I’m realizing that I should probably start coming up with clever names for these landscape dressers!
Well, for now, this one is “number four.”
I was originally going to try watercolor over MMS Milk Paint, just to see how that worked out, but I tried it on a sample board and I didn’t like the look of it. The things I love about watercolor just didn’t happen. What looks soft on paper, looks much more intense when painted on milk paint.
So, I decided to try something else. I tried using milk paint over milk paint, but more like it’s watercolor instead of milk paint. Are you tracking with me?
Kriste lightly sanded the dresser and painted it in two coats of MMSMP in Farmhouse White to prep it for me. Now, it’s more like a blank canvas.
I mixed up a smorgasbord of milk paint colors and squirted a few acrylics onto a plate. I wanted to use about 90% milk paint for the painting, but I knew some colors would need a little kick from the acrylics.
Here is a video showing the process…
I liked painting on the white surface much, much better, in comparison to the other landscape dressers I’ve done.
It’s not finished, yet, but here is where I left it at the end of the day…
My favorite part is definitely the sky. I started with Flow Blue at the very top and blended it down into Shutter Gray and then into Farmhouse White. I spritzed the surface with water to make the paint bleed a little.
A little water spritzing is like magic on milk paint. I’m definitely going to use that technique more!
The far mountain is French Enamel, a little watered down, and then the near mountain is Flow Blue again.
The foliage and grasses were all a blend of Boxwood, Mustard Seed Yellow, and Lucketts Green. The grass is where I mixed in some of the acrylics to get a more intense yellow and varying shades of green. I really like how “brush-strokey” the grass is. (That’s a very technical term, by the way.)
The left side looks a little wonky at this point, but I’ll be adding a tree, a fence, etc. and it will all make sense then.
I have a photo shoot and some other deadlines I need to work on tomorrow, but I hope to have a date with “Number Four” on Friday.
15 Responses
Wow! I love it so far! Can’t wait to see it all finished!
Love this landscape…do you work from a sketch or just wing it?
I’m loving the mountains, and the more detailed trees!
YES! This is what I have been talking about! I’ve been using your milk paint as watercolor-ish paint for the last ten months and LOVE it! I especially like when the pigment isn’t completely mixed in and little bits of color appear when moving across it with the brush. Now, I don’t do landscapes, but for what I use it for, it’s the best!
That is amazing Marion, love that you are showing your “experiments”! Can’t wait to see the end result
Maybe you could start naming them after nearby rural towns? I bet there are some great names out there in your neck of the woods.
Hi Marian, love to see your artful painting on your furniture as well as your watercolors, it speaks to my painters heart.
Can I say how much I have loved seeing the dresser. I just melt a little. Have to say, I’m glad that you haven’t done any beach or ocean themed ones, because, I am a California girl, born and raised by the beach & if they anywhere near as beautiful as these past ones have, I don’t know how I would survive not having one. lol!!
I like it so far, Marian. You seem to be getting the foliage, trees and grasses to look more realistic than before. Not that before was bad by any means. But this one is different in those areas, I think.
Plus, you’ve created a new medium! Milk painting incorporating acrylics! It could catch on and you will become famous in the art world! Think about that!
Will there be some buildings and animals in this one? And maybe some flowers? Guess I’ll just wait and see.
I think I am waiting to see a whole series of seasons – winter, spring, summer and fall. How fun would THAT be? So far, they have all been fantastic!
That is an awesome idea!
I love it and you always make it look so easy!
Hint: Put a touch of lavender or purple on the largest most faraway mountains, gives it depth. You always see purple mountains majesty! Put your brush strokes where they “go with the grain” of what you are painting. Things are always a tad darker at the sides, makes it more 3-D (barns, houses). Don’t forget pale shadows going the opposite way of the sun, unless it is high noon (place the sun in your mind first before you start painting). Number 4 is looking GREAT!!!!!! – your free art teacher and major fan.
I love this! It’s really inspired me as well. Do you think that milk paint would do well on a laminate dresser (i.e. IKEA ) ?
You are amazing Marianne! Stunning so far, great work.