Comment by scott dobert on February 23, 2012 at 6:23pm

NICE WORK!!

Comment by Nelson Lasaosa on March 7, 2012 at 6:35pm

Yes Blain, very nice! Different, unique. Truly love those earth colors mixed with pinks, blues, greens... Do you first acid stain and then high light with other tints??? Sorry if question sounds off, but I`m trying to learn a bit from vert experts.

Comment by Blain Quam on March 7, 2012 at 8:50pm

First Thank you, and yes it is different than most of what I see here. I don't know if I'm an expert. But I'll help if I can. This is plaster on foam so I don't use acid stain. I mix my own colors with universal pigment and water. After I carve the foam we spray it with plaster. About three coats so it's nice and thick and covers all the foam. Then with my paint mix I brush each stone alternating color from stone to stone. Sometime mixing two or three colors on my brush at the same time. I use about three colors black ,reddish brown, and a yellowy rust. I mix my color on the brush to get six or seven shades of  earth tones. Before they dry I use pigment and water in a garden sprayer and wash the stones down to kill the new look. After the top coat is dry I paint the top coat with a mix of watered down white and watered brownish black. I let them mix on the wall. As the run over the stones the gray gives the stones an aged look. After that is dry I come in with my green and black. I brush the green with a little black at the top of the stones just under the top coat. Then with water only I spray just enough to let it run down the stones. This gives it a fungus or moss look and ages the stones a little more. I hope this answers your question and hope it helps. 

Comment by Nelson Lasaosa on March 10, 2012 at 8:31pm

Fantastic work Blain. It has a surreal look to it, beautiful. The actual work and the concept,both are outstanding, but the paint job is still better.Wrote the receipe down, let`s see if I can follow directions, lol.

Thanks for your generosity and for taking the time to share your technique.

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