How to Dry Brush and Color Wash with paint

I promised to stop by and give you a little tutorial on the desktop I posted Saturday. I have used color wash and dry brush techniques on numerous projects.  It is really just something you have to play around with and practice to get the look you like.

For the desk top I painted it a base paint color of grey. I used Poppie's Paint powder and Sherwin Williams latex paint.  After that dried. I used the same Aqua Chiffon from Pittsburgh Paints that I used on the drawers and chair of the desk. I add a little paint to a chip brush then dab it on a dry paper towel, removing most of the paint and lightly add color to numerous areas as shown below. 

 

I also added a dark grey and a darker blue as shown in the next picture. I let it sit till it was somewhat dry, I then take the base grey color and apply it with a paintbrush over the whole top. I then use a water dampened cloth to wipe it back.  You choose how much or how little you take off.

 

 

Here is the finished top.

 

 

 

 I used the same technique on the end table, but different colors of course.

 

If you are just interested in color washing you just skip the dry brushing and let your base color completely dry before you apply the wash.

Here are some projects I used this color washing technique on.

 

Grey over blue on this

 

Light and dark grey on this

 

Golden brown over red on this

 

Beige over dark blue here

 

And dark blue over red on this.

 

Thanks for stopping by, Michelle