Paintgirl Chronicles # 3: Designing and Finishing!

For those who remember, my walls got painted on October 13! I'm just posting this more than 1.5 months late. Apologies, apologies. For the new smarties who're now reading my blog, I utilized my Autumn break to paint two walls in my room. All by myself (helped by my family, of course). Thanks, I know I do really cool stuff. 8|

This is the third and the final part of the series (you can see the previous parts here and here). I mean, I was so exhausted when it was finally done, that I had no energy left to post about it. It's okay. Even though Paintgirl has amazing powers, she can run out of them sometimes. And then college re-opened and you know the rest. Writer's block, etc etc. Anyway, coming to the awesome part, I love the new walls. Not only are they painted in pretty shades of pink, we designed a tree at the intersection of those walls too! I can certainly certify it with a guarantee stamp that painting three coats each on two walls over two-three days won't make you feel as tired and exhausted as painting a tree for three hours straight would.

Paints and colors: We used oil paints, the kind usually reserved for painting on wooden and iron surfaces. Don't ask why. The Paint bhaiya said they'd be good to use and I could just trust his judgment. It was fun to work with, true, but since they are 'hard' and thick, they take more efforts. Plus, you'd have to use thinner brushes for painting leaves and outlining and the details, so it'd take even more time and effort. But I think I get why he suggested oil paints. They stick well and don't leak, which the normal paints would have done. Lesson to be learned: Always trust those who are making their living through a certain trade. They do know it well. ^_^ 

Enamel paints and stainers

Coming to colors, we had black and white enamel paints, along with brown and green stainers (as you can see in the above picture). These stainers can be mixed in the white enamel in any quantity you prefer, depending upon the shade of the color you want. For example, I had two different containers for light brown (with a little less amount of stainer mixed in white enamel) and one for a darker brown. Similarly, two shades of green (considering a mono green shade for all leaves would be boring!). 

Making the design: If it isn't too complex a design, you can straightaway stroke with your brush! But if you have any sliver of doubt and don't want to waste your three-days' hard work labor by making a wrong stroke, you may make a pencil design first as a base for the paint and brush. I tired making it too, but then my childhood's awesome creative avatar took over and went beyond the pencil stencil and made strokes on its own. I knew it's going good when mom entered after about an hour and exclaimed an appreciative and incredible "Wow". :D Although, you would always need someone else to stand at a distance and tell, because being on a ladder and being inches away from the design, you wouldn't really know about the overall structure. 

I made the tree trunk using the light colored brown, and then the branches, adding light green leaves at intervals. Then I mixed more stainer to have a darker green and made dark green half-boundaries on the leaves. The previous day on impulse, I had got some pretty golden paint and on another impulse, painted the other half of the leaves' border with gold. It looked quite good! I was exhausted and finally slumped back, not wanting to do any more, abandoning my plans of making those concentric circle designs on the trunk. My mom, with a little help from dad the next morning, secretly put an outline on the trunk and branches, making it look perfect and complete. What-e-morning surprise! :D

Overall! :D

                                 

Finishing: That was the last day of my holidays and we didn't have any time to do more, so the day was spent cleaning the floors, and other places where random paint was spotted. A few days later the bookshelf was put back and the room returned to it's part-messy normalcy. And then I had a lot of awesome gifts from awesome friends that would be framed and put up on the dark colored wall, which would make this look even more cool! :D

^_^

Basically, this is how it looks now. What do you think of it? ;)  

The Paintgirl Chronicles # 2: Coating Paints!

Ohmygod. Whatever presumptions I did have, I certainly did not think using a heavy brush and a bucket of paint would give me a body pain. -_- Those painter dudes are certainly tough guys, I know now. But no, I'm not complaining, because it's been (and still is) the kind of experience someone as crazy enough as I am would love to have. Despite the pain, the chanting of God's various names while precariously perched on top of the ladder (did I say perched? Cross that, standing with just plain walls for support, on which you can't even lean because one, they're newly painted and two, you'd just fall anyway), an overenthusiastic mom (who by the way, turned out to be an awesome Paintwoman!) I'm loving it! :D I'm kind of blocked right now and so I dunno how to go about this post, to include everything I've learned! I'm feeling like a hungry maJdoor (special emphasis on 'J'. Hi, munchkin! :P ) right now, waiting for tea, which I've consumed like... like whoever consumes tea all day long and I won't have time after this because I've gotta get started with the designing. :D

