Decorative Painting: Mahogany Wood Imitation Step By Step

The imitation wood, especially that of mahogany, is one of the basic components in the training of decorative painting. It is a quick “to produce” wood, but it requires some skill and speed, because you have to work wet-on-wet. In the second episode of the decorative painting series, Friederike Schulz shows the individual work steps.

Friederike Schulz

Wood imitation is used in a wide variety of locations. In the Schmidt Theater Hamburg z. For example, the look of an old theater from the 1950s was to be reproduced and so all fire protection doors were integrated into the overall concept by painting in a mahogany imitation.

When imitating wood, two essential components are important, the color and the grain. In order to imitate wood correctly, you should first look at the corresponding grain pattern.

Hit the right note

The basic tone for the wood imitation of mahogany is a dirty orange, which is first provided with a fine pore structure using smoked brown and a racket. You can also work with a pore roller to achieve the fine surface structure. The glaze consists of one part pigment (Kassler brown), two parts acrylic or wall paint binder and approx. Three parts water. The surface is painted with the glaze and quickly smoothed with a modulator. The surface is broken through with a bat made of horse hair from bottom to top - this creates a very fine, even structure. You can keep the glaze open a little longer by adding a drying retarder, so that there is more time for processing (this also applies to the subsequent steps).

Hit and finish

In this case, the surface is fired with a glaze consisting of one part of umbra, 2 parts of binder and 1–2 parts of water to produce the grain picture. After application, the glaze is driven inwards from the edge to the core, so that more pigment remains in the core of the wood. The grain is now quickly drawn in with a damp natural sponge. Medium quality sponges are best, these are usually firmer and halved in the middle they offer an excellent structural tool. Once you have drawn in the grain, hit the grain strands across with a badger hair distributor. This creates this grain pattern so typical of mahogany.

When the glaze is almost applied, the core is finely formulated with a damp brush. The pigment slightly dissolves through the water and if you then smoothed away from the core with a badger, you get incredible depth at these points. The fan brush has its origins in France and can also be used to imitate other woods. If it is wet, it is combed with a plastic comb and - regardless of whether it is soaked with water or glaze - creates a real-looking grain look when used correctly and in combination with a badger.

Set highlights for the perfect imitation of wood

For the finale, the entire surface is glazed with binder (diluted with water) and burned with Siena as a pigment or in the form of an acrylic color. The highlight here is the addition of Prussian blue in the sapwood area. Blue and brown create a very natural shade of gray, which is often found in wood.

With a modler you can now pull light edges into the split pin. These are reflective surfaces in the edge of the wood, which can be achieved by pushing the glaze away and then slightly expelling it so that a soft image is created.

Other episodes of the decorative painting series:

Three-dimensional painting

Painted fabric

Wall in a tartan skirt