BLUE BARN DOOR
Lesson on Glazing and Dry Brushing

 2B Graphite pencil and eraser.
Tissues/paper towel
Brushes.
Round brush No.10
Round Brush No.4
Hake Brush 1 inch
Filbert comb brush 1/2 inch
Short haired bristled blending/scrubbing brush or a Proxa Brush/Dental Brush available from the Pharmacy.

Paints. I use M.Graham
Cerulean Blue
Perm Magenta
Raw Sienna
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Napthol Red
Hookers Green

METHOD

Draw out Door on your paper, cropping at least half the dark interior..

Using the hake brush, put a watery wash of raw sienna over the entire door, metal work and all..

Leave to thoroughly dry..

When dry mix a little cerulean Blue and water and dry brush the texture for the wood grain with the Filbert Comb brush..

Looks bad, but don't worry we are going to soften it with the scrubber/proxa brush and tissue/paper towel...

Mix up a a little Raw Umber and Raw Sienna into a puddle with water, like this..

I used a damp short haired brush to soften the dry brush lines and add some of the raw umber sienna mix to make it look more like wood.. Also dap in places with a tissue to soften..
I also used a little of the raw umber to outline the right side of the wood panel to give them a 3D look..  

As you can see I have only done a small bit to show you how it is done so far.

Just take your time and practice on scrap paper first..

When you are doing the dry brush always test on scrap paper so that you don't have it too wet or dry. if too wet just touch up by the ferrule with a tissue to soak up some of the water..

We are not painting the metal hinge just yet, just the woodwork.

I continued to DRY brush with my Filbert Comb brush with cerulean blue until the whole door is covered..

I then used my short bristled scrubber to soften and dabbed with a tissue as well..

If when you are dry brushing and it looks too harsh, you can rinse your brush in clean water and blend it, wait until it dries and try again..

Next I add some magenta to the blue door sparingly over the wood grain. I mixed a little paint with a lot of water and added it the door to give just a hint of colour here and there.

Then I mixed a weak wash of the cerulean blue and water and lightly washed the whole thing to give it uniformity.

Don't forget to put in the edges of the planks with a light brush of raw umber. You can strengthen to suit your own taste, just don't do it black..

What I did was dampen where I was going to paint the edge, and dabbed it with a tissue to make it reasonably dry, got a mix from the raw Sienna and Umber bowl and draw in the edge.
I kept darkening it slightly until it looked natural to me. I went over it with a line of cerulean blue and then the watered down umber. Practice on scrap paper..

To do the knot in the door, I lightly outlined it with the raw umber/sienna mix and then I just dragged the blue over it when I was doing the rest of the door. Lastly I added a light wash of Cerulean Blue and dabbed it where you see the highlights on the left inner and the top inner part of the knot..

I used my scrubber/proxa to scrub back the scratch marks made by the handle hanging down, and added a pale wash of raw sienna to it..

I then added the shadows, where I put them makes it more 3D.

I first used a light layer of dark blue, I think it was Prussian actually it was on my palette.. and while still damp touched my brush to the magenta and touched the shadows with the brush and let the two colours mingle. I then did the same with the raw umber and now I have warm rich looking shadows..

I spent about 5 hours on the door putting paint down dabbing scrubbing and just plain waiting for it to dry..

My door was not this dark blue IRL, I took the photo at night time ..

Next we will do the metal..

When the salt is thoroughly dry, paper should NOT be cool to touch, scrape it all off with a stiff brush..

I then added more burnt umber to the latch. Look at your ref pic, and make sure you have ALL the shadows in around the latch and the loop thing holding it onto the horizontal bar.

This will give it a nice 3D look..


I darkened the left side, as it is more in the shade and left the right side lighter.


I just wet the paper where I wanted to put the paint and then dabbed the brush on and let it blend on it's own. This gives a more natural look..

If you get hard edges, just wet your brush with clean water and brush over the hard edges and the clear water will soften them..

I then painted a couple of shapes in the barn, and LET IT DRY......... ;)

Next Step..........
 

I mixed up a mix of Napthol Red and Hookers Green to make a nice rich Dark almost Black looking colour..
Mix the pigments together before adding water!!!! This is important..You will waste paint byadding the water first.


Test on scrap paper to make sure you don't have it too green or red, the colour needs to be brown/black..

The mixture will be creamy, you can add a teaspoon or two of water to thin it ready for using, but not too liquid..

I painted the brown black mix mixed with water, to make it blend-able, over the interior area, and where I painted my objects, (they are supposed to be a box and a drum) I put a light watered down wash of this mix over them to blend them in and recede them into the dark interior..

You may need to paint a second wash in the interior to sufficiently darken it, but don't paint out your drum ect.

Painting Finished.............

Now you try it.   

Happy Painting..

Previous Lesson Click HERE