Faux Tiger Maple Help

Practice

• The biggest issue most people have with faux wood painting is that they only make a couple of attempts and give up. The difficulty with faux wood painting is that wood is a very inconsistent material with a lot of irregularities. Most people tend to try to make faux wood look too perfect, which looks unnatural. The technique needed to get reliable results with faux wood is practice and experience. Faux tiger maple is especially difficult due to the very specific figure pattern on it.

Stripe Direction

• The stripes on tiger maple are a figure rather than part of the grain. A figure refers to a pattern in wood that is perpendicular to the grain. A common, awkward-looking mistake occurs when painting the stripes of faux tiger maple in the same direction as the grain. Painting the stripes in this direction looks awkward, because, while subtle, actual tiger maple has a slight crosshatch pattern from the interlacing grain and figure.

Stripe Color

• The color of the stripes in tiger maple is not a particular shade, since there is some amount of variance in the coloration of the wood. The stripes need to be slightly darker brown than the grain, whether you are modifying another type of maple or are painting against the grain of faux maple material. You should only go about two or three shades darker in color. The color difference is fairly important. If the stripes are too light, the grain is going to draw the viewer’s attention away from the stripes. If the stripes are too dark, they will look unnatural.

Stripe Regularity

• Painting the actual stripes on faux tiger maple is problematic. The stripes all go in the same direction, but shallow curves, thickness changes, and other irregularities are extremely common. There is no easy way to achieve the correct stripe design. The easiest way to get a natural looking stripe pattern is to get a photograph of actual tiger maple and attempt to replicate the stripe pattern. You do not need to be exact when copying the pattern, but it should help introduce natural looking irregularities.