda over the top.
This is an interesting piece because there are a couple of layers to it.
And the colours are very interesting.
The colours that I have out on my palette prepared are gold oxide, burnt sienna, raw umber, yellow oxide, carbon black.
And I have another small puddle of burnt sienna that I'm going to mix with the clear glaze medium as a final glaze over the top.
Now I have my sponge again and once again this is a sponging type finish that is very interesting as well.
With the colours.
Now I'm going to be working with my dirty sponge the whole way through.
And I'm just sponging in my main colour which is the gold oxide.
Picking up a little bit of the burnt sienna to be able to sponge into that gold oxide.
So that I'm not going to be getting too many marks where the colours are.
Just blending in as I go.
This was a finish that I actually saw when I was in Bangkok and it's a beaut finish.
Because it can be used on mirrors and frames and all sorts of things.
And I was lucky enough to work with a couple of young fellows when I was over there.
Who were art students who were well and truly into faux finishes.
And I really picked up a lot of my knowledge while I was there.
Going back into the gold oxide.
Just patting this in as I go.
Turn your sponge around if it starts to get a little messy.
Pick up some of the darker colour.
Blend it in and remember you've got that yellow oxide background in there.
So that's always going to work for you.
I'm just going to pick up the burnt sienna as I come back to do this corner.
Now it doesn't matter how you pick the colours up and in what form.
But as long as you get them into here all over.
Now remember when you're out and about and you see sea sponges for sale or on special.
Or even if you just see some interesting sponges.
Buy them because they're going to come in very handy if you're going to do your backgrounds like we're doing today.
You can't have too many of them and they'll all work really well.
I'm just going to pick up a little bit of yellow oxide now.
Which remembering is the base colour that we have.
But I'm just patting a small amount of that lighter colour in.
Just in drips over what I have there.
And the interesting effect is going to come with the next one.
Because we're going to, once this is dry, to come back over and put in some black all over this surface.
So it just gives a really interesting look to what we call imperial granite.
Into the corner.
Just put a variation of colour coming through.
And just here I have a little bloom of colour that I'm not going to blend in.
Because I think that's going to work really well when I come back for the second coat once this is dry.
Now that this finishes dry, on my palette here I have a mixture of carbon black, clear glaze medium.
And a little retarder in it so that it's not going to dry too quickly when I put it on.
Just a tad more retarder into that.
So that I can have a bit of open time.
Which means time to play with this particular colour.
A lot of people when they use carbon black think it's such a strong colour.
But really it is a transparent colour.
Now here I have one of my really favourite things that I own.
And that's a really large sea sponge.
And I think it cost me about $15 when I bought it.
But it's really great and I've had it for years and years.
And I'm just going to go into the carbon black onto that.
And now I'm going to come onto my work with it.
Just a sponge all over with the carbon black.
And there's the imperial granite coming up.
Layer number two is carbon black mixed with clear glaze medium and retarder.
Now when this dries it won't be as heavy as what it is now.
And I'll just dry it off and come back and do the third layer.
The layering of your work as we're doing in several of the pieces today.
Really helps with the depth of colour that you get when the piece is finished.
And I have my feather now for the third layer.
And I'm just picking up some gold, rich gold on my feather.
And I'm just going to bring in some feathering of the gold onto this piece.
Moving the feather around.
As I said before it's a nervous hand that you need when you're working with the feather.
And this is going to have another layer over the top of it once this feathering has dried.
So I'm just going to pull in all of these because there's going to be a glaze put all over the top.
This particular piece of faux finish would look fabulous if you were into doing animals.
Wild animals.
And you know that there are quite a few people that are out there at the moment doing animal pictures.
So this would sit very nicely if you were doing a box on the edge of a piece in that range.
So let's dry that off and come back and put over the final glaze to give the final finish to this piece.
Now that the gold feathering has dried on my palette I have mixed clear glazed medium and burnt sienna.
And this is the colour that I'm going to paint all over the top of this piece.
Remember we are layering the piece and it's the layers that give the depth to your faux finishes.
When I first started out I thought I was really fabulous when I could master the sponging.
But there's just so many finishes around that you can do.
And in this video we're just scraping the surface with some of them.
Don't be frightened to use colour when you're working with the faux finishes because they do work so well with the beautiful colours that are around.
And there is the glaze over.
All the colours are coming through and once you hit it with a coat of varnish that's going to bring the colours out even more.
Now that our texture paste board is dry I'm just going to come back and put the over colour over this.
So you can see some of the effects that you can have by using the texture paste.
It has dried. Make sure before you do this that it is totally dry otherwise you will move it around and have such a mess.
I can't even begin to tell you.
When you come to the really textured part of this really work your brush into the piece so that you're getting into all those little nooks and crannies.
Most of the time you won't realise that there are little spots until it's dry.
But by scrubbing your brush into that edging you will have a nice coverage.
Just down onto this section over the ribbon because I've already done this on one piece but for a second go using another colour.
And on this board because I've done nice black background I'm going to be using some iridescent colours.
Now I'll just dry this off which is the base colour of carbon black that I've just put over the top.
And then I'll come back and do some dry brushing in the iridescence on this particular board.
Now I've placed the stencil over the little bow that I did this morning.
And I know that black is very difficult to see on video but I just want to show you a little bit of the iridescence and how they work on the darker colours.
And it was just a good opportunity to be able to do that.
This one I'm using is violet iridescent and I'm just doing a little dry brush over the bow area that was texture paste this morning.
And dried. It's been a very drying day so it hasn't taken long to get that little piece dry.
And I'm just using a stencil brush this time just to put in the colour.
And there's the iridescent purple or iridescent violet on that particular piece.
Now this one here I'm going to put in a little bit of iridescent green.
Dry brush that onto the nooks and crannies that are now in that.
Just to give you an idea of how it looks when it's dry and it's dry brushed.
And just moving the board around so I can do the top edge without going over the other area too much.
So that you can see the different textures you can get in with the different application of the texture paste.
So this is the iridescent green that I'm just dry brushing over the texture paste on that particular area.
And the last one that I'm going to do which is the top is the iridescent blue.
Brushing it over the area of the textured area just in here.
I really like this area because it is a small type of texture on it and it works very well on smaller pieces.
So not all the time do you have a huge piece that you want to put texture on but this one does work very well.
Just scrubbing on the colour with the tip of my brush and it's just skimming the surface of my work.
And then be aware that you can always come back with a little pale gold and put a touch of that in as well.
So it just gives you that slightly different effect having the two colours on the one textured piece.
And that is the iridescent blue and the pale gold.
If you wanted to put a little touch of the blue onto the green.
And you can see how you get a lovely marine look coming through with the application of the two colours together.
I'll just put it on and then...
I want you all to know that I am going to clean this variety of brushes that I have in my brush basin over here.
And we have come to the end of the faux finish video.
I hope I have been able to show you some interesting finishes that really appeal to you and that you are going to really enjoy painting over the period of time.
I have just scratched the surface using some of the wonderful mediums that are available in the Joson Yrange.
They just make painting very, very simple.
To be able to use a medium directly out of the bottle and make something work on your piece is an absolutely marvellous thing to do.
The Josonia colours work so well with the colours that we have used in the backgrounds today.
I hope you have enjoyed watching the faux finish video and I look forward to catching up with you next time.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you.