Debra Conrad,(That Painter Lady) Publisher of The Beginners Guide to Professional Faux Finishes Series and 15 year professional faux finish painting artist, pulls back the curtain and reveals faux painting technique secrets to the average Joe (and Jane).
Learning faux painting techniques requires more than knowing how to ball up a rag or a plastic bag and dab it on a vertical surface. How to protect the ceiling where the rag will leave huge gobs of paint is usually not taught in faux painting books or videos. Where do you learn how to get that wad of plastic bag into the corner without your elbow taking off some of that fabulous faux finish you just applied?
Professional artists have kept faux finish techniques a secret for years. Oh...you can get on a plane and pay thousands of dollars to learn some wonderful technical faux painting at a top faux painting school. Or you can go to the local big box store and learn to paint faux finish on a piece of poster board. You can even stop in for coffee and browse the Do It Yourself section of your local bookstore.
Jump on the internet and you will find thousands of sites and forums that would help you learn just about any style faux painting from amateurs and professionals. I found a video on Martha's website about painting techniques for beginners. If you watch her television show you will find that she is an expert in choosing colors and teaching the basics but Martha doesn't portray herself as an expert in faux painting techniques.
The problem is... most of the available advice rarely covers the "how do I get out of any mess I made" problems.
How would a beginner know about these problems of faux painting techniques? Let's ask Jane if she thinks the author of the book she just purchased will return her email when she runs into a snag and can't figure out the next step. No?
Well you haven't tried to get in touch with Debra Conrad have you? She has answered every question received in her inbox to date. "Take away the scary stuff and leave the student with easy to achieve results without special tools or expensive supplies," said Conrad of www.fauxfinishhowto.com.
Faux Brick painting is the first in a series of video and e-Book tutorials for the beginner just starting to learn faux painting. Every tiny pencil mark and dirty paper plate pallet is shown on the video and in the 80 page full color photo faux painting brick tutorial. If you have ever thought about faux painting walls in your home with brick but were discouraged with all the grout tape lines that must be applied, the solution is here.
This brick faux painting technique requires no tape for the grout lines, no floppy stencils for the brick shapes and no goopy texture paste for a realistic appearance. Just simple to make templates and a few cheap supplies are all that is required for anyone to replicate the warm rich look of brick walls. Even the decorative painting mistakes are shown live and fixed live.
"I don't teach students in classrooms on poster board, I teach how to paint walls...on walls" said Conrad. "It takes years to learn how to fix all the mistakes that can be made, and I think I've made them all more than once."
