torquill | Adventures in painting

After working with oil-based enamel, working with latex tonight was a piece of cake. I suspect painting will never be quite the same for me now. At least I've had more practice handling fine-tip brushes... I was never as good at paints as I was at colored pencil.

Lessons learned while painting a 33' RV:

Don't do it in a windy place. Really.

You'll hate yourself. And painting in the wind. Trust me.

*sigh* If you must, you must.

Secure everything against the wind. Even things that you think might be too heavy to blow away. e.g. stir sticks, paint trays, and ladders.

Use lots of tape stays on anything like paper or dropcloths, lest the wind rip them out of your hands while affixing them in their places.

Thin the hell out of the paint. Thin it until it's thinking about separating out into individual pigments. Then paint fast so the wind doesn't dry it before you're done.

Thin paint drips everywhere. Mask accordingly.

Masking tape manufacturers lie. Won't take up paint that's at least 24 hours old? Gives clean lines with no bleed-under? Plan on doing touch-up work.

For oil-based paint, get the "safer" paint thinner. Alkyds rock like AC/DC at a benefit concert.

Wear a respirator if you're going to be working with your nose a foot away from oil paints for hours. You'll feel less greasy by the end of the day.

Gloves, gloves, gloves. Change 'em frequently and your front doorknob will thank you. Not to mention you won't have to touch up places where paint transferred off your gloves onto the work surface.

There is no such thing as "I'll be careful" with paint. If you care about it, mask it.

Learn your paint. Does it go on thin or thick? Dry quickly or slowly? Need dry-brushing to get a good sheen? Thin well, or start losing opacity without losing the stickiness? Every paint is different.

The glue that holds together foam brushes is soluble in paint thinner.

Don't be afraid of the paint thinner. The paint really does thicken noticeably over a period of ten or fifteen minutes (in the howling wind); go ahead and thin it again.

If using metal paint, stir your container every time you pour or stick a brush in it. Otherwise you get light paint in the area where you start and dark paint where you finish your container.

Don't make the coats too thin by brushing/rolling too far. There's economy and then there's having to put on an additional coat because the original surface is showing through when it doesn't have to.

If you know what you're doing, you can bend the rules. Re-coat time may be 8 hours, but you can put on two thick coats of paint in an hour if you manage your paint viscosity and direct application of thinner/water properly. For small areas, of course.