You can create a work of art with paint in just days, rather than chiseling an enormous piece of stone for many years. Whether you choose to polish off a petite project or sculpt a bold monument, marbleizing will grace your surroundings with timeless style.

What You Need (for all colorways):

• Sherwin-Williams satin-finish latex paints: Unusual Gray #7059 (UG), Basket Beige #6143 (BB), Dover White #6385 (DW)
• Delta Ceramcoat acrylic crafts paints: Victorian Teal #2572 (VT) and Burnt Umber #2025 (BU)
• Plastic: 1 mil
• Scissors
• Small cotton rag
• Artist's brushes: 2-inch trim, sumi, and small liner brush
• Water-base polyurethane (optional)

 

1. Prepare your surface and base-coat with UG.

2. Cut a piece of plastic about 18 x 24 inches. Dip the 2-inch trim brush into DW and brush onto the plastic; repeat with BB. When applying the paint to the plastic, brush it on evenly and thinly to avoid dripping and long drying times between layers. Let the colors blend on the plastic in some areas; keep the colors separate in others.

 

3. Lay the plastic on the surface to be painted with the paint side down, allowing the plastic to cling to the surface and create random shapes and lines. Pick up the plastic and place it on a new surface area. You'll get about three applications before needing to reload the plastic with paint.

 

4. Once you've covered the area sufficiently, add base veins with the sumi brush, connecting the shapes with the appropriate color. For example, connect the white shapes with white veins and the tan shapes with tan veins. Vary the line widths by changing the pressure on your brush. Allow to dry thoroughly.

5. With a 1:1 mixture of water and VT, use a small rag to wash designated areas with color mixture. Load the liner brush with pure VT and emphasize the edges and add more veining sparingly.

 

6. Repeat step 2 with DW only and add veining. Working through the layers, add finer veining.

7. Using a rag, wash the entire surface with a 1:1 mixture of UG and water to soften and unify the colors. Emphasize areas with a mixture of 1:1:2 of VT, BU, and water and pull some of the first veins to the surface again by retracing them with the liner brush. Finally, retrace a couple of the DW veins so they pop.

8. Apply one or two coats of polyurethane to the project, if desired, using a 2-inch trim brush.