our cities and surroundings are filled with many fascinating details that are affected by the natural forces of Earth metal oxidation peel layers of paint the Browning at the tips of our greenery are just a few examples of how the concept of aging manifests itself I find these natural forces fascinating and love the effects it has on everything in this video I explore the layers of Aging in the process of Pettine steel awkwardly enough my designer wanted me to paint a steel i-beam to look like itself you'd think he'd want to strip the existing paint to reveal its natural state instead he wanted me to paint it to match the surrounding I beams in the apartment I will probably never be asked to do such a thing ever again however matching surrounding objects in an apartment is the best practice to better color matching skills explore various layered techniques and have a good time doing it as always protect surrounding area varnish and seal the tape with varnish to assure crisp edges I chose a deep earthy red for the base not a metallic and added a medium aggregate and joint compound to the mix this gives the base body and texture that will help mimic the feel with a large staining brush stipple your base on with a medium texture covering 100% of the surface when the texture is roughly 25 percent dry and still soft take a plastic blade and flatten it in a circular motion you want to purposefully create scratches to mimic a grinding or circular sander effect remember we are not painting raw steel look we are matching the rust and oxidation of steel so little to zero metallic color is necessary in this finish with the first glaze I use Golden's proceed glaze medium Plus golden acrylic glazing liquid flat varnish for durability adhesion and faster cure I take raw umber diarrhoea light yellow ultramarine blue primary magenta and titanium white mixed together for a medium and then I tweak with those colors later I add carbon black to gray and darken and then I check my mix and then I match my existing mix that I had made when I made my sample and to do so I keep checking the color and I tweak a bit more before I'm ready to glaze I use a glazing brush to apply a healthy amount of the first glaze over the surface you need to work quickly here because there are additional steps while the glazes wet prior to glazing have a separate container of the glaze mix and take a palette or a lid set up with black and raw umber with a different brush you do not want to find these items while glazing because the surface may dry on you dip into a separate container of the master glaze and mix with colors on the palette and apply it in areas you want darker locations come back with a wet sea sponge create lighter and darker areas on the surface you can use a spray bottle to add drips or use excess water from the sponge to achieve a similar effect this first step will take time to dry but since the following two steps require spatter technique you don't have to wait with equal parts acrylic glass a liquid to water makes a golden cream off-white color even though I used a metallic champagne color with white it doesn't matter then take a large glazing brush and tightly wrap tape close to the tip of the brush you want little spacing between bristles so it will have more spring when you flick your fingers through it no masking tape ended up working better than the blue tape some people are accustomed to using a toothbrush for spattering but for large surfaces you want more control and more volume the larger brush creates tiny to large spatter fragments you can certainly combine the two as a side note taking breaks and using both hands as necessary because you need a lot of spatter and two different colors the important factor is to make a look organ and realistic the second color is the brighter Russ color makes equal parts acrylic glazing liquid to water with diarrhoea light yellow and primary magenta and then add titanium way to lighten it this one requires a higher concentration of pigment so add accordingly also be sure to mix enough of this color for the oxidizing drip effect for later this technique is exactly the same as the previous step but I tended to spatter more of this color since it gave more characteristic to the finish than the off-white these spatter fragments will eventually get buried but are very important to the overall finish I am glazing again with the original master glaze with no additional colors added from a palette however the technique is different Here I am pouring the glaze onto my palette dipping my sponge and applying it to the surface in various areas on the beam this is what we call a positive technique where you add glaze to the surface with a sponge rather than remove glaze with the wet sponge as we did in the first step of glazing that technique was a negative technique I want to cover about 85% of the surface or there abouts to give color variations this next step is a two-part oxidation glazing technique the first glaze is a master glaze plus diarrhoea light yellow ultramarine blue and a bit of pearl iridescent for shimmer the second is one part flat varnish two parts water raw Sienna yellow ochre and raw umber as I pour the two parts onto my lid notice the difference in viscosity the first part is the base glaze and the second part is more of a lighter blending tone to add variation again I utilize the positive sponging technique adding the first part throughout the surface later I pick up a bit of the second color on my sponge and blend that color in areas I want to be a bit lighter and less red centric these two colors are in the yellowish green hue which is complementary to the brick red stipple base paint understanding the color wheel and how to cancel a color out with its complimentary color is absolutely necessary remember that bright orange oxidation color I said we'd come back to well we are going to use this as the rust or iron drip that seeps through old piping it is very bright but we will dilute this with a spray bottle filled with isopropyl alcohol and water take a small but coarse brush and run a line of the orange across the top or near the tape and then use the spray to create actual running drips along the surface you can control the intensity of the drip with the amount of spray and you can always add to the running drip as it runs downward this step really ties the finish together and makes it look realistic however be sure to keep it transparent to make it as subtle and effective as possible you also see the importance of burnishing and sealing your tape in the very beginning without those small details you would have a mess under that tape when you remove it these final two steps were only done on one side of the beam in the living room to mirror the i-beam nearest in perspective to that side the first is another sponging in a color near to raw Sienna to tone down the red and purple under cast the last step is another spray drip technique with the black and raw umber mix to mimic carbon or soot this entire process of layering glazes is essential in creating depth composition and most importantly matching the proper overall color the amount of steps is solely up to you and the finish you are matching these are shots of the final product I hope you enjoyed please subscribe and check out my other videos always a big thank you to my brother Ryan a better painter than me and a wicked groove master always providing drum tracks for my videos Cheers oh this is gern hein