Category: Tips and Techniques

It looks like being a hot summer. If you paint with acrylics, you should avoid stacking acrylic paintings on top of each other in your car for transport. The heat affects the acrylic, making it soft, and if anything is pressing on it, it can stick and damage the surface. Keep this in mind if you are storing acrylic paintings anywhere that it gets very hot – don’t put anything on top of them! (Photo taken at Brentwood on the Beach.) 

There are soooo many tubes and jars of colour out there – isn’t it wonderful! But how to choose? If you are new into art, you might check out the recommended paint supply lists on my website. Here’s the link…”Art Supplies“. Once you’ve been painting for awhile, you will want to explore more colour choices. To help with this, it’s a good idea to get familiar with the actual pigments listed on the tube. For example: Titanium White is PW6 and Ultramarine Blue is PB29. If at the store you see what might be a different blue, say called “Sky Blue” (I’m just making this up) read the pigments on the label. If it says PW6 and PB29, and you already have those 2 pigments, you can easily mix that colour. It would be more worthwhile for you to explore a pigment that you don’t yet own – and there are likely lots of those! 

Interruptions. They can be a plague. You want to not only get into the creative mode; you want to be able to stay there. Turning off or ignoring the phone is an obvious choice. What if you only have an hour to paint, and find yourself distracted by watching the clock? How about setting the stove timer instead to free up your concentration? In today’s hectic world it takes a deliberate effort to allow yourself some creative space. What things distract you when creating? Can you share some practical solutions you have found? Thanks! 

“A painting is never finished, it simply stops in interesting places.” Paul Gardner (thanks @iTweetArt) If I could give just one tip about how to decide when to stop working on a painting, I would say, stand back from it often and consider it from a distance. Viewing your work from only a few inches away can mean that you miss something beautiful and interesting – which may be the perfect time to say, “done”. 

Lately I’ve been playing with combining heavier body acrylics with fluid acrylics. This can be done in any order. You can have a wet layer of fluid acrylics on the canvas, and then use a brush or better yet a palette knife to smear thicker acrylics into this. Or, you can have the thicker paint down first, and then pour the fluid acrylics on top and spray them to get them moving. These methods make colours and textures that are great fun to work with. 

The drawings of Hans Holbein the Younger, who lived in the times of Henry VIII, capture so much personality that you feel you would know these people if you met them. I was showing some of his work to the drawing class – and thought you would also enjoy seeing this portrait of his. Here is a link to his “Portrait of Anne Cresacre“. (Find link on homepage of my blog if reading this in Facebook or elsewhere.) Notice the skillful use of value – how those dark touches in the eyes bring them to life, and are balanced by the dark in the headpiece and the more distant sleeve. Isn’t it amazing how few lines in the face capture so much personality? This drawing was done with black and coloured chalk. Perhaps you would have fun doing a drawing that you add just a hint of colour to? 

I had a question from someone who watched my 4 Horses video on YouTube. They wanted to know what was in the spray bottle that caused the colour to move and flow so much. Well, that special ingredient was – water! Fluid acrylics are formulated to respond to water, and there was a lot of wet paint still on the canvas I was spraying. For maximum flow, you can thin the fluid acrylic paint with water in a cup, before putting it onto the canvas. Squirting the paint right out of the bottle leaves a thicker consistency that takes more spraying to move, and still some lumps will remain. The ‘lumps’ became planets in that painting! Warning – this technique is highly addictive. 

I have been experimenting with different types of gloss finishes on acrylic paintings. The ‘gloss medium and varnish’ when poured on, makes interesting unpredictable cracks and texture as it dries. I liked it for a finish on the ammolite paintings (see them in “For Sale – Abstract” on my website.) The added texture in the surface worked well there. However, this method will not make a smooth surface if that is what you want. Recently I have been experimenting with the ‘pouring medium’. It is formulated to make a level glossy surface when poured on. I tried brushing it on too, but the brush marks do show when it is dry. I recommend pouring it, and then using a drywall putty knife to smooth it for the best chance at a smooth surface. However, it shrinks a lot as it dries, and the first layer simply hugs whatever texture is in the paint. I like that effect, but for a truly smooth surface you will likely need to pour several layers. It still can make the odd crack on larger paintings, and another layer will be needed to repair that. As with all acrylic mediums, avoid continuing to work it as it starts to dry, or cloudiness can result. Acrylic gloss spray varnishes work too for a glossy thinner finish, but I like to avoid spraying products if possible, for health reasons. Does anyone else have other recommendations about how to make a very smooth shiny finish on an acrylic painting? 

Here’s a link to a very short animation about’ Positive and Negative Space‘ from a fun website called The Artist’s Toolkit. (Find link at cherylo.ca  if you are reading this on facebook or elsewhere.) This is one of the concepts that will be covered in the Adult Beginner’s Drawing class that starts at Westmount Library this Wednesday. There’s room for a few more if you would like to join in. 

Do you know that sticky stuff that they sell in office supply stores for putting posters on the wall? It comes in white or blue. I find the white is very useful for art purposes, and I’m not putting posters on the wall. First, it makes a wonderful eraser for pencil lines on watercolour paper or canvas. It picks up the pencil without smearing – similar to a kneadable eraser – but cheaper! It also lasts much longer than a kneadable eraser. As well, I use it to hold the wax paper onto my white cardboard that serves as my palette. Less fuss than taping down new wax paper when the palette needs changing. I like it a lot – even have a gob of it in my purse in a small ziplock bag! It goes along with the sketching pencil.