Drawing wood grain pattern with oil paint guide

[modeller_masa]

 

I learned the technique from other Youtube videos. If you think the hour video boring, please skip to the summary at 53:20. 😉

 

1. Primer

The surface must be coated with any primer. If the surface absorb well, like raw paper, the oil painting won't leave successful wood grain patterns and will work like acrylic paint. Dewaxed shellac is enough to go, and acrylic paint primers, such as gesso or Vallejo primer, also work well.

 

2. Base color

The base color should be brighter or different from the upper wood grain pattern layer. I used tan color acrylic paint. White color is also effective.

 

3. Cheap alternative brush

The professional art brush for oil paint isn't common and is expensive. There are cheap alternatives, such as Q-tips and an interdental brush. Make sure the interdental brush isn't small size.

 

4. Oil paint tubes - Wood grain color

I used the cheapest oil paint in my country. The color should be darker than the base color, like raw umber, burnt sienna, or mars yellow.

 

5. Oil paint drying accelerator

The oil paint lasts longer than several months. The oil paint must be completely dry before the next coat. I used Winsor & Newton Liquin Light Gel to accelerate drying times from several months to 8 hours.

 

6. Oil paint varnish

The oil paint system is different from the common modeling paint system. The varnish over oil paint must be compatible with it. Test it before use. If the varnish caused a significant issue, use lacquer thinner to reset everything.

 

Due to a sensitive surface before varnishing, I recommend using spray varnishes. I used a Golden MSA Archive lacquer spray, which is a certified oil paint varnish. Shellac didn't work well becaused shellac melts oil paint. 

 

 

 

I learned this technique from this video. 😎 

[Bob Cleek]

55 minutes ago, modeller_masa said:

Shellac didn't work well becaused shellac melts oil paint. 

That's a new one on me! I find it hard to believe that shellac's solvent, alcohol, would "melt" oil paint. The highly volatile solvents in lacquer would certainly have that effect, I'd expect, but not shellac. On the other hand, alcohol will thin (i.e. "mellt") most water-based acrylic paints.  

[modeller_masa]

31 minutes ago, Bob Cleek said:

The highly volatile solvents in lacquer would certainly have that effect,

Yes, definitely. The difference is that I used a lacquer can spray, which didn't touch the surface directly. 

If you thin the dewaxed shellac from Zinsser with isoprophanol (probably at a 1:1 ratio), you can spray shellac with an airbrush. I didn't write this description because this guide is for newcomers.

Edited March 4, 2023 by modeller_masa

[druxey]

Oil paint, when new, is soluble in alcohol. As the paint film ages - and we are talking decades here - it becomes less soluble. After a century or so, if you are prepared to wait it out....

[allanyed]

Maybe I am missing something, but what is the purpose of adding grain at our most common ship model scales?  If oak or elm or pine or other woods used in ship building could be reduced in scale, the grain would barely show up, if at all, so most model builders look for wood with little or no grain such Castello, Alaskan cedar, bass, holly, pear, &c.   Why would anyone want to add grain when wood with little or no grain is the goal to begin with?  

Allan

Edited March 4, 2023 by allanyed

[modeller_masa]

I believe I need to separate the definition of the term "wood grain" into two subfields. In this case, "Painting wooden texture" might be a bettern term to use.

 

(Mantua, HMS Bounty, 1/60, wooden model)

My goal is to paint a realistic "wooden texture" on a paper model or plastic model. The wooden texture doesn't need to have a rough surface like you said. Thanks to the micro scale stripe patterns of the oil painting technique, the result shows a realistic wooden texture, in my opinion. After thousands of repeated brushings, I have a very fine and flat surface with even stripe patterns. It seems to be very similar to 1/60 scale wooden model ships. I'm really satisfy the result.

 

In contrast, "wood grain pattern" may imply more tiny details, such as a gnarl or crack. It can be easily observed in larger scales like 1/12 or 1/35 gunstock, but I agree that it isn't useful for 1/60 scale sailing ships. It is free to add wood grain patterns on the wooden texture, but I won't and can't because I don't have artistic talent. 😂

 

It's a kind of expedient technique for paper model kits and plastic model kits, which don't have the native "wooden texture". I don't need this technique for wooden model ships. On the other hand, I can't imagine that I would build paper or plastic model kits without this method.

