Building a Textured Ground with Transparent Paints

In this video I am working on a 30"x40" canvas. First I prep the canvas with Hard Molding Paste, let that dry completely, and then layer transparent acrylic colors, some diluted with water. Much of this rich, textured background will get covered in the process of developing the painting, but it provides a counterpoint to the flat colors and different kinds of textures I will layer over it.

The colors I am using include Sap Green Hue, Turquoise Pthalo, Sepia (high flow), Pthalo Blue, and Quinacridone Gold. This is not a formula; try various combinations of transparent/translucent colors.

I am using Fluid Acrylics as well as High Flow. My tools include an off-set spatula type of painting knife and a Catalyst Wedge. You could try different types of squeegees too.

Here is a close-up of the molding paste texture. I recommend you let this dry overnight before applying layers of paint.

This is the first layer of paint: sap green, turquoise, and sepia. I let this dry before adding more layers.

At this point I may let it dry and then apply the coat of matte medium.

 I will post pix of the finished piece or pieces. Try this on paper or panel at a smaller size too.

Playing with Color

I was playing with some colors that are new to me, and discovered some really great hues.  Almost every time I order paint I order a color I am unfamiliar with.  Sometimes it sits unopened in the studio for months, and sometimes I can't wait to try it.  Eventually, I get around to exploring the new colors, and always discover something surprising.

This is the first study I did in the video, using Sennelier's Sepia, Blick Matte Acrylic White, and Golden's Indian Yellow Hue fluid acrylic.

In this one I am primarily investigating Golden's Terre Verte Hue, mixing it with their Nickel Azo Yellow and some white.

This is an earlier version of the Sepia test.  I mixed it with a teeny bit of Quinacridone Gold (from Golden) in those few bits on the right.  Otherwise it's just Sepia with varying amounts of white and gray.

Here are a couple of quick tests I did with some unusual colors (for me) from Golden:  Permanent Maroon, which is relatively transparent, kind of an muted red-purple; and Violet Oxide, which looks to me like an opaque version of the same thing.  I mixed them with white, and then with one other color, as indicated. 

More Black and White and a Giveaway

I made a few more papers using stencils with a sponge roller, but also with the GelliArts gel plate.  On these I used Golden Fluid Acrylics (Carbon Black and Titanium White), and also Golden OPEN Acrylics, which have a very long working time (they dry slowly).

Here are a few of the papers I made, using 9"x12" Cheap Drawing Paper:

In this I used a stencil I made myself with Cheap Drawing Paper.

For this I used OPEN acrylic, and made the lines using a Q-tip.

For this one I used a homemade gelatin plate, 8"x8", and then a stencil over it.

 The following two images are digital collages studies.  They don't exist in actual material.  I was fooling around in Photoshop, manipulating the scale of each of my papers as I put them together in these pieces.  As I am investigating the issue of scale, I am wondering if making either digital studies or small paper studies might be useful.  I've never worked from studies, so it's a new process for me.

I am offering a giveaway of the 14-product set of Golden's A - Z Workshop In A Box, to one person, chosen at random from those who comment on this post.  Please say something about working in black and white, and/or something about scale.  I'm interested in your ideas.  Identify yourself uniquely (i.e. "Mary in San Diego" rather than "Mary").  I will post the winner on Thursday, May 28.  It is the responsibility of the winner to get in touch with me.

Paint Giveaway and Guest Blog Post

As promised, I'm offering another giveaway of a set of Golden Fluid Acrylics.  Just go to my guest post on the Pacific Northwest Art School blog, where you'll see a new video.  Leave a comment on that blog to enter into the drawing, and then check this blog on Thursday, where I will announce the winner.  Meanwhile, here is a little archived video that features Golden Fluid Acrylics.
Note that commenting on THIS blog post will NOT enter you into the drawing.  Go to the Pacific Northwest Art School blog, and comment on my post there.  Good luck!

The Winner of the Golden Fluid Acrylic Set

Is....  Melanie on Salt Spring Island, BC.  Congratulations.  Now, Melanie, YOU have to e-mail me to give me a shipping address.  If I don't hear from you in a few days I will pick someone else, but I hope you do check in to read this. 