Things you learn when you get down to painting your room:

1. You thought you were enthusiastic, you wished your parents would get enthusiastic too. Dudes, whoever said 'Be careful what you wish for, it just might come true' was right. Half your time might be spent fighting with your mom at whose turn it is to use the brush. She might want to paint everything herself and give you the job of using the roller on the fresh paint so it gets even. She might reduce the number of breaks you have and make you get away from the technological gadgets you use for breaks. But it's actually something you enjoy. You realize all her ideas have wonderful results, she's an awesome Paintwoman, and has got an eye for colors and which area needs another coat. Trust her, people! Mother knows best. ;)

2. The first coat of paint would always be patchy and uneven. Even after it dries up. Even if it's a plain, normal wall without any internal past water seepage problem. :P It might look so bad that you'd think you shouldn't have taken the initiative after all. BUT no! You'd actually 'get' how to paint effectively so it doesn't make a patch by the second time around. And you'd be more careful. Just gently make horizontal strokes and then use a roller over them to make it smooth. You wouldn't know how it'd look like in the end, because it's very different when it's still wet, but the second time around you'd feel so amazingly proud of yourself!!! It gets so much better and so smooth and almost flawless! :D Mom and I did this wall in a dark shade of pink and it. looks. amazing.

The dark one! :D

3. The wall with the past water-seepage-problem, even after scraping and cleansing would already have patches and the fresh coat of paint will not disguise those. We painted it the same dark color at first, but the room had all dark walls then! One, I was already feeling anxious by completely changing the look and two, it wasn't as bright as before. And that was with just one coat! Later that night, one of those brainstormy awesome friends suggested mixing white paint in it to make it lighter. We had already done that, but it was still almost the same. But we could always mix more, right? In the end we ended up mixing another liter of white paint and then it came back to almost the same color as before. Three coats into it and it's still a little patchy on one side, but I can always make those designs on them! :D

4. You'd feel hungry. A lot.

5. You'd have your househelp coming in to see the progress whenever there's a commercial break from whatever serial she's watching, and commenting on every single question you ask while in a conversation. Even if it's a rhetorical question. But you'd laugh at it, because she's funny sometimes. ;) And she'd tell you genuinely which parts don't look okay and would say, 'yaar kitna mast lag raha hai na?' when it's a job well done! :P

6. Be ready to turn your hands and feet coarse with scrubbing while cleaning up, because your mom might not let you use turpentine oil since 'your skin is very sensitive'. :/ 

7. Wear old clothes that you can discard, in case the paint and stuff doesn't get off.

8. You'd start noticing how Berger Rangoli has an advertisement in between a cricket match and what other brands are into this business. You'd also notice wall paints and combinations in other people's homes.

9. You'd know for yourself the different kinds of paints, how it's okay to mix water with a certain kind if it's too thick. You'd also get comfortable talking to the hardware store wale bhaiya because despite being careful enough, you did need something more.

10. You're actually quite capable of doing what you said you'd do. It feels surreal but you'd be the one who did the upper walls. The parts above the tubelight. Like a boss! 8| You'd know you're awesome! ;)

11. Your mom would wait for you to finish this blogpost, restlessly reminding you that it's 'about time' we went ahead with the designing, and you would want to make her (and yourself) happy, so you'd just stop typing and go ahead. :P 

The final, pre-designed painted walls. :D

The Paintgirl Chronicles # 1: Creating bases

Hiya peepul! I'll make all my thoughts super direct in this post because I've attempted, unsuccessfully to write four different posts, all literary-thoughty-thoughty kind. I suppose I'm not in that frame of mind these days (months?), so I decided two minutes ago to just ditch it. So yeah, right. You know it's bad when it's already been like, four days into the autumn break and I did not even do a celebratory post about it. And it's bad because I love breaks and holidays, as the loyal gine chune readers might know, but I still didn't say 'yay'. Yes, I have this week off from college. And what did I do in the past four days? Lazed around. Totally. I did not read anything apart from some pending blogposts, a couple of pages from some book I took two days to decide to read, I wrote nothing, I haven't looked at the college notebooks (and I won't. I'll just see it once in the Metro on Monday morning). See? This is the level to which something sucky can affect you, that someone as strong as I was am would suffer. Anyway, I know I would grasp at anything if I have to, to be able to fully come out of this mental and whatever block it's given me, once I'm outta here. 

