I am trying to find a way to simpler way to paint my completed carvings.
What I am trying to do is paint the relief areas one color and the rest of the piece another color. I have seen this done, but only with one color and the uncarved areas are left as raw wood and then stained or cleared. Like this:
I want mine to look like this:
I tried painting the black with a low nap sponge roller, but even with that the roller got into the white areas. I want to avoid hand painting if at all possible and not make it any more labor intensive than needed.
Does anybody have any techniques that they could share?
I have done this type of thing with good success. Paint the black 1st and put a clear coat over it. I use oil based paint and clear coat for this. Then mill your letters and figures. Be sure to put scrap wood under clamps so as to not mar the black. I paint my letters with water based paints, so if the paint gets on the black you can merely wipe it off!!!
What do you typically use for your oil base clear coat? And then,once lettering is painted with water base, do you clear coat the whole thing one more time with the oil based material? Thanks.
BeaverWoodShop wrote:I have done this type of thing with good success. Paint the black 1st and put a clear coat over it. I use oil based paint and clear coat for this. Then mill your letters and figures. Be sure to put scrap wood under clamps so as to not mar the black. I paint my letters with water based paints, so if the paint gets on the black you can merely wipe it off!!!
I hadn't thought of using two different types of paint. Does the pre-painted piece eliminate the need for sanding the pieces? How do you handle sanding on a pre-painted piece?
Joe, I try to stick with one brand of oil paint, such as Valspar. I use their color and their clear coat, which happens to be enamel. You want to spray very, very light coats of the clear coat (it dries fast) because I have had the color bubble up for some reason if I applied a heavy clear coat. I have also used the same clear coat on the water base paint with no problems.
Eric, I am guessing you are talking about sanding the letters after milling them. I normally have not done any or very little sanding of the letters. The only thing I have found is some "fuzz" occurs around the edges of the letters and I have found if you use a towel, ball it up and use circular motion over the piece the towel will act like sand paper and remove the "fuzz". Hope this helps, give it a try.
Eric, I spray the color and clear and brush the water color into the letters. If the water color gets on the sprayed area you can use a paper towel to wipe it off.
I will take and spray shellac over the finished carving. Depending the type of wood, I may repeat 2 or three times. i then eiher spray or brush the paint into the carved areas (letters/logo). Once it is dry I can take a sander and sand off the overspray leaving just the carved out area painted. Having removed the excess, I can use a clear finish over the entire project.
Doug
1. paint the foreground color and allow to dry.
2. cover entire painted surface with blue masking tape. You should probably overlap it a little.
3. cut design through tape into material. Leave tape in place yet. Be sure to use a sharp cutter. Experiment with speed and feed. Sample piece first.
4. spray paint over design cut into taped area and let dry.
5. peel off tape. Use a stickier kind of tape to remove small pieces of blue tape left behind.
I have never tried this method, but consider giving it a try.
Bob
"Focus"
Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek (Developer of the microscope.)
1. paint the foreground color and allow to dry.
2. cover entire painted surface with blue masking tape. You should probably overlap it a little.
3. cut design through tape into material. Leave tape in place yet. Be sure to use a sharp cutter. Experiment with speed and feed. Sample piece first.
4. spray paint over design cut into taped area and let dry.
5. peel off tape. Use a stickier kind of tape to remove small pieces of blue tape left behind.
I have never tried this method, but consider giving it a try.
Bob
I use OraMask rather than painters tape. The blue tape tears regarless how sharp your bit is. OraMask rolls go a long way, much further than blue tape for the price. I get OraMask at http://www.signwarehouse.com/c-VSSTENC.html.
I've done up to 4 different colors. I use the method of masking each time after a color is complete. You can do light sanding in the relief before painting with OraMask still on.
Just be careful, OraMask adhesive doesn't do well with some lacquers like Deft.
A quick trick a friend taught me is to do your base paint color, carve and use a liquid shoe polish to paint in the reliefs. The shoe polish wipes off most paints and makes for a fast result. Any mess-ups will clean with mineral spirits.
