Got bored & tried Faux Woodgraining.

[jlcustomz]

This is actually learning a new product for staining fiberglass entrance doors at my day job. A 2 component water based heat rejecting product from Canada ($150 to $200 per gal.
Has a base material similar to automotive basecoat, then a tinted topcoat. I'll probably mostly use it on textured(simulated woodgrain ) fiberglass doors, But I'm getting all artsy & sh*t & making my own woodgrain on top of flat white surfaces.
I studied a little here & there on this over the years ,But never got full into trying to practice, partly not having the best of materials. So I forgot most of what I read about before. The 2 samples below were some from hour # 2 of practice and different color sampling, not really aiming for any certain species of wood.
Yea, it is for work , BUT maybe a faux wood el camino bed floor sides , & side tool boxes??? Someday?
Keep in mind my 3 MP phone camera takes about half of the real life look out of it.

 

[Gwarren79]

Get good at it and make money!!

1950 "Tin Woody" where the wood is Faux, its painted on....

 

[TURNA]

Sweet can you come to the sides of my Zenith Television.



🤪

 

[joesregalproject]

Wanna turn my Subaru into a Woodie wagon?

 

[69hurstolds]

Wanna turn my Subaru into a Woodie wagon?

 

[slow 442]

Ridgewood/ Glendale NY style painted woodgrain.

 

[jlcustomz]

Those are cool from a little distance. That style is mainly smearing glazing color on top of a base color, then basically removing most of the material in the lighter sections. Probably a lot was done with your typical woodgraining tools like you can get at a paint store. Gotta find where mine went to. Then a lot of the streaking effects can mostly be done with various brushes & sponges.
There is no one way to do this stuff, but some leans more towards artistic interpretation & some more towards an actual realistic copy of a certain species of wood. The above doors are a little of each and have a lot of quartersawn effect, plus bookmatched grain effect.
Right now I'm just getting the feel of the particular product I got & making up a list of various techniques & kinda studying every style a little.. Starting out with small samples, which show more detail up close. As I progress towards doing this on door surfaces, speed will be more important & incorporating larger bolder details alongside smaller detail will be more eye catching to a distance.
In imitating what is perceived as wood, defects that you may want to get rid of in real wood can help pull off the faux effect. Taping up lines & doing one side, retaping, & doing other side give the realism of actual wood joints.
Airbrush artistry can also be incorporated. My friend Jim Caruso on paint forums got into the Aquasurtech oem product a few years ago & I'm aiming for being 25% as good as him.

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[jlcustomz]

Another little practice session this afternoon trying different methods every few inches. Several weren't working for me with new material. This one has a little funk to it.

I eventually want to make something work out I've had a picture in my head of for years. I want to work in the image of traditional hot rod flames into the woodgrain to look like a natural occurence in the wood. Last try years ago looked like a 6 year old did it. Last try I made the flames darker, maybe I should make them lightening highlights, like the NY style posted above???

 

[jlcustomz]

Tried a couple more samples of different methods. In the short one , the 2 strips to the right where I again tried a rubber graining tool sucked, but I'm starting to get the tree growth ring look by using a small brush in a 2nd layer over a dried first layer.
In the longer sample, I tried again at getting a flame look on the right side. EH, long ways to go on it. Could try taping a hot rod flame pattern out, graining over it , remove tape, & add 2nd layer of graining to it??

 

[jlcustomz]

Couple more samples to show from today .Sanded off the plastic woodgraining comb area from small sample & handpainted growth rings after applying base graining & letting dry. 2 step process. Starting to look much more natural now.
Larger part was a speed run part. Tried out a section of a cheap paint pad tool to apply & do most of the working in the graining quickly, then a little brushwork softening as it dried. The way the pad worked made the material build up enough to make darker streaks in one step. Sometimes faster is also better.
Tinted spray topcoated both parts same color as yesterday. Both pics are same parts , just different camera angles.