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Verde Green Marble
Faux Marbleizing
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Verde, which is Italian for "green", is a good marble for marbleizing (or "marbling"). The colors of black, white and green work well for producing "depth" in this marble, which makes it very convincing.
Click on image to enlarge
Tools & Materials:
Badger Softener
Goose Feather
Sea Sponge
Also you will need:
- Plastic (garbage bag wil work)
- Mineral Spirits
- Alkyd Glaze
- Alkyd Paints (see below colors)
- Bullesye Shellac
- Lamp Black Universal Tint
(We will practice graining on an illustration board)
Base Coat
Sample Board Instructions:
For sample board preparation you will need to prime the front of the board to waterproof it. Priming will help to prevent the board from curling when you apply the base coat.
The base coat color is black. My favorite method of doing a black base coat for Verde marble is to tint clear Bullseye shellac with black universal colorant (lamp black). Black shellac dries fast and is ready for the marbling process quickly. Apply two coats of shellac.
If you prefer not to use shellac you can use a latex or oil based satin or eggshell black paint. A latex black paint will usually appear gray, whereas shellac (and oil paints), will be a deeper, more pure black, giving more depth to this marble.
Note: Avoid using aerosol black spray paint. The few that I have tried could not be over coated with oil glaze or paint.
Sample board primed / base coated in black shellac
The First Layer
Good marbling is done in layers to achieve depth in the painted finish.
Glaze / Paint Colors
Three shades of green
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White
The first layer is the green mineral "background" over the which you will do the white veining and drifts.
The background is applied with a sea sponge and then "scumbled" a bit with plastic. Take the plastic and dab it into the glaze here and there.
Apply areas of primarily the darker green color with drifts of the middle green flowing through it. Add some "islands" of the light green, and dab it a bit with the plastic here and there.
Cissing
If you spatter mineral spirits on an oil paint, it will cause the paint to crater, leaving circular voids. These voilds have a good resemblence to the look of serpentine marbles.
Technique
Carefully spatter mineral spirits onto your marble background by dipping the tips of a stencil brush into some mineral spirits, then run your finger over the bristle tips to produce a fine spray onto the surface. Let the mineral spirits sit on the surface for a few seconds, when the paint/glaze starts to "open up", you dab it softly with a cotton rag to dry it. Follow that up by softening with a badger blender brush.
Blending
Blending is done diagonally with marble. It is done with the drift and across the drift. Blending kind of softens and blurs the "minerals" together. A good tip to achieve depth is to do a well blended drift which will look blurry and deep in the marble, then go over that with some well focused (unblended) bits of green mineral fragments. It will appear that the well focused bits are on top of the burry blended drift below it.
For more information about creating the mineral background please read Drift Marble.
Cissing of medium green glaze
The medium green seems to be floating over the deeper green beneath it ( which is blended and blurred a bit by softening with a badger brush).
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Bits of "focused"
medium green
sponged on top
Use an alkyd glaze ( Sherwin Williams Alkyd Illusions glaze will do), and alkyd paint (C-99 alkyd satin or semi gloss paint). Your mix will be 1 part glaze, 1 part paint, and 1 part mineral spirits.
The Second Layer
Allow the first layer to dry thoroughly ( 24 -48 hours), then isolate the first layer with a thin wash coat of shellac.
The veining layer is done with the goose feather.
Pour a bit of white paint/glaze into a small roller pan, dip the side of the feather into the glaze and "dance" the side of the feather across the surface to create drifts of white.
Spatter the drifts with mineral spirits to ciss and open them up. Soften them lightly across the direction of the drift here and there.
Add bits of white mineral with the sea sponge tips- lightly here and there. Pounce crumpled plastic on the background to create granite-like mineral particles.
Veining
Veining is done with the tip of a goose feather. Others like to use a sword striper or a liner brush for veining. To vein with a feather, hold the feather in your hand as you would a pencil. Dip the tip into the white glaze and using the index finger lightly bounce and dance the tip on the feather to create your veins. Soften the veins by: 1. lightly dabbing them with a soft cotton rag and 2. softening them across the vein lightly with the badger softener. 3. you can ciss the white veining to open it up.
Strengthen the veins with pure white alkyd paint here and there to highlight portions, leave these highlights unsoftened.
Add very fine fractures and veins. You can add fractures by dragging the point of a "5 in 1" tool lightly through the wet glaze. This will give you very fine "negative" veins.
Once you have the veining the way you like it, allow the layer to dry completely.
Clear coating
To achieve the look of real polished marble you will need to clear coat the marbling with a non-yellowing clear coat. I use a thin wash coat of fresh shellac for this. Old shellac will sometimes take on rust from the metal container it is stored in. Shellac does not yellow with age but it does have a slight amber cast which is not noticeable if you keep it thin. I use a thin shellac wash (thinned with alcohol) to minimize any amber cast.
The second layer is the white drift and veining layer.
White drifts with cissing
Add pure white paint highlights here and there
..... has a lot of good marbling instruction and I highly recommend it. One of the very instructive chapters in the book deals with the structure of marble veining and the shape that real marble veins take on in the real stone.
Goose feathers come to a point and the tip is used for fine veining.
Turkey feathers do not come to a sharp point. The sides of the turkey feathers are used for adding drifts of color to the marble
Goose or Turkey Feathers?
Some alkyd paints will turn yellow over time. For this reason, you need to use a white paint that has good color retention. If the paint yellows over time, you will not have white but yellow veins after the paint has aged a bit.
Use non-yellowing white alkyd paint
Real Verde Green Marble
Faux Verde Green Marble
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