Till then, this is a new mini-series! And I swear it'll be a mini because it is on something I hope to be able to complete during the bache kuche dinn of my break. One fine day a few weeks ago while I sat staring at a wall with peeling paint in my room, dad came in to ask for something and I asked for his opinion on whether or not I could paste newspapers on the wall, not the boring kind, the funky kind, to make it more interesting and less of a sore. I suppose even he saw how mental his once-upon-a-time-awesome kid has become, and maybe he got into the generously senti parenty thingy and he asked if I would like to re-paint the wall. Myself. I mean! How cool is that? He could see I was incredulously happy and so yay! This is the thing that'd be making this short break worthwhile. Jeez. I was feeling so sucky since morning. I feel a million times better already! :D 

The Paintgirl avatar.
The real fotos looked too meh. -_-

Okay. Focus. This is part of the Paintgirl Chronicles. Obviously, I am the Paintgirl and no, you're not allowed to roll your eyes or laugh because I mentioned in the previous post how bad I am at naming. And Paintgirl is anyway better than the other names I've come up with. Anyway, *the awesomest drumroll ever*!

Making Decisions:

The 'supposedly' hardest part. I later on realized it's not as worth the hype as it is right now. Yes, decisions are important but if you're keenly interested and if it's close to your heart, those decisions are pretty easy and quick. Awesome, even. The harder part is later, while implementing. 

Anyway, gathering two of my closest friends (Hi dudezos!), we formed a brainstorming group to decide on the extremely crucial question: what color and design to settle on? Of course it had to be pink, so the pink-color-hater-friend decided not to think too much on the subject. The rest of us decided on a shade similar to the ceiling one, contrasting with the dark strawberry shade of the wall that's perfect. Designs were made on paper and whatsapped, colors of the designs decided. All went well, except for a minor katta because the pink-hater was supposed to come over for the painting, but then she had to leave for her hometown. Hello festivals! -_-

Pre-Implementation Preparations:

It wouldn't do well to suddenly stop the whole process just because you don't have an important material or something, right? Total mood dampener. So as a first step, you gotta do a short online research (where else?), googling stuff with the search-words, 'how to paint a room' and 'material required to paint a room'. I'd suggest you don't focus too much on the non-Indian search results. They'd mention 20 things you don't know the names of and we can anyway do a better job with the good Indian jugaad. Just be a smartass and take basic tips and leave the strict rules to them. 

Once you have a little knowledge, you'd feel like an awesome Paintgirl already (or Paintboy. Ugh, that sounds so.... :P ). This prior knowledge is important because you weren't born masons and painters and this would probably be the first time you'd be doing it yourself. I mean, I'm still not believing my parents actually don't mind my clumsy self doing a paint-on-the-wall-job. I haven't painted anything in my life, except maybe a house with a triangle top as a kid. And I'm free to even design it. *Dancing* Okay. Focus. 

1. Once you know how to go about it, make an Indianized version with your dad. If you go word for word by the angrezi version, the hardware store wale bhaiya would look at you pityingly, thinking you don't know anything. 

2. Make a list of things you'd need. 

3. See which of the listed things are already available in your home. Go to the store room. Full of junk. But that's useful junk! You'd most probably find half the things you need in there. 

4. Make one trip to a nice hardware store and get everything. Double check if you have everything because if you miss something, your dad's not going to go again and you'd have to paint pink with green. 

5. Prepare yourself mentally. You can't get ill, you can't back out, you can't think of posing and clicking photos because you'd have to know you wouldn't be dressed your best when you get to work. You have deadlines and you have to work hard to complete the job. 

Materials needed:

1. Paint (obviously :P ): I can't say what kind, because I didn't understand it myself. They talked about it like it was the most obvious thing in the world and I didn't care too much as long as I got what I needed. The one I have is an emulsion, though. And since I'm not cementing and making a whole wall from scratch, just repainting with a little scraping off, I don't need a primer either. Y'know, the base paint thing.  

All STUFF! 

