Additives

Faux Painting Additives

Additives are an important part of faux painting because they can help you achieve different effects and give you more control over your medium. There are several kinds of faux painting additives, including ones that enhance or change the color of your medium, ones that produce particular finishes, and even ones that allow you to extend the drying times of different media, allowing you more time to perfect a finish.

Faux Masters Studio has a full range of additives to help you achieve the desired finish you’re looking to produce, no matter what effect, medium, or materials you’re working with.

Faux Effects Color Solvent

Reactive additives have the ability to enhance and excite certain color mixtures to produce more dramatic and vibrant effects. Activator II, for instance, can be combined with other products at Faux Masters Studio —including SetCoat, FauxCréme Clear, and FauxCrème Color—to enhance colors and produce more stunning positive and negative color effects.

As such, the combination of these products is ideal for creating marble and stone finishes, and Activator II can also be used alone as a tarnishing agent. For the most powerful effect, you can also use the Color Solvent to further enhance the color-activating powers of Activator II.

Using Extending Products to Get the Most from Your Medium

One of the most difficult parts of creating the perfect faux paint finish is being careful to use the right technique while also working quickly enough so that your medium doesn’t dry. And that’s where extending additives like AquaExtender and SoSlow can help, because they slow the drying and curing times of glazes and water-based finishing products, giving you more time to master your technique and achieve the results you want.

Faux Effects Blending Solvent Options for the Perfect Finish

There are many additives that will help you create various effects and finishes with your medium, such as Blending Solvent, which is a reactive solvent that can be used as a thinning agent, or combined with other products (such as Activator II) to enhance their reactive capabilities.

Other products that can be added to various media to produce different results include:

• Flattening Agent to dull paints and glazes to a matte finish
• SpatterAdd to transform water-based paints and finishing materials into sprayable liquids that produce a decorative spatter
• Sharkskin Additive to produce a sharkskin finish when combined with a SetCoat color is excellent for a low grade “scratch coat”
• SpatterGel to transform water-based colors and glazes into thick substances that will easily cling to vertical surfaces

Paint additives have the ability to take your projects to the next level, and sometimes using the right product can be just the thing you need to produce the exact effect you’re looking for.

The important trick with additives is using them properly, so be sure to read over the basic application information for each product and check out the product tips if you want the best results with all your Faux Masters Studio additives and media.