To answer some of your questions, for info on High Flow acrylics and Golden Open Acrylics, go to Golden's web site or see my Tutorials page.  For information on acrylic mediums, go to Golden's web site.  For other brands, go to the manufacturers' web sites or see Blick Art Materials' videos.  The Utrecht matte medium does come in smaller sizes than the gallon I use.  Other brands of matte medium tend to be more fluid.

You can gain a lot of information by just playing with your paints.  Ask a specific question, and then answer it yourself by trying it out.  Can I use a hair dryer on acrylic paints?  Try it.  Is this paint opaque?  Try painting over black stripes or a strong color with it.  Can I mix brands?  Can I mix mediums?  What happens if I add loads of glazing medium to my paint?  What happens if I add water?

Ultimately, you gain knowledge of your paints by using them a lot, but the above resources, plus your own time and curiosity, will contribute as well.  Thanks for all your comments!!

Paint Quality

Often I am asked why professional grade acrylic paints cost so much compared to craft paints or student grade paints.  I am asked a lot of questions about paint, and I will address this one here.  You can find loads of information about specific brands of paint on manufacturers' and retailers' web sites as well.

Golden, Blick Studio, and Liquitex Basics Paints

Americana Craft Paints

Pigment Load

Pigment is the expensive part of paint.  The higher the pigment load, or relative proportion of pigment to "binder" (acrylic polymer emulsion, in acrylic paints, plus, in cheaper paints, various fillers), the more expensive the paint will be on a per volume basis.

A paint with high pigment load, any professional quality paint, will produce more intense color, and can be extended (diluted) with medium (matte medium, glazing medium, etc) much further than a paint with low pigment load (craft paint).  In my Unlocking the Secrets of Color class I always suggest that you extend the darker colors (pthalo blue, especially) with medium; otherwise they look almost black because the pigment is so dense.  

In this video I am comparing professional quality paint (Golden, though I also use some Holbein paints and Sennelier, and you may find brands that you prefer) with craft paint (Americana), and then I try student- or economy-grade paints, in two different colors.  The student-grade paints are in two different brands:  Blick Studio Acrylic for the quinacridone magenta, and Liquitex Basics for the yellow.  So...  this is not very scientific.  I'm not intending to compare brands, just to compare color intensity with two different colors, over three different price-ranges of paint.  I suggest you conduct your own tests using this credit card scraping method.

Another test of pigment load is to mix your paint with titanium white and see how much white it takes to achieve a given "tint" of your color.  This is called "tinting strength":  the more white you have to add, the greater the pigment load and the better the tinting strength.  Your results are likely to vary a bit from color to color, and the different brands of paints will vary as well.

Transparency and opacity are a different issue, and we'll look at it in a later post. Hope this is helpful.

Backgrounds on Paper and Cloth

I decided to take a Mixed Media with Paper and Cloth online class with Jane LaFazio, one of our Sketchbook Challenge bloggers. She is a fabulous fiber artist, and artist extrordinaire, and offers online classes through Joggles, one of my favorite mixed media supply retailers. For our first lesson, we are making backgrounds on paper and cloth (these ones are on muslin), using gesso, maybe texturing it, and then acrylic paint. Here are just a few of mine:

I applied gesso, then created texture using a knitting needle, scribbling lines in it. Once that was very dry, I Played With Paint!! Transparent turquoises and blues, and opaque Baltic Green; then I stamped the little white dots.

This one is done the same way, using a different color palette. I LOVE this muslin thing!This one is similar, though I let the first Paint Playground dry before adding some of the transparent colors: quinacridone gold and nickel-azo yellow.
I have no idea where these will go. Jane demonstrated a stencil technique as well in the first lesson, but I may wait to use that later in the process. Thanks for visiting!

Trying out my new video camera

Here is my first attempt at video. I am making a quick series of small collage paintings, first by using my own scribble painted papers, stained papers, and a few other items for a basic collage layout, and then painting over it with Golden fluid acrylics. I use acrylic matte medium for the adhesive and top coat.




Here are the four finished small collages:


On this one I added a little stamping with wavy corragated card stock to echo the same pattern as is on the scribble painted paper:
I printed white dots with a hand-carved rubber stamp on this one, and also added the wavy corragated lines
I used plastic cross stitch canvas to print the white grid patterns on this one:
Thanks for visiting!