How to Get the Splattering Technique for Painting Walls With a Toothbrush

Toothbrush splattering is an easy art technique used for creating a fine spray of color on almost any surface. You can use it on Easter eggs, furniture, accessories--even walls. Be sure to wear old clothes and eye protection if you are going to splatter paint on something as big as a wall. It is inevitable that the paint is going to end up going everywhere. You might even want to put on a shower cap to keep paint out of your hair.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Old clothes
• Eye protection
• Shower cap
• Toothbrush
• Watercolor or acrylic paints
• Small plastic tub
• Butcher paper
• Painter's tape
• Drop cloths

1. Rinse your toothbrush to make sure it is clean and debris free and shake the excess water off the bristles. Lay down drop cloths or tape paper over anything within several feet of the wall that you do not want covered in paint. Once you have got a handle on the technique, you will not have to cover quite so far out to avoid splattered flooring, but at the beginning it is better to be over-protective of your surroundings.

2. Put a bit of paint in a small plastic tub and thin it with water, if necessary, so that it is a splatter-able consistency. The best way to find your favorite consistency is just by experimenting with a scratch sheet of paper to see how much mixed-in water it takes. Ideally, the paint should be at a watercolor consistency (which is automatic if you are using watercolors and requires just a bit of water mixed in if you are using acrylics) but not as runny as a rinse.

3. Tape a large piece of butcher paper up on the wall as a practice canvas. Once you are comfortable with your technique, remove the paper and go to work on the wall.

4. Dip the toothbrush bristles in the paint. They should be well saturated. Point the bristle end of the toothbrush toward the wall you are painting angled up a bit so that the bristles also face the wall.

5. Run the handle of a paintbrush rapidly along the toothbrush bristles, starting at the end furthest toward you and zipping quickly toward you. This will flick the paint away from you toward the wall. You can also use a pencil or even your finger to do the flicking.

6. Move to the side and repeat the technique, re-dipping the toothbrush in paint every few splatters or as needed until you have covered the area you set out to paint.

Tips & Warnings

• Splatter-painting an entire room's worth of walls with a toothbrush could take a long time. Speed things up by using a larger toothbrush-style scrub brush with soft nylon bristles. Tape a large piece of butcher paper up on the wall, first, and practice on that to make sure you like the effect of the larger brush before you commit to painting the wall with it.
• Create interesting "white spaces" in the splatter-pattern by taping stencils or cut-out shapes up on the wall, splattering over them, then removing the stencils. Since the outline around whatever you put up will be clearly visible through the splatter, use a piece of tape shaped into a loop, sticky side out, to hold each stencil or cut-out shape in place.

References

• Things-to-Make-and-Do.co.uk: Splatter Painting