Lesson 1: Media for Walls and Hard Surfaces - Beyond the Usual
Special Effects Additives
There are many intriguing additives sitting next to the acrylic stencil paints on the craft store shelves, and many of them are worth investigating if you are trying to achieve a special effect.
- Crackle glaze is one that will give stencil paint the crazed, alligatored look of old, weathered paint, or the look of antique cracqueleure. This is great if you are stenciling that you want to resemble an old weathered fence or a piece of antique furniture.
- Instant iridescence You can buy an additive that will mix with solid colored paint to give it an iridescent effect. This is useful in fantasy painting, when you are creating the look of water, old glass, soap bubbles, fairy wings, or just want to create a magical look. Many flowers have a touch of iridescence in their petals and so can benefit from a light addition of this medium.
- Metallic additives Another type of additive will turn ordinary solid colors into those with a metallic sheen. Since most often you will have limited use for metallic finishes in a mural or border (unless you are going for straight gold, silver, copper or bronze, in which case there are many shades of metallic acrylics and crèmes available) it makes more sense and is more economical to use this additive to create the metallic effect. That way stenciling a bold candy-apple red toy car is easy and realistic and you don't end up with a big bottle of a color you'll have little other use for.
- Texture additives Some additives will actually blend with paint to go on textured, like the sand paint used to make a faux stucco wall in house paints. But there is also a brush-on medium that will add a textured feel to an already painted surface. I used this on these stenciled bricks, so that they have a gritty feel while the surrounding wall is smooth plaster. This effect is more tactile than visual, but adds another dimension of realism to the work.
- Glow-in-the-dark Paint. There are two versions of this. One is an additive that will make ordinary paints luminescent once they have absorbed enough bright light to be able to reflect it back. These work well with pale colored paints, but dark paints absorb too much light without being able to then reflect it. The additive is useful for creating a subtle glow with your stencil that is not visible in ordinary daylight.
Straight glow-in-the-dark paint doesn't show up in daylight either - but when the lights go out, it becomes very visible and almost magical. This is perfect for creating something like a small solar system on a child's ceiling, or adding a little surprise to a mural that depicts a sky. It's also extremely handy for Halloween murals, tips of fairy wands and other small visual effects. I used it on the stenciled eyes of cats so that they glow in darkness the way real cats eyes can.
