Scenic Painting

[Ed Dimarzio]

I need to pitch in and paint a floor to look like dirt. The floor is presently
black, so I presume that we will broom/brush some tans and browns over it.
Should you apply from dark to light or light to dark?

Your input is appreciated.
Ed DiMarzio
Dramatic Sounds

[Andy Broomsgrove]

In article <60u4tu$p...@dfw-ixnews11.ix.netcom.com>, ed...@ix.netcom.com (Ed
Dimarzio) wrote:

If I was working from an already black floor I'd spray (with a fairly
coarse spray) with browns working from dark to light.

Andy

[Huisey]

The easiest and most realistic way to get a dirt effect is to spatter the floor
- right onto the black! brushing color on will look "painted" - spattering,
especially with varying degrees of droplet size, mist, etc., looks to real to
have been painted. There are several methods:
1) flicking a loaded paintbrush gives you a huge variety of droplet sizes, but
is messy for the "flicker" - and anyone else nearby. I genarally use this
sparingly after using other techniques;
2) using diluted paint in a garden hand-pump sprayer works well to blend color
and give the surface a naturally variegated look. It can alo be used to force
lighting and shadowing effects Cool!;
3) or get yourself a plastic laundry spray bottle, and set the output to
several different settings to get a variety of droplet sizes and mists.
Generally, I find that by using all THREE together, I get the most natural
look.
Important Hint: carefully mask off everything (and one) that you don't want
painted. Especially for the brush flicking technique.
Good Luck