SpringFling Garage....Day 3

With the lovely spring weather I like to work outside. I can be as messy as I want which is a good thing since weathering wood can be extremely messy. ....at least the way I do it!

All you need is a mixture of india ink and rubbing alcohol. Since I'd never tried this before, I wasn't sure what the proportions should be. The first coat seemed slightly purple-y & I wondered if maybe I'd gotten the wrong type of ink.

I tried mixing tempera and water but that didn't seem to mix well so I dumped that out & used black acrylic paint with water. Here's what it looked like:

Not bad but too light I thought. I never could wait! So I gave it a second coat of wash. And then for good measure I dabbed on the remains of my wash where I thought the wood might have weathered more than in other spots.

Then I thought OMG, I've ruined it. It's too dark! But once it dried properly, it seemed OK:

Certainly much better than the porch floor boards. They don't look realistic at all. What do you think?

I'll still have to daub on some hints of brown & green but I'll leave that until after my workshop this weekend. One and a half days of learning faux painting techniques. I am so looking forward to it!! Maybe I can even learn to do paint with "subtlety". LOL

In case you're interested in what else have been keeping me busy....

This was before:

This is after:

I didn't paint this one; just repaired it. But I have two more Muskoka chairs waiting for me in the garage....still in the box; not even primed. And I know exactly what type of scene to paint on them!