Paint On Your Own With Professional Results

Fresh coats of paint can make your home look fresh and just the way you want it. New exterior paint can make your home look appealing and inviting. It can be fun to pick colors for such projects. Yet the biggest barriers are often the time involved and the cost when you hire someone else. With a paint sprayer, you can paint on your own and get professional results.

You will be able to save both time and money. At the same time, you can get the appearance you want anywhere inside or outside of your home. Take your time to compare the various paint sprayer products out there. They are offered with various features and in various sizes. Think about the scope of the work you will do with the tool, and go from there.

Use with Ease

Even though a paint sprayer is going to offer you an array of features and benefits, the product is not going to be hard to use. The company takes pride in offering user-friendly products for do it yourself products. This is why so many of the home improvement stores offer such products. You can also find them online and have them shipped quickly.

Of course, you still need to follow the directions for the specific model you buy. This will make sure you get the most benefit from the product and it lasts a long time. Never assume these products are the same. While they may be similar, there are significant differences to take note of.

Fast Application

You will be able to get the paint applied in a fraction of the time with a paint sprayer versus a roller. This means you can get a professional look but you are not going to spend tons of your time to get it done. Most paint jobs must at least two coats, and you will be able to get that all done with ease. You can do it in sections and you will love seeing the progress.

Even Flow

One of the benefits of using a paint sprayer is the even flow design. You do not want to paint your be thicker in some areas than in others. You do not want to have paint splatter or blotches either. They will be hard to cover up and you do not want to leave them because they will be an eyesore. Instead, you want the paint to go on evenly and smoothly.

In order for that to happen, you need to make sure you spend enough time prepping the surface. This includes removing paint that has chipped for exterior jobs and washing the walls and the ceiling for interior painting.

Easy to Clean Up

Once the job is done, you will be appreciative of the fact you can clean a paint sprayer with ease. The process is to make sure it can be packed away until you are ready to use it again. Yet there will not be any gunk or residue inside of it that can compromise how well it works the next time around.

Durable and Affordable

This is a well-known brand with plenty of local consumers due to the durable nature of the products. The materials are carefully selected to hold up well to the ingredients in paint products and storage. They are also considered a good investment as the price is reasonable for such a product. In fact, you will often find them priced lower than competitor products.

That is very encouraging, especially since you know you will be saving money but not compromising anything about quality. This is a painting project tool you can put to use and be very happy with from start to finish.

Proper Order For Painting Interiors, Doors, and Windows

Of course, the question is what do you paint first, after all other work is done and everything is cleaned up and dust removed. The obvious answer is that you begin by painting that which is higher and which can drip down, such as the ceiling. The trouble is that obvious answers are not always right.

It all depends on your plans for the trim. If you're going to be painting your trim (with latex or oil-base paint), then the proper order is as follows:

When Painting Trim

1. Paint ceiling
2. Paint walls
3. Paint doors and windows
4. Paint trims around doors, windows, and baseboards.

If, however, you're going to be staining your trim, then a different plan of action is in order. It looks like this:

When Staining Trim

1. Stain all trim, preferably before installing it. Use sanding sealer to raise the grain; then sand and varnish the trim.
2. If trim is already in place, stain as above, allow the stain to dry, and mask the trim.
3. Paint ceiling
4. Paint walls
5. Paint doors and windows
6. When all the paint is dry, either put in trim or remove masking from existing trim and touch up as necessary.
Remember that, if you get paint on the trim, you will have to sand it carefully-a tedious job-before you can restain it. Therefore, you want to do the painting and the staining separately.

What's the Proper Procedure for Painting Doors and Windows?

For doors, start at a top corner and work your way across and down. Use a brush and be sure that you work quickly to avoid having the paint dry. It's much harder to paint a glossy acrylic latex on a door than a glossy oil paint.

Beware of backpainting a door with acrylic latex. This common practice involves painting the entire door with a roller, then using a brush to smooth out the paint and give it "brush marks." The problem is that acrylic latex dries quickly and without you work fast, the bottom of the door (the last place you'll be working) will be dry before you get to it, leaving brush or roller marks.

For windows, particularly French windows (with lots of small panes of glass), painting can be a real hassle. You'll need to use a small (1-inch) trim brush for the dividers. You can try masking the glass, but that will take longer than the actual painting. Instead, use a plastic putty knife, found in paint stores, as a shield. Hold it against the surface you are painting to keep the paint away from the glass.

If you use a shield, you'll have to clean it off with a rag after each use, else some paint will get behind it and onto subsequent panes. Usually a little paint will not hurt. You can clean it off quickly with a rag, or come back later on and remove it with a razor blade. Beware of window glass that has a rough surface. It will be almost impossible to remove any drawn paint from the glass.

Wear eye protection when painting. Getting a drop of paint in the eye, particularly oil-base paint, can be very painful and could damage the eye.

