Clouding

Paint your base color a soft sky blue and allow to dry. Mix a glaze of white and another glaze of light silver-gray. Apply white glaze to about 25% of surface of base with a soft rag in a circular rubbing motion.

While the white glaze is still wet, apply a small amount of the silver-gray glaze with another rag to the “edges” of the clouds and blend in. You can create white billowy clouds or clouds that have more of the silver-gray caste to them, whichever you prefer. If you find you’ve gotten too much of the silver-gray on the clouds, just go over it with more of the white glaze. Allow to dry.

Crackling

Paint your base color and allow to dry. Apply a coat of glue with a damp sponge. You can use either white glue or hide glue. A thin coat of glue will make fine, small cracks such as those found in an old oil paintings and a thicker coat of glue will produce larger cracks. While the glue is still tacky, apply a coat of your top coat paint. As the top coat paint dries, the glue will shrink and crackling will occur. Allow to dry and seal with acrylic.

Brown/Taupe Granite

Paint your base color in a rich dark chocolate brown paint and allow to dry. Make three separate glazes; one in black, one in taupe, and one in ivory. Brush the taupe glaze over the entire surface (a small section at a time) and then blot with a damp sea sponge. Apply the black glaze by saturating a paint brush with it and then splattering it over the surface. Do the same with more of the taupe glaze and then the ivory alternating until you have tiny splatters over the entire surface. You do not have to wait for the first taupe glaze to dry since you are not actually touching the surface.

If you would like to give the final granite effect a softer look, then sprinkle the entire surface lightly with a paint brush full of mineral spirits. If you’re painting a vertical surface the mineral spirits may make it drip, but for a horizontal surface, you shouldn’t have any problems. Let dry for several days because of all the layers of glaze. Apply a satin or semi-gloss varnish to bring out the depth of the paint layers.

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