by M.J. Holliday

Created on: August 18, 2008   Last Updated: September 18, 2008

HOW TO PAINT ONE WALL TWO COLORS - AN ARTIST'S GUIDE TO SCUMBLING

As a visual artist, I've painted interior walls and massive theater sets. Scumbling is my favorite technique, and it's ridiculously easy. Put on some old clothes, and prepare to get messy! With two colors, you can add vibrant tones and texture to a bleak wall, and have plenty of fun doing it.

If you need step-by-step guidelines or a standardized result, you might want to skip this. Scumbling is an expressive method of painting, and lets you play with paint, brush strokes and colors. When you're finished, you can be sure that your wall is truly an expression of you.

SCUMBLING SUPPLIES

You'll need:

*One boring wall
*One or more big, cheap bristle brushes
*Two cans of semi-gloss latex paint
*margarine or other wide-mouth containers
*Lots of newspaper
*A water spritzer
*Rags
*Sturdy step-stool, to reach high places

COLOR BASICS

Scumbling involves layering, and some blending of paint. Certain colors should never, ever be mixed, unless you like ugly mud tones. These are: red and green; yellow and purple; and blue and orange. Colors like blue and orange can sparkle if you lay them side by side, but if you mix them, you get a shade that looks like vomit.

Use a darker main color, and a pale secondary color. Look at a color wheel (at the paint shop or online) if you need help choosing colors.

Since you're mixing and layering as you paint, you'll end up with a lot of subtle tones and shades that no straight painting technique can offer. The scumbling technique uses brush strokes and paint thickness to create texture. Light will bounce off the brush strokes and layers of paint, and make your colors more vibrant.

SOME OF MY COLORS

I've used a warm terracotta shade with a pale golden beige for bedroom walls. I painted the colors directly over the old off-white paint of the walls. The old white paint isn't visible at all, but it makes the colors more translucent.

I've also just finished painting a day room in two shades of pale gray. One of the grays was a cool wedgewood blue tone, and the other was a warmer yellow-gray.

I chose grays because of the rug. The gray rug looks horrible with just about any color combo. I can't change the rug, since I'm renting, so I painted the walls to compliment it. It worked beautifully. My walls now look as if they're wreathed in airy clouds, sunlight dances through the room, the rug is happy, and so am I.

PREPARE TO PAINT!

Before you start, spread newspaper everywhere. If you're fussy or super-sloppy,

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