Product Description

This sourcebook of decorative painted finishes covers paint, mediums, and their usage, the decorative painter's colour palette, varnishes, brushes, and tools, and surface preparation and clean-up procedures. In addition, Finkelstein presents the history of the two schools of decorative painting: the French-English school of trompe l'oeil precision and the more freely drawn, expressionistic Italian school. More than 60 recipes are outlined for a range of decorative surfaces. Each recipe includes a detailed drawing of the pattern, photographs showing the work in progress, and the hand and brush strokes used. Among the surfaces discussed are marble, wood, semi-precious stone, sandstone, glazes and patinas, ceramic, leather, art deco inlays, and faux mouldings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #184567 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

This book gives you confidence to try and succeed
I agree with all the other comments about excercises etc etc. I personally found this book gave me the confidence to actually do the work. I have many books that I have studied but the other authors always managed to convey the idea that this is difficult. Not so with this one - my first project was a wood effect floor - with many different types of woods. As soon as I had read the wood chapter I was ready to go. Even though I prefer to use acrylics, this book allows for that as well. Excellent

My best buy ever in faux finishes books
Fantastic pictures, wide range of very well-explained step-by-step techniques (marbles, woods, stencil, grisaille, etc).

What I loved most (as a self-taught beginner): 1) The "techniques exercises" at the beginning of the marble/wood chapters, which allow you to gain confidence before you start following the step-by-step instructions and, most important thing, prevent you from creating "horrible looking" marbles or woods, 2) the discovery of the frisket adhesive film for the "pietre dure", 3) the chapter of materials and how you should take care of them (the author provides very clear and detailed information on this) and 4) the veining and line drawings at the end of the book, to be used as reference material.

It's the only faux book I've read cover to cover !!!
What a great book ! I have at least a half dozen other faux painting books - most of which I read a chapter or two. This book is so interesting you want to read every page and practice all the techniques.