[DocRob]

Simulating woodgrain with oil colors is a great and not too hard to learn technique. I use a workflow similar to the second video in plastic modelling, for WWI airplane interiors and exteriors and other stuff. Like Allan mentioned, I wouldn't use it with a wooden kit, as the grain or wood texture looks a bit overscale at let's say 1/64 or similar. 
My only application with wood modeling was painting a resin anchor winch in the same hue, than the surrounding wood.

 

Cheers Rob

[allanyed]

8 hours ago, modeller_masa said:

My goal is to paint a realistic "wooden texture" on a paper model or plastic model.

That is a great idea Masa.  Thanks for the clarification.

Allan

[Bob Cleek]

20 hours ago, druxey said:

Oil paint, when new, is soluble in alcohol. As the paint film ages - and we are talking decades here - it becomes less soluble. After a century or so, if you are prepared to wait it out....

I wrote: "I find it hard to believe that shellac's solvent, alcohol, would "melt" oil paint." I was not as clear as I could have been. I'm no chemist by a long shot, but I do know that there's a somewhat significant difference between what is called "grain alcohol," which you can drink, "denatured alcohol," (sometimes called "methylated spirits,") which is used as the solvent in shellac (and which you can't drink,) and isopropyl alcohol, which you can't drink, isn't used for thinning shellac, and will dissolve oil paint.  I could be mistaken, but I believe it is the isopropyl which is added to the alcohol to form isopropyl alcohol (sometimes called "isopropanol") that dissolves many oils, alkaloids, and natural resins and not the alcohol itself. My bad for not being more specific. 

 

As for oil paint film "aging," or perhaps more accurately put, "polymerizing." tubed artists' oil paint is intentionally compounded so that it will remain "wet" for a protracted period (i.e. polymerize slowly) so that artists using it, particularly to paint pictures on stretched canvas and wooden panels, can easily work with the undried paint over a longer period of time using established techniques for applying and mixing colors directly on the painted surface. To accomplish this, artist's oils are made with raw linseed oil which polymerizes very slowly. When using artists' oil colors to paint models, heavy metal salts like cobalt and manganese which accelerate the polymerization of the linseed or other vegetable oil carrier in the artists' oil colors are added to speed up the "drying time." (Linseed oil with driers added is commonly sold as "boiled linseed oil, although it's not boiled at all.) This accelerator is called "Japan drier." * Adding the proper amount of Japan drier to a raw oil-based paint will speed up the "drying" of the paint to as little as an hour.  (There are corresponding "drying" conditioners sold for tubed acrylic artists' colors.) When using tubed artists' colors, be they oil-based or acrylic-based, they have to be thought of as simply pigment mixed with a carrier, oil or acrylic base. While classical oil painting artists use artists' colors straight out of the tube, modelers who use them for brush or airbrush application need to condition the tubed paint, which requires thinning and adding dryers to achieve the desired consistency and drying time. 

 

*   "Japan drier" is so called from the practice of "Japanning," an enamel paint finishing technique, especially for metal, which was popular in earlier times to mimic the Japanese finishing technique of building up a thick coating of high gloss lacquer coats. "Japanning" required applying multiple coats of oil-based high gloss paint which had to dry thoroughly between coats. That would have required a very long manufacturing process allowing for the drying time without the addition of "Japanning driers" to the enamel paint.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Bob Cleek

[modeller_masa]

I thought about the reason that shellac melted an original oil paint. I guess the shellac might not be a major reason for the unsuccessful varnishing.

 

Test condition : Without spraying or pouring, all my attempts to varnish over oil paint weren't successful. It includes rubbing the surface with cotton cloth. I rubbed oil paint with shellac or poured shellac when I applied it.

Reinterpretation of the failure :

  1) Physical contact :

     - Failed : Direct touch, such as rubbing or brushing.

     - Success : Indirect touch, such as spraying or pouring.

   2) Chemical reaction : I don't know enough about chemicals to make a judgement.

 

Shellac may not be a criminal. 😎