Aging Deadwood simply with a Brush

[A Random User]

Having worked in the Film Industry for many years as a
Set Designer and Scenic(Artistic Painter)... One of the
jobs that seem to come up over and over again was making
items look old. So, I thought I would share a very simple
technique that we used for wood, to make it look old.

Now, if one goes outside and looks at wood such as a fence,
that has been left to the elements, what they will usually find
is that over the years it has turned gray.

So, the easiest way of achieving this is through the use of a
mixture of either Black Paint or Black Ink and water. Now obviously,
it would need to be water soluble... So, no you can't you oil paint.

With that said I grabbed the first can of paint available, which
was a home depot Behr, and for demonstration purposes I have
just a piece of 1x6 pine. I mixed the one part paint to two parts
water in a tub and painted the "Wash" on.

The key to doing the deadwood is that you can always add more
Wash, once it has dried... hard to take a dark wash off. So,
start with less paint in the mixture at first to test it out and add
more paint as needed.

One more trick...
Add more wash to those cracks and crevices, holes etc... to give
the deadwood more depth and believability. I often will take very
fine brushes and even accent the bark on the live portions as well,
giving them a much more rugged feel.

 

[Poink88]

Thanks for sharing Stacey.

Just to add...the reason this happens is due to different density of the wood. Softer will absorb more. Same idea applies if you brush the wood with hard brush (copper, fine stainless, etc.)...it will scour the softer portion more and leave the harder part elevated.

You can mix the 2 and apply paint after for a better look.

 

[Paradox]

I havent tried it myself, but I have read that people also use ash and/or a bit of burnt wood (possibly crushed) mixed in water to stain the water grey/black and accomplish a similar result.