Advice about stenciling a shingle pattern on a playhouse roof

[PetsAllOver]

Hey there.

I am hoping someone can help.  I am looking to stencil a shingle roof on a playhouse bed that my hubby is making for my daughter's birthday.  I have stenciled before, but just your standard laser cut stencils.  I need to figure out how to stencil a roof on this playhouse but I can not find any pre-made stencil.  I was thinking about maybe using a brick stencil that I could repeat the pattern down the roof and just use shingle like colors.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

-Michelle

[lsbdesigns]

Michelle, you don't need a stencil. Just a roll of blue tape and a chip brush.  First, base coat the entire roof with a tan color. Start at the bottom of the roof. Tape off a row of shingles (5" or 6", or evenly divide the entire space so you end up with complete rows). Use  the chip brush to dry brush light brown to med. brown paint just using an up and down motion  from top to  bottom. When dry, move the tape up to do the next row, add another piece of tape near the top of the first row, so that the second row  overlaps as you brush top to bottom. Repeat up to the top. You can add some darker details by hand to indicate separate shingles along the rows. Add some shadows under the "lip" of each row.

Lynn Brehm
NATURAL-ACCENTS.COM

[PetsAllOver]

Lynn,


Thank you so much.  I have been trying to figure it out...I am going to just have to try it and see what happens.
I have a couple of questions. 

So I would make it look like individual shingles by using hand details..like to do the vertical lines between shingles and the horizontal line at the bottoms of each row? 

Also, Did I understand it right?  The under color should be lighter then the color I am dry brushing on?  I was thinking I needed to do it the other way, the darker one underneath and then dry brushing the lighter on top...

I went to your site too...WOW you are so talented.  I wish you lived near me so I could take classes!

[StencilSearch]

Michelle,

It looks like you already got some great advice from Lynn.  Here's another technique from Nancy Schnell that creates dimensional shingles.

[lsbdesigns]

Michelle, if you use a lighter color underneath, you can do several layers to create "depth". Using the dry brush with your chip brush, you create the look of a cedar shingle.  You brush from the top of the row down to the bottom, then move the tape and repeat for the next row above, just as you would do a real row of shingles on a roof. When that is dry, you use a small artist brush to accentuate each individual shingle --- choose a dark color like Raw Umber or Chocolate. You could also look at photos of cedar shingles for inspiration.

Lynn Brehm