Why the antique car collector yelled at me

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Mouth agape, the antique car enthusiast stared through the open passenger door of the fully restored 1948 Dodge Coupe.

“So…you carved that dash board out of oak?”
” No, I painted it.” He looked confused.
“You mean… you painted the oak?”
“Um… it’s not oak. It’s paint.” The confused look intensified…
“Well…it looks just like oak. If it’s not oak, what kind of WOOD is it?”
'48 Dodge with wood grained dash
There were about a dozen other car enthusiasts waiting with questions and I feared this back and forth might last all afternoon so I pulled out my keys and used one to tap on the dash.
It clanked like a cast-iron fry-pan. The lovely sound of early American Detroit steel.
It finally sunk in. He turned a little pale.

“Whoa! It’s metal! How the hell did you do that?!”

I told him that I used a method I’d developed out of years of research and practice.

Perfect Wood Grain Mastery
A quick-start wood grain paint method that gives you the skills to duplicate, with stunning realism, any wood using easy-to-find tools and materials.

Details
What you’ll learn | How much it costs | photos of woods you’ll learn, please click here.

For a limited time this course includes free, one-on-one coaching. To get updates on the launch of Perfect Wood Grain Mastery please enter your best email address below.

Lessons for artists from the auction of “The Scream”

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Or how to earn 120 Million Dollars on one piece of art

I’m going to let you in on a business secret of mine. It has to do with how I relate to and communicate with customers about the fees I charge for my work and how I comfortably charge what I feel my work is worth.

Sometimes, when they ask that unavoidable question “how much does it cost?”, my answer causes facial expressions and sounds resembling “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, the famous painting that just sold at Sotheby’s auction house in London for a record setting 119.9 million dollars.

The-Scream-painting-by-Edvard-Munch

The Scream by Edvard Munch

Of course that question is going to come up and when it does, you need to be prepared with an answer that will help your customer feel confident in the value of your work, while getting you a fair price for your work.

It’s an issue that won’t come up unless they love your work and they’re seriously thinking about buying it, so don’t shy away from it, be grateful it’s happening.

This conversation tends to start with the customer seeing your work online, in a portfolio, at a show… Then, they inevitably say something like, “I LOVE what you do!”

So again, stage one is, “I love your work”. Stage two is “How much does it cost?”. And as I mentioned above, stage three is sometimes “Oh my gosh! That’s a lot”.

To this I respond in a very specific and valuable way, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Continue reading →

What would the carpenter do?

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She’d work within the limitations of the wood
She has no choice because woodworking has rules set by nature. For example, oak only bends so much before it separates and comes apart (I believe they do that with steam?).

So if she wants to create something with a big curve or loop that’s too extreme to bend, she needs to either carve it or join two or more bent pieces together. So what does this have to do with faux wood grain?

Homer Simpson in the style of Rembrandt by the brilliant artist David Barton at Limpfish.com

This isn’t an episode of ‘The Simpsons’
You’re the artist and you can do anything you want with your paints, right?

Continue reading →

Faux wood super-powers: 10 reasons to get them. Part 2 of 3

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Part 2 of 3. Click here for part 1

4. Improve ALL your painting and art skills

Well-executed painted woodgrain involves a unique layering process. The skill that you’ll develop involves seeing 2 or 3 steps ahead at each stage. Also, you’ll learn how to really see the elements in your model that most need to be duplicated in order to make your work attractive and convincing.

These are unique and valuable skills (explained in easy-to-follow steps in Perfect Wood Grain Mastery). that you’ll be able to apply to all your paint work no matter how basic or involved.

I painted this for a friend a couple of years ago. Acrylic on silver leaf with Trompe L'Oeil Oak frame.

5. Home improvement

There are a multitude of possibilities for faux wood grain in the home. Here are a few: Continue reading →

Stunning masterworks. When to ignore them

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Apologies in advance for getting a bit geeky and theoretic in this brief post. Stick with me. I promise it will be very useful when it comes time to do some wood graining.

