What does it mean when craft painting and the instructions say "black w/red floating"? (eg)?

Question

Am painting wooden geckos and the colors say "red w/black floating" or azure blue w/red floating?

Answer 1

Floating helps you acheive a shaded look. It's very easy. Here are some directions I found on michaels.com. Instead of using one color as instructed below, you would probably double load with red on one side and black on the other...

FLOAT COLOR - (also known as "floating" or "side-loading") Wet your brush with water or Extender. Remove most of the water from your brush by touching it on a piece of paper towel. Then touch one edge of the brush against the puddle of paint on your palette and stroke back and forth with your brush until there is a soft gradation of color from the paint on one side of the brush to clear water on the other side.

EDIT:
You might also want to look at the directions for flip floating... if the instructions you are following have a picture, use that as a guide to acheive the proper look.....

FLIP FLOAT -- (also called a reverse-float) Apply one "sideload" of color on your surface. Then flip the brush over and lay the paint side of the brush right next to the previously applied paint and paint a second line back to back with the first float.

Answer 2

Black with red

Answer 3

Mix black with red to get desired color.