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To begin I took two
cans of spray primer, one Black and one Dark Gray. I
lightly sprayed the black and then followed up with a
lighter application of the gray. I kept this up till I
had a good even coverage of both colors. Once those
applications were dried thoroughly, the next step was to
give the deep crevices of the wood a wash of pure black. |
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While this wash was
still wet I gently, as not to displace the paint in the
crevice, removed most of the color from the upper ridges
of the wood with a soft cloth and sealed the area
with
Krylon Matte. |
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I’m
going to begin the color changes with a Burnt Sienna
by dry brushing lightly upon the ridges of
the wood. I wiped my brush off on a clean cloth repeatedly
till the brush was able to glide over the ridges
without leaving a wet look. Once all the pieces were
done it was lightly sealed again with Matte |
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The next two steps
I alternated between often.
The first I used a rag to wipe on Freak Flex Wooden
Stake, and the other a sea sponge to dap and skip
around the piece with Burnt Umber.
I repeated this method till I found a comfortable
combination of color I was happy with. Look closely at
pic (4) it is noticeable how the sponge simply breaks
up the underlining color without totally covering it
up. Be sure to have the sponge relatively dry of
color, this is important, you don’t want it to be
saturated with paint. Blot the sponge often on
a clean rag before applying. |
Pic
4
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The sea sponge had proven to be the key technique to
the realistic effect I was going for.
I happened to have picked Burnt Umber, because I
wanted to darken up some areas of
the Raw Sienna previously applied, but yet, still
allow much of it to show through.
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The
Wooden Stake was applied in a different manner to help
equalize the spotted effect I was getting with the sea
sponge, like a tug of war between techniques.
Basically,
what I was attempting to avoid was a noticeable
pattern. In this type of “nature” there is no
pattern to be found. Colors are random, and no
two-tree barks or inside tree rings are the same. Each
board, or wood plank within your kit must be somewhat
different from its counterpart. |
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After repeating the above steps many times the pieces were
dull coated and permanently assembled.
Immediately the very light grays and almost white’s came out
to play.
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Once again I revert
back to imagining an old washed out barn, or that worn out old
park bench we’ve seen numerous times somewhere out there. My
imagination seems to recall that the worst worn areas are the
edges. I took some Lt Gray and began to lightly, lightly,
lightly, dry brush the edges building up the color slowly and
in random areas.
I mentioned random
again, because you don’t want to have every edge, and every
end or tip have the same Lt Gray look, remember do not
purposely form a pattern.
Hit
the tops of some boards, hit the edges of others, and split a
board in half with some Lt Gray. Put your piece down and step
away….what do you see? Return and continue dry brushing and
repeat these steps till your happy with your results.
Eventually you will be and another kit will be ready for your
display. |
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