Some experiments and a tutorial

Posted on | October 25, 2006 | 6 Comments

This week has not been as artistically productive as last week was. I have had dentist’s appointments, medical tests, and other “junk” happening. Today was the last appointment for dental stuff for the week, but Friday is my treatment, so I will likely “lose” that afternoon, since it wipes me out.

This is all good, even if it is frustrating for me not to be able to sink my teeth into my work and get lost in it. I do have some time today and all day tomorrow. I did play some with cutting collage bits from a magazine and painting a background on watercolor paper, but nothing completed – or even near it! I wanted to try some paper I had purchased a while ago – Windosor- Newton 140# Cold Press to see how it compared to the Fabriano Artistico 140# Hot Press. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. I will have to get more Fabriano HP next time I get to Tempe… Bummer because of the price, but the results are amazingly different.

I’m so excited to know that some people are actually reading my blog! You never know what is going to happen when you put it out there, so it’s so cool to see that people are interested. I love getting the comments and answering them, so let me know you’re out there!

BlueJude asked how I created one of my backgrounds.

My backgrounds are all a bit different as they get going, and I haven’t photographed individual setps along the way, but I will for an actual tutorial. For now, I will define the steps I took and explain this specific background, since that’s what you asked about!

Here it goes!

1. Paint Canvas Board with acrylic paints and let dry.
2. Take papers – Washi paper, scrapbook paper, handmade paper, silk paper, fabric, netting, anything that has texture and some design to it and attach to the painted acrylic board with Gel Medium. Don’t worry about inconsidtent surfaces. That will add to the painting. You actually want lots of peaks and valleys created by the paper, so you can even manipulate the paper by crumpling or folding it.
3. Cover with a thin coat of Gel Medium and allow to dry at least 24 hours.
4. The next step is the messy step! I mix heavy body (in the tube) acrylic paints with impasto medium to create the translucent effect in this piece. (Impasto Medium is usually used with oil paints, but it intrigued me, so I tried it!).
5. I mix as I go along, because I never know how much I’ll want. Mix acrylics with the impasto medium as you go. The more acrylic paint, the less translucent the effect; the more impasto medium, the more translucent. You can see in the background I’ve re-posted above that you can see some of the originally collaged papers under the medium. I like to pick out the area that I want to show through. It adds some mystery to the painting.
6. The impasto medium takes at least 24 hours to dry completely. It will take that long to cure all the way through. Lie it down flat, rather than on an easel once you get the look you want so that you don’t end up with it shifting (if you use craft acrylics, they tend to be more fluid so they make the gel of the impasto less heavy).
7. Once it dries, I will often let it sit for a while and just enjoy the colors of it. I also tend to photograph and/or scan it to use in thinner collages later.
8. These often end up the base for a collage with special images or photographs.

I hope this has helped. Let me know if you have questions!

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