I just finished my first coat of yellow Lazure on my kitchen walls. As I was struggling through it, I wondered, "why didn't anyone tell me I couldn't do it by myself?" Or, maybe if I had, I would have done it anyway?
I don't know. But the basic technique I learned in a workshop with Charles Andrade could not be replicated by me, being as I'm working alone. I'm talking about the technique of painting the wall with one brush and coming up behind it with another, "dry" brush to sweep up the drips and spread them on the wall again, so that it glistens before drying. The only humanly way possible (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit!) for me to do that alone is to concentrate on one small area, picking up one brush and painting with it, then picking up the other brush and spreading it around. Meanwhile, the areas adjacent to that spot don't get paint spread to them, and a line will show up later, after subsequent layers of paint are applied. Yet if I include a larger area to paint, then don't have time to work one small area before the rest dries.
I went with painting a large swath to avoid differences in paint intensity, etc. between one area painted now and the adjacent area painted later. So not using my "dry" brush yet. This may get easier once several layers are down and I can see what I'm doing. Right now, the paint is going on almost clear with a faint yellow tint.
Oh, there's also been me taping as I go -- not a recommended practice. And finding nail holes to plug. Same caveat.
But on the positive, I DID mix the formula correctly -- 3/4 cup water to 1 tablespoon Accent Base, plus a smidgeon of yellow Light Hansa Acrylic paint (Liquitex). And used my 2 lovely brushes (available online), though they had small bits of errant hairs in the bristles before I cleaned them thoroughly.
Also, I needed to modify the large sweeping motions so I could paint narrow areas only about 1 foot wide.
That's it for now. Back to my next layer. Probably yellow again, and then want to come in with blue, so that the result will be blue green (?), yellow green (?). I want to taper to a rose color as I get closer to the kitchen sink and stove. But for now, that's all hypothetical since part of the process is that I don't know how it will look on my wall. I only have seen other walls painted by other people. So this is MY experiment and at some point I have to let go of trying to make my walls look like theirs. Maybe I'll come close. I don't know. The only thing I know is that I have to try, and make my own attempt. (I know I'll learn lots, but that's a subject for another time.) Thanks for reading and be uniquely who you are!
