Lessons in Exterior Home Painting

By Violet Williams

Learning from our mistakes is one of the best qualities we can have as human beings. While it is never fun to fail or falter, ensuring that we do not make the same mistake twice is one of the most important things we can learn in our lives. The same goes for painting one's home, as many people make the mistake of overloading themselves and making silly mistakes along the way.
The last time I went about taking up exterior home painting I ended up spilling a bucket of paint on my lawn, and partially on my dog. My dog had a glossy red tail for about three days that glimmered in the sunlight anytime he wagged his tail. I also sloppily brushed the paint on my house and it turned out looking pretty ugly in the end. This would have probably been easily avoidable if I had done a little careful planning and read up on exterior home painting a bit. We all have the Internet, one of the most valuable tools in our modern society, and there is an abundance of information on painting and painting contractors that can be found.

If I had read up and done my homework, I would not be sitting here with red grass and a dog that, even by dog standards, is unusually interested in his own backside. I would have found that exterior home painting contractors are easy to find and are quite reliable granted you choose the right one. This would have saved me a great deal of time and an embarrassing trip to the vet.
More information on exterior home painting safety and College Works Painting in your area is just a click away.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Violet_Williams

A 'How To' Guide to Interior and Exterior House Painting

By Jonathan D Hunt

Painting both the interior and exterior of a house will not only refresh peeling, dirty paintwork, but will also maintain the beauty and life of the wood, render, or wall plaster.

Preparation in house-painting is the key to success. Interior walls should be washed with sugar soap to remove all traces of grease and dirt and then thoroughly rinsed with clean water. Any flaking plaster or cracks will need to be sanded down and re- filled with plaster. It is possible to buy ready made filler suitable for plaster which is really easy to use. Interior wood also needs to be cleaned with sugar soap, rinsed, and then sanded with a fine grade glass paper to give the new paint a surface on which to grip. If you just paint over existing paintwork without preparing the surface, the paint may flake and peel off!

It is personal choice on whether to paint the woodwork first or the walls. Generally, it is best to paint the emulsion on the walls first as emulsion does not always 'take' over gloss paint.
Once all the preparation has been completed on the walls and any filler rubbed smooth with fine glass paper - begin painting! When painting a light color over a dark existing color it is best to use an undercoat of white. Either that or be prepared to give the walls two or three coats of paint to ensure full coverage. Nothing looks worse than pale walls with the dark color showing through; it looks most unprofessional and you will not be happy with the result. Start by painting the wall from the top down, this will enable you make sure there are no paint runs in the finished wall.

After the woodwork has been prepared, begin painting from the top of the room down. Use a good quality primer on new wood, followed by the undercoat. When re-painting over existing paintwork it is best to use a 'one coat' gloss paint which is readily available from DIY shops and most hardware stores.

In painting windows, use masking tape to cover a small strip of the four edges of the glass. Paint from the top down to avoid drips and runs. Be mindful not to put too much paint on the brush as this will produce drips and runs. Also do not try to spread the paint too thinly as this will leave unsightly brush marks. Do not be tempted to pull off the masking tape for at least 24 hours; otherwise it will be a waste of time using it!

When you paint doors it is advisable to also begin painting at the top and work downwards; use a final up and down stroke of the brush to blend the paint in the same direction to help remove brush lines.

Don't forget to paint the baseboards! Use the same approach of preparation then painting.
When painting the exterior of the house, all old and flaking paint or rendering needs to be dealt with first. Once this has been removed begin painting either by hand, which is an arduous task or by using a paint sprayer. Which ever method is chosen it is advisable to cover the ground below and any features on the house with old newspaper or sheeting. Begin at the top and systematically work downwards.

Exterior woodwork should also be rubbed down with glass paper before attempting to paint. Work with a systematic approach from the top down. Try not to chose a windy day for painting outside woodwork otherwise you will end up with dust particles sticking to the wet paint!
More information on exterior and interior house painting can be found at http://www.housepaintinghowto.com/
Jonathan Hunt is a free-lance writer and creates websites He is interested in running, writing, and personal development.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_D_Hunt

