A Bit of Antiquing

One little known fact about my art path, has been the many years I spent painting decorative furniture, faux finishes and murals.  Those were great years, met so many wonderful people, worked in homes that were ten steps above what we lived in, immensely adaptable and made me dig deep for new ideas and inspirations.

Eventually age, the ladders, hauling tons of supplies with me and the long days got the best of me.

By the time we moved to Maryland, those days were left behind and I began working more diligently on canvas. 

There was a period of time when "antiquing" furniture was all the rage.  After the work of refinishing, painting and decorating a piece I would coat it with a black-brown oil paint, medium concoction  creating a thick, black smeary mixture. Yes, paint the piece totally black. The tricky part was the timing and the slow removal of the antiquing mixture.  It had to be completed in one step in a window of time, thus, disruptions like: a child saying could they please go to bed; a phone call from a mega-millionaire wanting some murals painted, could cause problems of annoying magnitude. 

I had forgotten about antiquing furniture until I went to apply some textures to photos I had taken before the holidays.  I wanted a heavier, more "antiqued" look, like an old world painting. 

Ah, so much easier....no smelly oil, no paint stuck under fingernails, product instantly "dry" and could be redone over and over.  Let the interruptions come on!  Now this was the way to go.

So I share two images that have had multiple textures laid over them to  achieve a darker, more mysterious look....hmmm, that sounds a bit dramatic.

I used Kim Klassen's textures, four of them, to create the moody, mysterious appearance. It was an adventure trying to see how far I could push the "button."  Well actually keyboard.
In no particular order I used Noise, Kristen, Organic, Pumpkin Grunge....played with saturation, clarity and masking to remove parts of the antiquing. 
Good bye days of painting furniture and walls, time to sit in front of a computer!

Texture Tuesday