Acrylic glaze technique? (1 Viewer)

desgreene

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #1

I'm working on an acrylic painting on textured board, that will require thin glazes to achieve an effect of clear stream water.

I believe one of the tricks is to flat out any texture in the board you are working on, but I never seem to be able to achieve this completely. So, when I tried this previously I got pools of glaze rather than a uniform glaze.

Any hints or tips you good people know of that can make a success of this technique for me?

Cheers,
Des.

 

nickderry

C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.

• Dec 3, 2008

• #2

though heaven forbid I offer advice on acrylics (another one disappeared under collage the other day!) I might suggest using very thin watered-down layers built up to produce a glaze, blobs are formed by the water sitting on the paper, causing the pigment to build up around the edges (suface tension or somesuch).

 

desgreene

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #3

Hi Nick,
so do you mean, don't worry about the "blobs", let them dry and keep on adding more thin layers?

 

Woody

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #4

Acrylics will break down if thinned too much with water, it's something I often use to my advantage as it helps to create textures that I wouldn't otherwise get. The trick is to find the consistency just before the pigment breakdown occurs. The only way is experimentation on scrap bits of your chosen support, on paper/board the water soaks in and produces one effect and, on gessoed mdf or canvas, another.

Different pigments behave differently too, Van Dyke red and sap green are transparent whereas red oxide and chromium oxide green are opaque and, although it says different on the tube, I've always found raw umber to be pretty much transparent too.

Prepare for some unexpected results at first but you'll soon find the right pigments and consistency. Good luck!

Mike

 

desgreene

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #5

Cheers for the tips Mike.

Unexpected results are my personal speciality anyway so I'll give what you say a go!

 

Strandman

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #6

Desgreene- are you thinning the acrylic with water, or with acrylic medium? After many years of piss-stain effects and general heartbreak with thin acrylics, I finally discovered use of medium and that at least for me has made acrylics much more useable in layers.

Woody said:

and, although it says different on the tube, I've always found raw umber to be pretty much transparent too.

Mike

Click to expand...

Woody- that's caught my eye (with apologies if its off your topic Desg). I'm struggling with an effort at painting some water at the moment and am finding exactly what you describe- very hard to get raw umber to cover anything. Currently I am lacing it with a dark blue to give it some opacity with losing the cold and dark aspect.

 

desgreene

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #7

Hi Ed, I'm thinning with water at present and was wondering about whether an acrylic medium would be better. Do you have any suggestions for make/type of medium as there appears to be a confusing array available?

No worries about straying off topic by the way, all helpful info to me!
Cheers for the reply,
Des.

 

Strandman

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #8

desgreene said:

Hi Ed, I'm thinning with water at present and was wondering about whether an acrylic medium would be better. Do you have any suggestions for make/type of medium as there appears to be a confusing array available?

No worries about straying off topic by the way, all helpful info to me!
Cheers for the reply,
Des.

Click to expand...

FWIW I use matte rather than gloss on the basis that if the painting works out, I can always varnish it later. Current favoured brand is Liquitex- liquitex acrylic matte medium.

It also makes a much more effective brush cleaner than water- in fact the gloopy puddle you are left with after cleaning a brush in matte medium is oftentimes too tempting to chuck out and makes a smooth and nifty wash in itself..

 

desgreene

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #9

Thanks again Ed, I'll give that a try.

Interesting about about using it as a brush cleaner. You'd expect it would dry hard in the same way acrylic paint does.

 

Strandman

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #10

desgreene said:

Interesting about about using it as a brush cleaner. You'd expect it would dry hard in the same way acrylic paint does.

Click to expand...

You are right about that - it does. So you do have to rinse it out, once it has worked its magic and coaxed the acrylic paint out from the base of the bristles. I wouldn't want my unguarded comments to be the ruin of your brush collection!

 

timwootton

Well-known member

• Dec 3, 2008

• #11

Des - give Berol's Marvin Medium a crack - if used neat you get shiny results, but by adding increasing amounts of water, it becomes increasingly matte.
When using glazes, definitely take the advice offered above, but when it comes to it - you have to be pretty brave - just to see all your hard work disappear under a liquid grey can be a tad disconcerting, but, if you've got the consistency right, it'll reappear.