On page 66,there is a picture of a stone retaining wall. Could someone please tell me what paints/washes would you use to produce that color on these walls? Thank you
Looks like they are painted tan or beige with a black or other dark wash applied to the blocks so it settled between them, and the dry brushed with very light tan or white.
Could have started by painting the walls black, then heavy dry brushing of tan or beige to bring out the whole block, the a light dry brushing of white to bring out the very top surface.
I’m all the way upstairs and don’t feel like running to my basement for the MR issue, but I’ll give you the general technique I use, which produces similar results.
Rocks around here are gray with a lot of reds, oranges, and browns in them. So I start with a paint that’s 4 parts stone gray and one part burnt umber (WS “earth colors” paints), mixed 80/20 with water to make a fairly thin paint. Anything made out of stone gets 3 sloppy coats of this, so that it’s darker in some areas than others (I often delegate this task to my youngest son, because he likes to just slop the paint on, although having reached the age of 9, he’s getting more careful and therefore less effective). The key here is that you WANT a blotchy effect, not a uniform distribution of color.
After this is dry, I dry brush the rocks with acrylics, adding dark browns, rusts, deep oranges, and just a little white. Drybrushing is a technique where you put almost no paint on the brush (I put a drop into a paint cup, spread it out, then hit the first couple strokes onto a piece of newspaper to remove paint), and lightly stroke you workpieces so that only streaks and spots of paint are left on it.
I let this step dry, then apply a final black wash (one part flat black acrylic paint to 10 parts thinner), which will collect in the grooves and crevasses and highlight them. If I get too much pooling in one spot, I blot it with either the brush or the corner or a paper towel.
It’s actually pretty easy, once you get the hang of it.