Painting prop boards - a tutorial

 2017 

This is unbelievable, on 2014 on April 4th, I posted a tutorial (this one) on painting boards. Three years after on the same day I opened up the post to edit and re-post with some fresh content. What is the possibility that I pick the exact same day after three years.... amazing right. 

Before I start, the first image, the paint is still wet. The finished dry board is not as glossy. 

Now, the way I am going to re-post this is, all new content will be in blue. All new pictures will have the caption -  2017. Before I forget, I will be doing an Instagram live demo of painting boards very soon - ( will announce here and on social) . Here is a link to my Instagram, if you want to follow updates.

Why Do we need to create different backgrounds for food/still  photography ?

If you have to create food or still life photography and you use the exact same background in over hundred images..you may show consistency but another word could be boring. There are so many elements in food photography, when you are weaving a story around your photography, with board in my mind . Some of them are - 

1 What food are we talking about ? 
2 Props and colors of the props and boards?
3 Do the prop colors match the food and the board, is it complimentary or monochromatic? 
4 Where do you place the props?
5 How much background do you show?
6 What kind of light? Back lit or side or front, does it effect what color I use?
7 Texture? Single color or dual color prop-board ?
8 Does color change mood ?
9 How do I know what colors go together? 
10 What color boards can me used multiple times without making it boring ? 

Ask yourself these questions. if you are planning to create an light and airy image and you are painting a board with a blue-black and a lot of textures, I guess .... you need to re-think your colors a bit.  Take a look at your prop collection, kind of image you shoot and then pick your colors and prop texture. 

Color Wheel 

If picking colors do not come naturally to you, you can do one of two things. Go monochromatic, pick a color and use tonal variations to create layers, you can even use gradation in same color - image below. 

OR...

Use 2-3 colors that are complimentary. More than 2-3 it becomes too many colors, of course there is always exceptions to the rule, where multi colors work very well. 

OR

Go black or white. Paint it for texture. 

Color gradation 2017

Color gradation 2017

Different images and moods created with the board  blue-green. 

I must pat myself on the back, I promised you guys a blogpost on prop boards and here it is. After shooting 5 ingredients for a book (book here)  and the cleaning up that goes with it ( which I almost despise) I am ready to take the rest of the day off. Am excited to share this post with you, so after I hit publish on this post, am going to put my feet up and relax. I just love painting boards ! I can pretend to be an artist…! I have always seen my mother work with oils, charcoal, graphite and even embroidery. My mother and sister are amazing artists, you can view my mother’s portfolio here. If you clicked on the link, and saw what you saw, you will know why I said  …these boards seem lame right.

Thanks for all the queries and requests that prompted me to write this post… I hope I will be able to explain and if you have any questions, just  let me know and I will try to answer them. I hope I inspire you to go and paint some boards and don’t forget to leave me a link or share a picture of your board.

I have used two techniques here. Dry brushing and wet on wet is what I usually use.  If you are not good with picking colors use a color wheel and complimentary colors on the color wheel really work well together. Just play around, if you do not like it you can always repaint it.

Note : paints can dry darker or lighter then they appear when they are wet. So, if you are looking for a specific color and are picky make sure you take that into account. When you mix two colors, you get a third color that is a blend of the two, so if you are going with blue and yellow you will have a green there.

You can paint on both side of a board.

For solid colors I usually use foam board, as they are so much easy to carry.

Materials
ply wood or any kind of wood with some texture. Foam board if solid color.  

Paint - I usually use interior home paint, get samples from the hardware store - it’s about 4-5$ for a sample. If you get lucky you might find something in clearance for as low as 50 cents. Specially gray, most times when a color is not mixed properly it is gray and you will find it in clearance.
Brush - again, I got one from the hardware store
Rag cloth - it really helps reduce the mess.

Method - Dry brush 

Pick two colors. Clean the wood and paint the basic color on the ply wood, I usually paint the darker color first. Don’t have to be very precise.  You can also do the light first as the base- it’s your board. The main color will be the second color.
Let it dry, preferably 2-3 hours.

After it is dry to touch, take a dry brush, and dip  just the edges of the brush in the paint and with very quick movement brush large strokes on the dried plywood. Do not cover the whole area, we want the first coat of color to be visible. Make some strokes vertical and some horizontal so it does not look uniform. In the board above the blue color I have used is an acrylic color ( I had it at home). Remember acrylic is water proof so not a great paint for this purpose, but… since this is something I already had, why not. Will repaint this board if it gets ruined.

I did not like it that much as I found the strokes a bit harsh, that’s because it was acrylic.  When the paint is still wet, dab with rag cloth, it will subdue the harsh lines from the stroke. If the paint has dried, add a bit more paint on the same spot and dab with rag. You can use either colors to dab.

When you pick your colors and make the boards, remember the board is not the main hero, it's a prop for the photographs and you do not want it to grab all the attention.

The above board is one of my favorites and have been used multiple times. See, how it is used below. I painted it with dark brown and turquoise and paired it with a brown plate…ties it all together. Click here for more images of this board.

Method - Wet on wet

Pick two or more colors, keep all the paint jars open. Pick one main color, start painting like you normally would. Keep changing colors every now and then. To blend the colors, dab the brush horizontal on the board or use a rag cloth, do it when the paint is wet. You can add new color, paint over, this is your canvas, enjoy ! It's really fun and addictive.

I used 5 colors.
Dark gray
light gray
creamy yellow
bluish turquoise
dark blue ( acrylic)

After the first coat, I felt the lines and strokes looked too forced, so started brushing it horizontally with another coat.

Kept mixing and redoing the horizontal strokes till I found what I liked. Added more blue and yellow and reduced the grays.

The final look ! It will dry a bit darker, when I use it, will try and tag this post.
Hope i was successful in doing a meaningful post and hope you guys have a wonderful weekend.

Adding textures to the wet and wet 

1- Paint the board with the main color and let it dry completely, now add the second quote a different color. Take a steel-wool ( yes the same one that you use to scrub the burnt pan), and after the paint is somewhat dry but not completely, scrape the paint. in order to create textures. Don't over do it, as too many textures don't work that well with photography. 


2 -If steel wool is not the texture you are looking for, let the second coat of paint dry completely and take a sand paper and remove the top quote in a distressed way 

3- This is really easy and my favorite method. Paint primary color, let it dry. Now take white Elmers glue, add water, somewhat painting consistency and paint on it ... just when it is about to dry ( not completely dry), apply the second color. This method has to be done in SMALL sections, as the glue dries you get a nice picture. Image below is done with this technique. I used white as the first color and turquoise as the second color. 

2017 - using glue

How to distress natural wood 

This is a slow process and needs time. There is no way I know how to advance this process. I left the wood outside for two years to weather. It was absolutely worth all the time, I treasure it like gold. Below is the raw version. 

Natural wood - 2017 

I gave it a brush of transparent  varnish - non- glossy - became a rich dark color ( image below) 

varnish distress wood - 2017 

Water color prop sheets

Super easy, you can do with wet-wet method or dry brush method... the colors just blend like butter. Make sure to use a thick paper for this, as the paper loves to buckle with water. 

Watercolor - 2017

Other surface for photography 

Marble ( kind of bit overused, but still a great surface)

Old baking sheets. 

Cloth or burlap

Distressed wood 

Tiles from hardware stores

Textured paper (hard to find) 

old baking tray -2017