"Root of Oak" as painted by master Thomas Kershaw, circa 1880.

Master works of painted wood grain (or any art) are some of the most compelling images in the world. We tend to get lost in them. We study technique, brush stroke and method… sometimes ’til we’re bleary-eyed and a bit confused.

Of course this study has value, but it’s important to recognize that value for what it is: Continue reading →

Faux wood super-powers: 10 reasons why you should get them. Part 1 of 3

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This post ballooned into something rather huge so I had to break it up into 3 parts. More coming soon. Enjoy! N. Click here for part 2.

Why paint faux wood grain at all?

Why take the time to learn to paint wood grain? Why not use real wood? Or how about that wallpaper that looks kinda like wood? Why not a wood grain sticker kit for your car project? What about wood-like vinyl? Here are just a few very good reasons.

1. People love it

Real Figured Walnut.

There are thousands of faux wood products: Wall paper, flooring, vinyl, paneling, auto interiors and rims, furniture, doors… Why? Finished wood is nature’s gift of decoration.

Because wood is natural, it offers a calming effect. People respond positively to it. Therefore, the look of wood is desirable and offers value.

If you’d like to learn how to paint amazing, realistic faux wood grain, click here.

Continue reading →

Mind blowing, eye catching wood grain: The number one secret

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Natural artists do it
Out of all the many technical tools to learn and practice to improve your art, I believe the most important one is often overlooked. Natural artists do it without thinking about it. I consider a “natural” to be someone who started drawing and painting on their own at a very young age and kept at it.

I’m not a natural
Like most people, I painted as a kid. I didn’t get serious about it until I was in my late twenties. You don’t have to be a natural to become a master wood grain artist.

Whether you’re a natural or not, no worries! It’s easy and fun once you get in the groove. Get in the groove faster with the BONUS offer at the bottom of this post.

Here it is, perhaps THE most valuable SECRET to doing amazing paint work and indeed any visual art: LOOK.

Real Maple

Swivel head
If you watch a portrait artist at work you’ll notice that she’s continually looking back and forth between her subject and her drawing. Seems obvious, right? How else is she going to get the information (the shapes and contours of a face) into her head so that she can then put that on the canvass? It’s not obvious to all artists.

The good news is, looking is billable. Continue for details.

Continue reading →

Good, bad and ugly wood grain: Know the difference

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As a professional faux finisher since 1994, I’ve seen every imaginable type of painted wood grain instruction including short pamphlets, expensive videos and books and weekend workshops costing thousands.

In this post, I’ll help you’ll learn the most important skill for painted great wood grain: how see the difference between bad and good wood grain.

Also, I’m offering free one-on-one coaching to the first 100 students of my course, Perfect Wood Grain Mastery. Details at the bottom of this post.

Most wood grain sucks
I know that’s harsh but since most methods and kits don’t teach how to reproduce believable, attractive painted wood, the finished product almost always looks bad. Bad wood grain is so common, the pros have a name for it: “brown stripe” (I know, lovely). It tends to be two colors of brownish paint striped together in vertical lines with maybe a bit of unnatural figure.

"brown stripe" faux wood. It sucks and it's everywhere.


How do you want your projects to look?
Continue reading →

How to make Faux Wood Grain look better than real wood

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How to paint wood grain. Learn woodgrain painting that’s more convincing than real wood.

I’m offering free one-on-one coaching to the first 100 students of my course, Perfect Wood Grain Mastery. Details at the bottom of this post.

Greetings. I wanted to show you a little trick I use.

One of my goals has been to develop a faux wood grain system that allows you to feature and enhance the most amazing aspects of real wood.

Here’s a pic of some Macassar Ebony that I painted on a serving tray. Below that is the photo of a piece of real Macassar Ebony that I used for my model.

Macassar Ebony "Improved" : Straight grain lines and check marks removed.

Continue reading →