Day fours and five, the resin fail, and more fun works.

I tried the resin as I said, but it wouldn’t stick to canvas. That’s such a shame as its just the effect i wanted, you can see from the paper work where I scraped off the resin from the canvas and let it dry. Its so expensive, so when I’ve finished what I’ve got – which won’t take long ;-( I can’t really justify the expense of more just yet.
I struggled to peel it off my chopping board…still got bits of resin attached !
You can see below resin on centre of painting and the difference at the left side where there’s no resin, especially towards the base.

this one was part of some I did Sunday, using 4 x 4 in canvas and one 8 x 6 in one. Colours used were Lukas raw sienna 4639 and chrome green 4753 and shminke lemon yellow 222 and van dyke brown 668. also a little shminke gold 801 about !/3 of other paint colours. Pics taken when wet, they dry to a matt finish, which is why i wanted the resin to work….
First one was floetrol and alcohol. lots of tiny cells appeared after about 20 mins without torching, and torching didn’t bring many more. This was done via a dirty pour from high into a round shape and then tilted.

No 2 is a 4 x 4 in canvas floetrol, alcohol and a little spray silicon to final mix,flip dirty pour . Did get few cells but colours kind of blended, I lost all the lovely cells I had on pouring. some nice sort of ghosting white parts that look (to me) like x-rays of bones do almost, in a feathery pattern. some nice sharp stripes, kind of tigerish.

No 3 is another 4 x 4 canvas, same floetrol/alchohol, but a few drops pouring silicon and again high pour, square shape. colours blended a lot here but if you look there are cells, not as I’d planned but 😉

no 4 was same as above but a dirty flip pour. Got lots of marbling, colours mixed together alot, maybe the way I tileted and tipped?  lots of small cells. There’s a bit of red in one corner – picked up the wrong cup when touching up edges and corners….but i quite like it!

then i used all the leftovers on the paper that I resinned.
June 6th:

Today it was two almost monochrome ones, Floetrol at about 50% and alchohol at 10%. no silicone in first one. I used a black I mixed from red,blue and yellow as I don’t have any balck, white and Lukas red 4672.

Number one was I poured colours separately onto canvas from high, and then tilted to blend. Got a lovely marble effect but no cells.

Next one put all leftover paint into one cup, added silicone to final mix and dirty pour. This gave a lovely stormy effect with a few cells.

 

almost caught up now. Had lots of fun varnishing these yesterday, hoping to keep that “wet” look, might take 2-3 coats though…also had a play with some blue.green/red mixes in various combos. they should be on tomorrow.

Day Three, Floetrol!

So one of the mediums I was waiting for was Floetrol. Its a paint conditioner, seems to be a bit like a paint medium but without pigment so it helps the paint flow but doesn’t dilute the colour and tension as water does. Well, that’s how it seems to me from what I’ve read. I like to try to understand what mediums and paints do, how they react so that hopefully I can predict what sort of results I’ll get. Danny Clark on you-tube does lots of explaining, and his way of finding out paint density and applying according to weight is interesting. It led me to understand a little better how cells are created. Its well wroth looking at his and Anne-Marie Ridderhof’s videos if you want to learn more.

I decided today I’d try floetrol on its own and with silicon. No alchohol, try that another time. By trying each new medium individually I’m hoping I can find what works best for me and the paints I have. they all react a little differently and even the water in different areas can make a change. I’m going to try bottled and distilled water too at some time.

Colours I used today: white, Lukas primary red 4650, Raw sienna 4639, and Shminke Prussian blue light 445 and lemon yellow 222.

I did the same method as before, mix floetrol into paint ( I used 2 pt floetrol to 1 part paint but I’ve seen various mixes) then add water and mix again, and finally silicon if used.
this is first one, new canvas 4x4ins, no silicone. there were a few cells, not many.

Next I added silicon to the colour, not thew white, just a few drops and didn’t mix it in. again I used dirty pour. Lots of cells this time and swirls of new colours, violets where the red and blue mixed, greens where yellow and blue mixed. I must have used a lot of white ( well, I’ve a big cheapish bottle…saves on the more expensive colours!) and it’ll be interesting to try without any white, and at some point with black instead of white. But got to buy some black first, as I always just mix it.

Next one is again 4 x 4 ins, but instead of dirty pour I applied colours direct to canvas and then let them blend as swiped over the surface with a palette knife. Interesting how different that is from the dirty pour.

I still had some colour left so I made a bit more white, added some alchohol  and did a dirty pour over an old prepainted canvas. As you can see there’s lots of holes and these stayed even after drying so I think either new canvas each time or perhaps gessoing over old ones would work, but not direct to painted surface.

