Painting on wood takes quite a bit of prep to make sure chips, scratches, and Support Induced Discoloration doesn’t happen. SID happens when you paint on a porous surface and the paint eventually soaks into that surface and fades, cracks, or discolors. Sadly, I learned about SID from experience!!! Sorry to everyone that bought my first round of ornaments, because I’ve seen one and……..well, it doesn’t look great ;). Luckily, I figured it out pretty quickly and found a bunch of tutorials online to properly prepare the wood I’m painting on. I also use this method to prep terra cotta pots - a surface that is new for me, but seems to be working and holding up!
Here is a video I made a couple years ago of me painting a wood ornament with acrylic paint - I normally don’t love using acrylic, but for whatever reason, I don’t mind using it on 3-d objects. It takes to surfaces well without drying too quickly (like acryla gouache) and I can get a more nuanced painterly feel if I want.
This was a video I put on my reels a couple years ago on Instagram. As you can see, I changed my mind a lot while painting, trying to find the right colors as I hadn’t planned this out before hand. You get to see my thought process in real time!
Steps to painting on wood:
Sand your surface if it’s not already.
Prep with your primer. In the video, I’m using Golden’s GAC 100 acrylic primer & extender which I like a lot. Golden now recommends using their Gloss Medium general purpose acrylic fluid for this purpose instead so I’ve switched to that when painting terra cotta pots. It’s definitely more of a plastic-y feel than the GAC 100, so I might still use the GAC 100 for my wood ornaments. I’ve had ornaments for four years that I used with that primer and they haven’t faded one bit.
Do this 2-3 times, sanding lightly in between each and letting the fluid dry in between each. This ensures you’ve created a barrier between the wood and your paint. Tip: Don’t use great brushes for these stages! The wood kind of wrecks havoc on your brushes, so I always use older ones I don’t mind messing up.
Top with 1 layer of clear gesso - I use Winsor and Newton, but any brand will do. This creates a ‘toothy’ surface so your paint can have something to grab on to. If you use the Gloss Medium as your primer, you definitely need to use this, otherwise your paint will just slip around. I’ve found it isn’t super necessary when you prep with the GAC 100, but I still like using it as yet another barrier between the wood and paint. Let dry.
Paint! Like I said, I prefer acrylics with the wood, but acryla gouache also works well especially if you are doing a more graphic, shape oriented design. It dries really fast and is matte.
When you’re done and the paint is dry, it’s time to varnish and seal it all up! This helps cut down on scratches and chips. I really like a Matte Varnish (series E) by Holbein for my ornaments. You can also get Gloss Varnishes as well if you want more of a sheen. 1-2 coats is all you need and voila! You have a finished piece on wood that should last for a really long time without fading or chipping.
As always, if you have any questions, drop them in the comments!
♡ nicole