We can call our toolbox components The Big Four: paint, mediums, gels and pastes. By mixing, combining and layering these four we can customize, change, experiment and invent in our painting process, materials and art.
There are two choices for thinning acrylic paint: water or acrylic medium. Water breaks down the binder in acrylic, and like a solvent, will thin the paint so that it appears like watercolor and will result in a matte finish. Adding acrylic mediums instead, while minimizing any addition of water, maintains the rich, glossy acrylic appearance. The more water you add, the more it is affected by the surface on which it is applied. Up to 30% water added to paint thins the paint, but still allows it to coat over a surface. Adding 60% or more water creates an over-diluted watery paint called a wash. Rubbing a wash into an absorbent surface so only a hint of the color remains is called a stain.
Similarly with mediums, adding more or less medium to paint creates different qualities. Up to 30% medium added to paint will thin (a thick paint) allowing the paint to coat the surface. Adding 60% or more medium creates more transparency, often called a glaze.
Adding water or medium are both viable ways to change the paint; however, it is helpful to know that adding either of the two choices produces very different results. Many techniques in this book require the use of one or the other where a layer of paint is created by a wash using water to sink into the surface or else mediums to coat the surface by sitting on top. When paint sinks into the surface, the color is less intense and has a matte appearance. When paint sits on top of the surface, the undiluted binder enhances color intensity and appears glossy.
For paint to sink down into the surface it needs two components: 1) enough water mixed into the paint to create a wash and 2) surface absorbency. For acrylic to sit on top, or to layer, keep the use of water to a minimum and instead add any amount of mediums or gels. You can have more control over your paint and painting effects by avoiding continually spraying acrylic paint with water or haphazardly adding water to slow drying times.
A surface primed with gesso is a bit midstream, neither absorbent or non-absorbent, so applying washes over it will not always get good results. You can easily change surface absorbency by applying a ground before painting. A ground is an acrylic gel or paste applied over a primed or gessoed surface and allowed to dry before painting. The ground changes how the surface accepts paint (see Techniques 11, 33 and 34). Pastes, such as Light Molding Paste, Coarse Molding Paste, Crackle Paste and Pumice Gel, make great absorbent grounds for creating watercolor effects. Nonabsorbent or glossy grounds, however, repel washes, creating unusual variegated effects (see Technique 34). Nonabsorbent grounds include Molding Paste, any gloss medium or gel such as Soft Gel Gloss, and pouring mediums. Best results are obtained when grounds are allowed to dry at least overnight before applying washes. Increase the washy effect by spraying the dried grounds with water before applying washes.
The gold leaf background is visible through layers of transparent and opaque paint colors. These are obtained two ways: diluting paint color with water to create a wash and mixing paint color with mediums to create a glaze.
LANDSCAPE & GALACTIC DUST
Nancy Reyner
Acrylic and gold leaf on panel, 48" × 60" (122cm × 152cm)
A wash and glaze are both terms for transparent applications of color, however one is made with water, breaking down the binder, while the other uses mediums, maintaining a rich polymer content allowing better covering power. (See Section 4: Essential Tips for Pouring, as the descriptions there of wash pours and coated pours parallel the differences between washes and glazes.) Washes and stains are easy to use on absorbent surfaces or layers (usually matte). A glaze is best used on a nonabsorbent surface or layer, (usually glossy). When you wish to apply a transparent layer of color, take a moment to look at the surface absorbency. If it is matte then use a wash, if it is glossy, use a glaze. If it is matte and you would rather use a glaze, apply a coat of gloss medium, let it dry, then apply the glaze. The reverse is true as well. If your surface is glossy and you want to apply a wash, first apply a product with a transparent grit, like a clear acrylic gesso or acrylic matte medium over the gloss to change the surface.
When would glazing be an appropriate technique? Glazing shifts underlying colors. It is mainly used as a transparent layer of color applied over an existing color layer. Let’s say you painted a realistic portrait and the skin tone turned out to be too yellow. Applying a transparent layer of purple (yellow’s opposite on the color wheel) would neutralize the yellow, correcting the skin tone. The trick is in applying the purple evenly, subtly and transparently.
Modern paint colors (i.e. Quinacridones, Phthalos, Dioxazines) are transparent when used thinly but are tricky to use alone as glazes. Modern paints are so vibrant they easily overpower any colors underneath and may apply streaky. Adding a slow-drying medium in a 1:1 ratio (or more) will ease application and tone down the intensity of color, even for a high-powered Dioxazine Purple.
Always make a glaze mixture starting with medium and slowly adding to it very small amounts of paint color. Mix well with a knife, and test it periodically to see if it is the right transparency by brush applying the glaze mixture onto a scrap surface. Quickly dry the area with a blow dryer to see the actual color when dry (see Technique 7 for glazing over gold leaf).
A variety of techniques are used here including wash pouring wet in wet, splashing into the wet paint, and applying “paint stickers” (invented by the artist by painting directly onto self-stick vinyl).
EXPELLED
Jane Callister
Acrylic on canvas, 36" × 72" (91cm × 183cm) Courtesy of the artist.
Combining binders (mediums, gels and pastes) with paint is a key painting tool, offering opportunities for inventing and personalizing techniques and processes. Acrylic paints and binders can be layered in any order, as well as combined in any mixture with no technical problems or risks. For example, mixing a gloss gel with a matte gel makes a custom semigloss or satin gel. Combine any acrylic gel, medium, paste or color altogether in one mixture to invent a unique concoction that won’t yellow, crack or separate. Be aware, though, that some mixing can cancel out special qualities. For example, a reflective paint when mixed with too much of an opaque paint color will no longer be reflective.
There are three easy ways to think about combining paint with binders:
1. Add Binder Into Paint to Extend or Customize. Binders can be added into paint as extenders, which increase the paint quantity without adding more of the expensive pigmented paint. Add binders into paint to change any of the paint qualities. For instance, adding gloss gel slows down the drying time, while adding paste quickens drying times. Gloss gels and mediums will enhance color as the gloss increases refraction, while matte products can mute color. Add gels or mediums to increase transparency, or add paste to increase opacity. Gels can add texture while mediums enhance leveling. Mix white paste into a mineral paint color to tint or lighten it without the usual chalkiness that occurs when adding white paint. Add gel into a modern paint color to even out the difference between its dark masstone and bright undertone, allowing for an even application of paint. Add gels to fluid paints to thicken, and add mediums to heavy body paints to thin.
2. Layer Binder Under Paint as a Ground or Wet Layer. As mentioned previously in this section on Surface Absorbency, binders (mediums, gels or pastes) can create a ground, changing surface absorbency. Many special effects are obtained this way. Apply grounds in the beginning or at any point in the painting process to change how the paint is absorbed into the surface of the underlying layer. In addition to absorbency, applying grounds can smooth or texture a surface, add color, and make the surface reflective or matte. (See Techniques 15, 42 and 43 for unusual ground effects.)
3. Layer Binder Over Paint to Change Surfaces and Sheens. Gels, pastes and mediums can be used as overlayers, applied over paint or layers to change sheens and absorbencies, protect underlying delicate materials, and add or smooth out texture. Overlayering can be done under or over any particular painting layer, giving maximum flexibility in the painting process. (See Techniques 18 and 24 for wet layering. See Techniques 16, 22 and 45 for dry layering. See Section 4: Essential Tips for Pouring.)
Multiple poured layers of clear gloss (Technique 25) over layers of painted color create a luminous quality.
RAVEN’S MARK 2
Bonnie Teitelbaum
Acrylic on panel, 18" × 18" (46cm × 46cm)