Shabby What? - Shabby Grubby....

Grunge-ing (my own word) a nice miniature is not an easy thing for my clean, neat and tidy brain come to terms with; much as I love the work of real shabby miniature artists who seem to know exactly how much is enough, the process doesn't come naturally to me. 

I can't say I like what I've done.

 

I think I went a bit too far, my husband wants to put it on the kerbside for the metal recyclers.........hmmmm, is that a compliment or a criticism?

At least the banged up cream coloured jug does look more used now, not so 'brand new with artfully applied chips added'.  I don't like the other two jugs much, they were better without the grunge.

I used thin washes of two paint colours, an amber sort of one for the rusted marks and and a dirty brownish black for plain old dirt stains.  Dotted the wash on and spread and dabbed with my fingers.  When there was too much I wiped it a bit with an almost dry cloth, that left a hint of colour in the depths of the brush strokes in the white paint and looked more natural.