Updates

Well, I've been getting a lot of stuff done.....just not much in the way of good photos to prove it. I finished "Day By Day" (my collaboration with my husband) but I am having trouble getting a decent photo because of its large size and the reflectiveness of it (I went perhaps a little heavy on the Stainless Steel paint....looks marvy in person, IMHO, but the camera objects). It is hanging proudly over our stairs. Perhaps I will try some different settings on the camera and see if I can get a decent shot to post.

I have also been doing a lot of testing with the acrylic paints and mediums. None of it is earth-shattering, especially if you are familiar with these products already, but here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Acrylic paint dries REALLY FAST, especially in thin layers, even if you water it down.
2. Adding Acrylic Glazing Liquid (Gloss) gives it a texture roughly like runny snot, but does extend drying time. It also makes brush marks far more evident. However, the results of adding it to fluid acrylics 1:1 vs. doing the same with water are almost indistinguishable except for the brushstrokes. It's just in higher dilutions that the difference becomes really obvious.
3. Playing with Glass Bead Medium is fun. GBM from different manufacturers can be quite different. Putting the GBM over dried paint, vs. mixing it in with wet paint and painting with it, vs. painting over dried GBM, all give different results. Really, I like the Glass Bead Medium over dried paint best because it is the most sparkly (yes, of course I have magpie tendencies, I collected beads for six years).
4. Liquitex Modeling Paste has a matte finish and is opaque. It is easier to paint over with fluid acrylics if you add a little glazing liquid (because it makes the paint more fluid-y). However, glazing liquid painted over modeling paste mixed with paint does nothing--no big surprise there as the glazing liquid is not meant as a top coat or finish. Not even sure why I tried that.
5. Liquitex Modeling Paste, because it is opaque and white, tints your paints. It made my Pyrrole Red into a kind of semi-Pepto-Bismol pink. However, if you paint over it instead of mixing paint with it, of course that defeats the problem.
6. Golden Fluid Acrylics are very, very concentrated.
7. Liquitex Modeling Paste and Liquitex Light Modeling Paste are somewhat different. The light is much less dense, but holds a pattern carved into it as well--however, its lesser density causes the marks to look different. It's hard to describe, but the regular modeling paste looks more like white clay when dry both in color and in the way it holds a mark, while the light modeling paste looks more like white styrofoam. According to the container, you should use the light modeling paste when you are making something for which weight is a consideration.
8. Liquitex Modeling Paste will crack a little while drying if applied to a flexible support (no surprise, it says that right on the label). The light modeling paste did not in my little test. Both are recommended for rigid supports.
9. GAC200 promotes adhesion of acrylic paint on glass and metal. It makes the paint adhere more uniformly. It also makes the paint more resistant to being scratched off. In my experiment, it did not create a situation where you could not scratch the paint off, but it was considerably harder to do with the GAC than without it. In my experiment, the glass was not etched, and the metal was not sanded.
10. Painting with watered-down fluid acrylics is tricky because the drying time is so short. It makes for poor blending under the conditions I used in my experimental painting. I painted the same painting again using Acrylic Glazing Liquid to dilute the paint, and this improved working time (open time) of the paint as well as blendability. I have not tried it with retarder, but I think I will try that soon.
11. Painting with fluid acrylics diluted with water on a surface with a canvas texture (such as acrylic paper) makes bubbles in the paint.
So, sorry for the looooooooooong post with no photos, but I hope this info might be of use to some people. If people are interested, I will continue posting results from my experiments.

Blue Moth Abstract

This is one of three experiments I did based on a technique from the book Acrylic Revoluation. I am waiting for Belinda's class to start, but I have my materials and I have been reading the book to get familiar with the techniques. Since rice paper/rag paper were not mentioned on our materials list, I think it is safe to assume that we were not going to use this particular technique in the class; but I thought it looked cool, so I decided to try it. I went to Paper Resource in Chicago and got some sheets of white artist paper (not sure if it is rice paper or not) that I thought would work. During my next work session, I made up three canvases--one with the artist paepr, one with aqua tissue paper (very hard to handle when wet) and one with white mulberry paper. The technique calls for one to cut the paper a little larger than the canvas or other substrate, spray the paper with a bit of water, crumple it up tightly into a ball, put a layer of matte medium onto the substrate (I found it needed a pretty substatial layer to stick well), spread out the wet paper and attach evenly to the canvas WITHOUT smoothing out the wrinkles. Then take a piece of dry paper towel and pat the damp paper down onto the substrate to it will adhere well. Let dry for several hours, then paint as desired, with best results from diluted fluid acrylics.

For this particular canvas, I used diluted fluid Golden acrylics (ultramarine blue and phthalo green) to create the background. It made a beautiful feathery texture, and the patterns on the paper show slightly because the pigment accumulated there. I let it dry. Then I decorated it with glass bead medium. I almost left it at that because I loved the background so much (which happens to me a lot). But then I decided to do some decorating. I used blue interference paint to highlight the dried bead medium and the ultramarine paint I put over it in spots. Next, I used Golden Iridescent Pearl paint to highlight parts of the paiting, adding fingerprints in two places. After I let this dry, I looked at it carefully. It needed a focal point. It needed something dimensional. I looked at some hand fused glass pieces I made a few years ago, and one of them jumped up and yelled, "Me! Me! Me!" So I glued it on with E6000.

Considering what a raw beginner I am, I am happy with it. It makes me feel good when I look at it, and I had fun making it. So I guess that makes it a successful piece of art.

Floral Fingerprint

This was a tiny experiment (4" X 6") in using white mulberry paper with the above mentioned acrylic technique. It was actually the first of the three that I finished. If you could see it in person you would see the way the stainless steel paint and the copper paint pick up all the wrinkles. Fun technique!

Marion's Song

This painting reminded me of my grandmother with its texture and delicate, fragile shades of color and shimmer. It is made with tissue paper on canvas board (8" X 10"). I kind of felt I should have decorated it more, but it got to a certain point and I just wanted to preserve its gentle beauty.

Blue Love

This is basically the other half of the mat board from How Can I Reach (below). I had these chunks of mat board left over from Tiger Tiger, and I wanted to play around with creating backgrounds with acrylic paint. At the Dick Blick Art Expo, I bought two large solid color containers of Golden Fluid Acrylic--I'm too comfortable in front of the fan to look up the names right now but it was something like Primary Cyan (a nice royal blue) and Cyan Turquoise (which is just what it sounds like). I painted one matt board in each color. Then I sponged on Intereference Blue over Primary Cyan and Interference Green over Cyan Turquoise. These made nice backgrounds. On the blue one I decided to use red as a contrast. If you've read my whole blog, you know I used to make a lot of jewelry. I have a lot of stuff left over from that which makes fun accents and focals for collage. The love pendant was from my experiments in writing with wire, and it seemed to fit well with the overall look. The red glass trianglular piece was one of my experiments in glass fusing. I think the composition for this is a little weird, with the love pendant being a floater, but to me it is expressive of the isolation I sometimes feel in the midst of the busy-ness of my daily routine. I'd be happy to have some feedback on this piece, understanding that I am still a relative beginner with mixed media.

Round Dragon

What an uncreative name, I know. But that is what I went with in the press of time when I was saving it on my hard drive. Tami on MMAN threw out a challenge--make something round incorporating scrap paper. Hm. Well, it didn't end up being exactly round, but I had fun incorporating the charm, fibers, and a bead ring with a sterling silver flower bead on it. As usual, it features my favorite blues and greens. I'm going to have to break out of that mold pretty soon (like I did for Tiger Tiger), but for now I'm happily swimming in a sea of aqua.