Color Consultations
As an artist, I enjoy the opportunity to teach my clients about color. I explain the need to consider first what direction any windows are facing.
Windows that look to the north and east will receive the dim, ochre light of morning,
while windows that face south and west will receive the bright, crimson light of afternoon.
This knowledge helps us decide what hue to begin with. I also teach my clients about tint and shade and we discuss how to use a color wheel
to select colors that are complimentary to one another.
A color consultation will take several hours and should include any window and floor treatments,
style and color of furniture as well as a Q&A to determine the client's own personal preferences.
All of these factors will be determinants in the decision of what color(s) to use.
Preparation is the key to great work.
After an area is masked-off and the drop cloths are down, we fill any holes or cracks with the
proper repair material: meaning a plaster wall is repaired with plaster and a gypsum wall is
repaired with joint compound, cement walls are repaired with cement, etc. When a wall has been properly repaired,
we prime the entire wall with a stain blocking white-pigmented primer like Killz.
Then two coats of paint, in the appropriate color and sheen is applied.
Now a wall is ready for a faux finish, trompe l' oeil or mural.
Masking is tantamount to a clean, accurate job. I mask everything as if the room were going to
be spray-painted. I can guarantee my clients that not one drop of paint will appear anywhere
except where it is supposed to go. This saves me countless hours in clean up because masking
is much easier to remove than paint. Drop cloths are the next most important detail. Drops should
always be fairly new and clean. You can find a local dry cleaner that will wash and dry your drop
cloths for around five bucks each.
When a drop cloth becomes too stained and splattered to be
presentable in a high-end home, I cut it up and stretch it into canvases for my paintings.
I always keep all my materials in one central spot in the center of the room. Every day at the end of
work I see to it my 'paint station" is neat and organized. Ladders are folded-up and laid down, and
every bucket is sealed. At the end of a job we remove every scrap of trash we have made.
Before we leave, the carpet gets vacuumed and floors swept.