I’m catching up, its Thursday and I’ve just got Sunday’s and Tuesday’s to be up to date. Tuesday’s I’m really excited to show you, two in black, white and red, drop pour as drips over canvas individually and a dirty pour. came out very different.
Not sure what I’m doing today, did try some crystal resin varnish yesterday but it wouldn’t sit evenly onto the canvas – i think because I’d used a coat of spray varnish maybe? Or it could be the silicone, I wiped over with alchohol hoping to remove any residue but who knows?
I needed a lot more than I expected too. Scraped it off and onto an experiment on paper and it had dried to the effect I wanted, which is like a glass finish on the surface. It really enhances the colours but its expensive stuff and I’m not sure I can afford to experiment til I get it right. Shame as I Love the effect and would really like to use it on these paintings. Maybe if some sell, or the house!! 😉

 

 

Days two and three, still using acrylic flow improver

Still using the acrylic flow improver while waiting for floetrol. It seems different things work for different people and its really trial and error to see what produces the results you like best. I didn’t find PVA worked for me, maybe I’ll try again when I’ve got more experience, and there are any number of things you can add, I’ve seen all sorts on youtube….For me I want to use things I’m pretty sure will last, so its good quality paints, not house-paint even though its much cheaper, and no mediums I think will damage over time. Its your choice, do what you want, don’t let others dictate materials!
So this time I used a new canvas, 18 x 6 inches, still deep box edge, I’m waiting for some standard ones. the problem I have with deep edge canvas, apart from the cost when you’re doing several at a time, is getting the paint to flow over edges without ruining what i have at the top. I think if I am going to use these in future I’ll tape edges and then paint in a complementary colour later.
I used the same white as before ( R&L) Shminke lemon yellow 222, Shminke Van dyke brown 668, Shminke Ultramarine 442, acrylic flow improver and a little silicon and water to get right consistency.

I used same mix method as day one, and did a dirty pour. Clearly I’d got paint too thin though as it poured off the canvas….Ooops. More paint mixed as before, and as I couldn’t do a flip pour without getting paint everywhere i tipped it along the canvas. wow, lots of cells emerged, still very very small but there! They only really showed well after torching. The thing with these is as the paint dries it moves and changes, maybe there’s a way to stop it moving further but I’ve not yet seen anyone do that, so what you end up with can look completely different.

When this was dry I have a coat of spray varnish and hung in kitchen, my first semi successful one 😉

You can see where the yellow and blue from second pour didn’t mix so well but I’m happy.

Next day I played more. This time Nathan was with me so he did a couple too. His second one came out really well. I did one to show him method, he chose to add paint with a brush on canvas, then poured over a dirty pour but chose to brush it to edges and of course it mixed into one colour, so we tipped a little more over and added some red acrylic ink to pop some colour. He used white, Shminke lemon yellow 222, madder carmine 342, silver 800.

Next one I used white, Lukas cerulean 4721 and primary red 4650 and Shminke Phlalo 448. Nath chose the same blues, but adding the madder carmine instead of primary red. We both did dirty pour flip cup method. And as I hate waste I poured all the leftovers onto another canvas ( the cheaper standard edge ones arrived by then!) adding a little browns to see what would happen…..
Nathan’s second pour.

My two for the day.

 

I’m getting closer to what I want. Learning A LOT! I ordered some 4 x 4 inch canvas as this uses such a lot of paint its quite expensive while learning. They worked well, I’ll show you tomorrow, but when I went to order another six the price had almost doubled 😦 ah well…now I’m on some 8 x 6 inch ones ( i think) where I ordered 20 to get a good price.
I’m working on last weeks notes so some of this is subject to more note taking and floating memory so may not be quite accurate. Doing so many in a short space of time its easy to recall wrongly what you did, which colours, so that’s why I thought I’d keep a record on PC and then decided to turn it in to a blog. I should catch up over next couple days and then it’ll be easier to write next morning what I did the day before….hopefully.
bye for now.

 

Adventures in acrylics. Day one

Due to various reasons I haven’t painted in a while, but an artist friend pointed me in the direction of Acrylic Pours. what fun! its addictive, and not having everything I needed my first goes were a bit of a miss…I hate waiting so I tried substituting some of the materials.

Then some of the real stuff arrived, acrylic pouring medium, floetrol, 70% alchohol, and silicone so I’ve been experimenting with various different additives. I’m using paints I have, mostly heavy body acrylics, and I’ve bought some standard edge canvas. I have a few deep edge but they are expensive when your’e doing several at a time and hard to get the sides covered without spoiling the top I found.

So here goes: first one was on 31st MAy 17 and I used Lukas cerulean 4721, Lukas Chromium 4751, Lukas chromoxide 4754 with Royal and Langernickel essential white. I added Winsor and Newton acrylic flow improver, 70% rubbing alchohol, silicone and water to get right consistency.

Method

1. mix paints with 20/30% liquitex flow improver.
2. stir well then add 5-10% alchohol
3. stir well, add water if needed. thickness is something you learn as you go, I go it too thick, too thin but finally kind of worked out whats right. I added silicone to the white only.

As you can see first one I’d used an old prepainted canvas, didn’t gesso it but poured straight over. I used the dirty pour method, got a few cells to start but paint didn’t stay evenly on canvas.

Next one I used anew canvas. This time I didn’t get holes where paint didn’t stick as before but didn’t get cells either…..Then I realised I’d forgotten to add the silicon….Oops 😉

thrid time’s the charm…or so I hoped. I used another new canvas ( see why I’m looking for some cheaper ones!) Used the same dirty pour method where I layer the colours into a cup and time over in one flip. I got lots of tiny cells but still no mid size to big ones. I think maybe my paint was a bit thick here too. You can see in a close up a few cells

I’ll be back tomorrow with more fun attempts.