A 'How To' Guide to Interior and Exterior House Painting

By Jonathan D Hunt

Painting both the interior and exterior of a house will not only refresh peeling, dirty paintwork, but will also maintain the beauty and life of the wood, render, or wall plaster.
Preparation in house-painting is the key to success. Interior walls should be washed with sugar soap to remove all traces of grease and dirt and then thoroughly rinsed with clean water. Any flaking plaster or cracks will need to be sanded down and re- filled with plaster. It is possible to buy ready made filler suitable for plaster which is really easy to use. Interior wood also needs to be cleaned with sugar soap, rinsed, and then sanded with a fine grade glass paper to give the new paint a surface on which to grip. If you just paint over existing paintwork without preparing the surface, the paint may flake and peel off!
It is personal choice on whether to paint the woodwork first or the walls. Generally, it is best to paint the emulsion on the walls first as emulsion does not always 'take' over gloss paint.
Once all the preparation has been completed on the walls and any filler rubbed smooth with fine glass paper - begin painting! When painting a light color over a dark existing color it is best to use an undercoat of white. Either that or be prepared to give the walls two or three coats of paint to ensure full coverage. Nothing looks worse than pale walls with the dark color showing through; it looks most unprofessional and you will not be happy with the result. Start by painting the wall from the top down, this will enable you make sure there are no paint runs in the finished wall.
After the woodwork has been prepared, begin painting from the top of the room down. Use a good quality primer on new wood, followed by the undercoat. When re-painting over existing paintwork it is best to use a 'one coat' gloss paint which is readily available from DIY shops and most hardware stores.
In painting windows, use masking tape to cover a small strip of the four edges of the glass. Paint from the top down to avoid drips and runs. Be mindful not to put too much paint on the brush as this will produce drips and runs. Also do not try to spread the paint too thinly as this will leave unsightly brush marks. Do not be tempted to pull off the masking tape for at least 24 hours; otherwise it will be a waste of time using it!
When you paint doors it is advisable to also begin painting at the top and work downwards; use a final up and down stroke of the brush to blend the paint in the same direction to help remove brush lines.
Don't forget to paint the baseboards! Use the same approach of preparation then painting.
When painting the exterior of the house, all old and flaking paint or rendering needs to be dealt with first. Once this has been removed begin painting either by hand, which is an arduous task or by using a paint sprayer. Which ever method is chosen it is advisable to cover the ground below and any features on the house with old newspaper or sheeting. Begin at the top and systematically work downwards.
Exterior woodwork should also be rubbed down with glass paper before attempting to paint. Work with a systematic approach from the top down. Try not to chose a windy day for painting outside woodwork otherwise you will end up with dust particles sticking to the wet paint!
More information on exterior and interior house painting can be found at http://www.housepaintinghowto.com
Jonathan Hunt is a free-lance writer and creates websites He is interested in running, writing, and personal development.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_D_Hunt

Painting: Putting Color on a Surface

The first painting known to man are the Grotte Chauvet in France that many historians claim are approximately thirty-two thousand years old and are engraved and painted with the help of red ochre and black pigment. These early paintings depict horses, rhinos, lions, buffalos as well as humans taking part in hunts. Also, many a cave painting had been found in France, China, Australia, Spain and Portugal.

Putting color to a surface that includes paper, canvas, glass and wood is known as painting. There is however, another meaning to painting that may, in an artistic sense, allude to it being used in conjunction with drawing and composition to express a concept as intended by the practitioner.

In any case, it is a way to represent as well as document and express different intents and there could be any subject that the painter may want to represent through his or her craft and these may include still life, landscape or abstract and even symbolism and emotional or political subjects.

Depicting Spiritual Needs of the Painter

Many a painting has its origins in the spiritual needs of the painter being expressed and they may depict mythological figures or biblical scenes or depictions of the human body itself. Important features of painting are color as well as tone and color that can have a deeply psychological effect on the beholder, though different cultures may see them in different light. Black may be associated with mourning in one culture while other cultures may not quite perceive it as such.

There are also many modern artists that practice painting as a collage that began with Cubism and may not be considered to be painting in a strict sense.

There are other painters that make use of many different materials including sand, straw, cement or wood for their texture. Nowadays, it is considered to be an art form that is dead for all purposes since it has changed course away from the historic values and moved more into depicting concepts rather than craft and documentation.

Modern and contemporary paintings include works by Die Brucke, Edvard Munch, Ernst Kirchner as well as Egon Schiele. Other painters who are famous from the post second world war era are Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein who have tried to incorporate popular and mass culture into fine art.

More recently, during the 60s and 70s, there was a reaction against painting and many accused it of having sold out to consumerism as well as commodification and artists such as Ad Reinhardt even announced the ‘death of painting.’ However, today it has an exalted position and it is an open playing field that is more united than ever before.