By the way, did you guys know how you get thousands of shades in paints? This was SO new to me that I can't help sharing, even if it might be obvious to you. While I looked up shades in the shade card, I looked around the store to see hundreds of buckets of paint. But the shade card held thousands and I asked dad if they'd have what I needed. 'Of course', he said. Tentatively, I picked out one shade and watched as the guy went to a computer on top of a semi-circular heavy table. He found the shade, quoted the price and when dad said 'yes, we'll have it', he simply took off the lid of a one liter box with white paint inside and placed it under the computer, inside the semi-circular thingy which I realized was a machine. o.O And then he retrieved the box, shook it up, opened it and revealed that same pink shade! :O How cool is that? And to think I thought all shades are stuffed inside boxes already. It feels so obvious now. -_-

Apart from the main paint, you'd also need other paints for those designs you think you would make. I got some white, black, brown and green paint too, the kind which you can mix in proportions to get different shades of these colors! Eeep!! :D

2. Brush : To paint with. You could use a wide one for the walls and a relatively narrower one for making designs. 

3. Roller : Because just brushes might be for those actual wall-painter-guys. And rollers seem fun.

4. Turpentine oil : To clean paint off stuff that weren't intended to be painted, like the bed or the study table or the floor or your hands. ;)

5. Wall putty or P.O.P. : To fill in gaps in the wall to make them smooth. The hardware bhaiya suggested us P.O.P. as it dries soon and works well. 

6. Scraper and sandpaper: To make the walls smooth before repainting them. Get rid of the flakes and then rub sandpaper.

7. Miscellaneous: Rough cloths for cleaning, a cloth for covering your mouth and hair, plastic vessels for mixing paints and other such things. Also, a camera for your mom to click your pictures, but don't expect them to come out any good. :/

Getting started:

Finally, after all this was done, I stood looking at my room, trying to etch in my memory the way it looked, because it wouldn't be the same anymore. I clicked a picture of the two walls that'd have a darker pink, and probably a subtle design. I do get sentimental about this as well. -_- 

View 1.

I can metaphorically compare the crumbling, peeling-paint wall with myself. If I think of it as me, it's something that has been suffering for too long. The actual problem was fixed a couple of years ago, it wasn't just re-painted since then. Though in my case I'm fine on the surface, just need to be fixed from the inside. But we can overlook this for now. This wall is like me. I need to re-do it and make it awesome. 

The wall holds one bookcase, which had to be removed. I shifted the books to G's room and removed the bookcase with dad's help (no, you can't do it on your own because one, it is heavy and two, it needs screwdrivers and pliers and a lot of physical strength, which even a motivated Paintgirl would find hard to do). Then the bed was covered along with other pieces of furniture that stay in the room for now. The ladder was brought in and we covered ourselves and set to work. Now, those small scraping cards are sharp and you can cut your hands if you're not careful. Dad did most of the upper portions while I did the lower half, the layers and layers of dried paint falling on us. I seriously didn't care, I was so engrossed in this simple activity. Feverishly scraping off layers. The nasty things had to be peeled off. It won't have to suffer anymore, just get rid of everything that's troubling you. 

It took a couple of hours for one wall, which isn't even one wall, it's just half! Those couple of hours involved putting in plaster wherever needed. Have you ever mixed plaster with your hands? The powdery stuff is quite hot if you keep your fingers in them for long. Put in water and mix. Sometimes it feels like your hand is in a marshy swamp (a daldal) and if you're too into it, you might feel that one second panic, feeling like you're about to drown and never get out. But you realize it's just your hand and you can take it out. You use the scraper to fill it in holes and make the walls smooth. 

The base is ready now. You just have to let the plaster dry, and maybe you can make tiny sculpture flowers out of the plaster that's still left. I tried. It was a mess. I now have what resembles an uneven snake with a bloated stomach. -_- 

***

This has been the progress so far. I now look forward to tomorrow, when we'd be starting the actual paint! Yay pink! :D I've decided to make a plain tree on one side, and the three Divergent ravens coming out of the branches. I'll paint a quote too. And small white butterflies. All this is on one side and it would look cool and fun. I'm hoping to update on the progress day-by-day, just like it happens! :D If you've got any awesome design ideas, please share. There's still time to consider! ;)

PS- This work is much harder than I imagined. But I like it nevertheless. I love the doing-the-digging-and-dirty-work and then seeing the beautiful result. It feels awesome when you know everything about how it came into being. Just like the wall, I'm ready to be repainted. Myself. By my family members. With love. :)