Top 10 Car Drawing Books For Beginner Artists

1. How to Draw Cars Like a Pro, 2nd Edition

In this long-awaited follow-up to the best-selling first edition of How to Draw Cars Like a Pro, renamed car designer Thom Taylor goes back to the drawing board to update his classic with all-new illustrations and to expand on such topics as the use of computers in design today. Taylor begins with advice on selecting the proper tools and equipment, then moves on to perspective and proportion, sketching and cartooning, various media, and light, shadow, reflection, color, and even interiors. Written to help enthusiasts at all artistic levels, his book also features more than 200 examples from many of today's top artists in the automated field. Updated to include computerized illustration techniques.

Author: Thom Taylor

2. How To Draw Cars Fast and Easy

How To Draw Cars Fast and Easy is a 134 page car drawing guide in downloadable e-book format, jam-packed from cover to cover with all the tips and techniques previously known by only a small hand of professional designers. This program contains all the information you'll ever need to draw perfect looking cars quickly and easily that will amaze your friends.

Author: Tim Rugendyke

3. How To Design Cars Like a Pro

This book describes how car design and technology work through the eyes of the most talented and powerful car designers in the world. The interviews give a deep understanding of why we see what we see on the highways of the world. Author Tony Lewin has been a highly regarded magazine editor on the world stage for so long that some of the top young guns revealing all in this book were hanging on his words just a few years ago.

Author: Tony Lewin

4. How to Draw & Paint Cars

This book is not about learning how to draw and paint fashionable cars, super cars, tarted up street or 'cool' cars as referred to by some motoring journalists, it is about drawing and painting all types of cars. The author has endeavored to distill experience from many years creating images on this subject into a book that will help and encourage those keen to draw and paint cars, both for pleasure or as a career. The author takes you through the history of the car from it's conception in 1885 to current models with sketches and paintings created in a variety of mediums, with examples and step by step guides. Readers are encouraged to develop their skills, whether raw beginners or accomplished artists. The road to success will not be easy, but, through this book you will learn all the techniques short cuts accumulated over decades by an accomplished commercial artist. Whether for business or pleasure this book is THE handbook for automotive art. With 185 illustrations and step by step guides this is a must have for any budding auto artist.

Author: Tony Gardiner

5. How to Draw Cars the Hot Wheels Way

This book provides excellent how-to-draw detail that is appealing and easy to follow for Hot Wheels (tm) and drawing enthusiasts from ages 10 to adult. Detailed drawing techniques with descriptive captions allow readers to create their own automated designs. Illustrations emphasize how to draw fantasy, custom, concept, and hot rod cars. Author Scott Robertson uses original Mattel art throughout the book. With real Mattel artwork featured in detail, the bo0ok has great appeal for collectors, even if they are not aspiring artists. Because Hot Wheels (tm) diecast cars are modeled after both real and fantasy vehicles, the techniques and interest to readers is the same as for real-life car enthusiasts. Officially licensed by Mattel.

Author: Scott Robertson

6. H-Point: The Fundamentals of Car Design & Packaging

The ultimate reference guide for car designers and automotive engineers! H-Point was written by the pioneer of the Vehicle Architecture course at Art Center College of Design, Stuart Macey along with the Director of Advanced Mobility Research, Geoff Wardle. Currently used as the educational handout for the transportation design students at Art Center, it will now be available to aspiring car creators everywhere, clearly organizing the packaging standards that apply to car and truck design; along with insightful graphic explanations, this book demystifies the automotive design process and allows designers access to an illustrious careers worth of knowledge.

Author: Stuart Macey

7. How to Design Cars Like a Pro

This comprehensive new edition of How to Design Cars Like a Pro provides an in-depth look at modern automotive design. Interviews with leading automotive designers from Ford, BMW, GM Jaguar, Nissan and others, analyzes of past and present trends, studies of individual models and concepts, and much more combine to reveal the fascinating mix of art and science that goes into creating automobiles. This book is a must-have for professional designers, as well as for automotive enthusiasts.

Author: Tony Lewin

8. DRIVE: vehicle sketches and renderings

DRIVE features Scott Robertson's very latest vehicle designs intended for the video game space communicated through skillfully drawn sketches and renderings.

DRIVE builds upon the success of his prior two vehicle design books, Start Your Engines and Lift Off. Featuring four chapters, each representing a different aesthetic theme, Aerospace, Military, Pro Sports and Salvage, conceptual sports cars, big-rigs and off -road vehicle designs are beautifully represented through traditional and digital media sketches, and renderings.

Author: Scott Robertson

9. How to Illustrate and Design Concept Cars

Beginners will find an easy-to-follow introduction to the topic, while more experienced designers can find new inspirations by reading about the author's workflow process. A very interesting book for everyone who loves drawing and rendering cars.

Author: Adrian dewey

10. Start Your Engines: Surface Vehicle Sketches & Renderings from the Drawthrough Collection (Air Vehicle Sketches)

Start Your Engines compiles works from Scott Robertson's vast archives of ground vehicle drawings and renderings, and features the following chapters: Cars, Bicycles, Snowcraft Mechanimals and selected work from the conceptual design of vehicles for the video games Field Commander and Spy Hunter 2. The Cars chapter reviews about half of this book and features original designs both futuristic and retrospective.

Author: Scott Robertson