Faux tortoise shell painting

Answer 1

You can get amazing faux paintings anywhere. There are establishments that offer these services with reasonable prices.

Or Do It Yourself

The process for faux painting "tortoise shell" is really not that difficult. Anyone with moderate skills and a bit of patience can accomplish it with practice.

Practice the technique first on a separate flat surface to be sure you like/can do the effect.

You will need:

- base colour paint, in custard yellow to yellowy-orange. Some people use a red, but I do not recommend it.

- faux finishing glaze - oil base

- mineral spirits

- artists' oil paint (in tubes) ocher, raw sienna, burnt sienna, & burnt umber.

- a wide "household" brush

- artists' brushes (approximately thumb width)

- a wide soft brush used to soften the look of a faux finish

- low luster top coat.

How to-

Apply the base coat and allow to dry completely.

Mix equal parts raw sienna paint and faux finishing compound, add 2 parts mineral spirits. Apply "glaze with a wide brush and continue to work in a diagonal pattern until the glaze is starting to dry (this keeps it from running or dripping. Allow to dry.

Using the artists' brushes apply raw sienna paint in a series of small, diagonal, random patches with spaces between each shape. (patches should be approximately 2 thumb-prints wide and twice as long)

Add small patches of burnt sienna (one thumb print in size) and larger patches of burnt umber. Follow the direction of the original patches and make a "pleasing pattern. Some of the patches will butt up against one another by this point.

Using a wide softening brush, while the paint is still wet, lightly pull through the patches in the same diagonal direction. (use occational cross-strokes to softness the effect)

Mix equal parts burnt umber and mineral spirits, load a small artists' brush and lightly spatter the surface. Leave a few minutes, then soften with the large brush, as above.

Repeat any of the above steps, as desired to achieve a deep finish.

When you are satisfied with the result add a few tiny spots of undiluted burnt umber and allow the whole project to dry completely.

Protect the finished project with a low luster protective clear coat.

This entire project can be done using latex based materials, however, they dry a lot faster and require you to work at a speed most first timers find difficult.