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Annie's Basic Old Master Glaze
(For faux finishing walls and furniture)
Hailey Lind
Supplies:
1/3 Mineral spirits
1/3 Artist's quality boiled linseed oil* or a commercial alkyd faux-finishing liquid (available at most paint retailers)
1/3 Alkyd tinted wall paint
*Linseed oil is the traditional painter's medium, though it may prove too shiny and slow-drying for modern tastes. It also tends to yellow over time, making blue finishes especially difficult to achieve. Liquid driers can be mixed in to speed up drying time, and whiting may be added for body and to cut the shine, but for a completely matte finish substitute a commercial alkyd faux-finishing medium.
Mixing Glaze: Mix all ingredients well before and during the project. If any pigment is not thoroughly mixed, it will show as a blotch on the wall. A large mayonnaise jar full of glaze is usually sufficient for an average living room, but it is always best to mix extra glaze. It is very hard to achieve exactly the same color in a different batch of glaze!
Basecoat: Remember that the wall base paint will show through the glaze coat. The base is typically lighter than the glaze, but the color choices and combinations are limited only by one's imagination. A typical parchment finish is a raw sienna glaze over a Navajo white base coat; burnt umber creates a mellow brown antique feel; burnt sienna gives an orangey-red earthy glow. Choose an eggshell latex paint for an even base coat surface that will not absorb too much of the glaze. While painting the wall with the base coat, paint a few big pieces of heavy cardboard or scrap lumber to test your glaze color intensity as well as to practice your technique. Allow the base coat to dry for forty-eight hours before faux-finishing.
Glaze Technique: Glaze is a translucent film of pigment which alters but does not hide the base coat. The best way to learn how to achieve the finish you want is to experiment. Apply the glaze coat to a base-coated surface with a regular brush or sponge, then try any of the following:
To achieve an all-over "broken" finish: Cheesecloth, plastic bags, wadded up paper, T-shirt rags. Press one or all of these into the glaze, lifting up in a dabbing motion. Each item leaves a different sort of imprint behind in the wet glaze. You can soften any of the textures in the glaze by very lightly brushing over them with an extremely soft, dry brush. Change cloths frequently as they get saturated.
To achieve a "dragged" finish: Cut-out rubber squeegee or comb, flogger, dry paintbrush. Rather than dabbing, drag these through the glaze from top to bottom, or in a squiggle, or criss-cross, or any design that appeals to you. Be sure to wipe excess glaze from the tool frequently.
Glazing a wall is a fast, intense job usually best done with a helper. Starting in the uppermost left corner (for right-handers, the opposite for lefties), one person begins painting the glaze on the wall loosely with a brush. The second person follows, creating the desired texture, moving to the right and down the wall rapidly. Both of you should move back and forth quickly so that the "edge" of the glaze is never allowed to dry; if it does so, it will create a "hard edge" that is impossible to mask. Similarly, going back "into" glaze that is already drying usually creates a blotchy mess; it is better to leave light or missed areas alone and feather in fresh glaze afterward, when the surface is completely dry.
Nobody's Perfect: If you do happen to end up with a lot of blotches and hard edges, try over-glazing with another coat of glaze, either in the same color or a coordinating one. Or just go with the "old plaster" theme, paint in a few more "cracks" and "veins," and pretend you did it on purpose. If all else fails, you can start all over again, this time approaching the wall as an experienced faux-finisher. Just remember: it's only paint!
Feint Of Art 
Hailey Lind
The first in a new mystery series starring art-forger-gone-good Annie Kincaid
Annie breaks the news to her curator ex-boyfriend Ernst:
his museum's new $15 million Caravaggio is a fake. Then the
janitor is killed, Ernst disappears, and a dealer makes off
with several Old Master drawings. If she breaks the case
using her old connections, Annie can finally pay the rent.
But doing so could also draw her back into the underworld
of forgers she swore she'd left behind.
(An Annie Kincaid Mystery)
Signet , January 2006
Featuring: Annie Kincaid
272 pages ISBN: 0451216997
Paperback
$6.99
(Notify me via e-mail when Hailey Lind releases a new book.)
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