I learned something huge...

I finally got a chance to get away to the lake this weekend to spend some time with my very good friend Lynn.  We have been planning this for almost a year (sad, I know).  We both have pretty busy schedules and were determined to have this weekend together - and that we did! Yay us!!

She has a lot out on Lac des Isles in Saskatchewan (only 45 min from my door step), her view is amazing and it is is pretty quiet.  The sound of the wind in the trees and the water lapping on the shore are two of my most favorite sounds in the world.  The sounds take me back to my childhood of weekends at the lake and at a time when the rest of the world really didn't matter - just how early could you get out on the water or what you would cook on the fire today? No phones, no tv, no hassles! Needless to say, I had a hard time coming back Sunday!

Our goal for the weekend was to paint - yes paint!  We are both painters, but so different in every way possible.  Both self taught, and both used to Tole paint years ago before we veered to Scrapbooking and have made out ways back to painting.

If you follow this blog or my Facebook page, you see that I share not only my own work, but links to many others that I feel are relevant in this industry.  I am all about sharing! There is so much out there for you to see and learn from.  I follow many painters and have learned many tips and techniques from them all.

So for this story, I am going to bring up one that I shared with everyone a few years ago....Painting with Jane.  Jane Font is a very talented artist and shares so much information on her YouTube channel - FREE - for the learning!  All you need to do is take the time to watch and learn.  Really not that hard. You can also follow her on social media, all her links are on her website.  Lynn suggested we try one of Jane's paintings that she thought would be pertinent to both of us - Creating Texture with Layers.

I worked on some of my 9x12" Canvas Panels. Notice I said some, yuppers! I of course couldn't do it as planned, I needed to play more - so I bought three different types of paints (cause I have enough paint...more than three by the way)! I brought Liquitex Basics, Liquitex Heavy Body and Golden Fluids.  Lynn had brought both Golden and Liquitex Heavy Body.  We got to painting right away following along as Jane had instructed - okay in all fairness, Lynn did and I (surprise surprise) didn't - but have never followed the rules in any aspect of my life now have I (why start now)!?!?

I started out doing them side by side. One using the Liquitex Basics and the other Golden Fluid Acrylics.

This first one is using the Liquitex...

This one is with Golden...

Aside from color variances, it is hard to tell the difference in a photo.  For me, the noticeable difference first off was the sheen. Liquitex is more matte, whereas the Golden are of a satin to gloss finish.  Even taking into account I was using Ultra Matte Fluid Medium (Liquitex) on both applications. Jane had suggested use of Fluid Matte Medium, but my bottle of that is a litre and I didn't want to take the large bottle so decided to take the smaller option.  I did however, bring my Open Medium so see the difference in the option provided. 

Time to start bringing in the rust on the wall and floor.  It is a combo of colors one wouldn't expect...and it works!

There are many layers of paint along the way to get it to this point.  Getting it to a happy place for me was quite the ordeal.  

Sadly, you are now seeing the (original) Golden one now covered with Liquitex paints (sans the Unbleached Titanium and subbed for actual Titan Buff) as Lynn had a leak in her trailer window and my original Liquitex one got quite wet, saving her seat back from saturation!

I enjoyed the learning process of this technique, just not the final image.  I tried doing another canvas panel with an image in my head of a window that was leaking the rust (hmm. wonder where that came from).  This one was done using Golden Heavy Body paints.  I tried to use the Open Medium with this technique - nope, not gonna work!  Again, the idea was good - just not the final result.  Remember peeps, patience is not one of my best attributes!  This one is not near done, but by Sunday afternoon, I was done with it. 

Here are a few close ups of the tree panels - you can see the color left to right (for color help) - Golden/Liquitex, Golden then Liquitex (panel that got wet). 

These next two are close ups of the (wet) Liquitex panel.  You can really see the textures that are created with this format of painting.  It is something I will do again, kinda!

Here is a close up of the window one.  I really thought the rust needed some depth, so I added the cracks. I might have over done it a tad, but the idea is there to be worked on.

These last four shots are close ups of the 'finished' one that started out with Golden Paints and ended using Liquitex Basics (with the addition of Golden Titan Buff instead of Liquitex Unbleached Titanium White).  The additional underlying textures you are seeing are actually from a previous painting.  I decided I didn't like it so gesso'd over it and started all over again.  I wanted the textures there so did not do too heavy of a coat.

So, what did I learn?  That I do not like to paint an picture; nor I do not like to paint an image of a picture.  I find it makes me feel constrained.  It puts me in a box, in a corner, in a way that I am unable to paint freely - to just paint!  

I am an abstract painter.  And by that I do not mean it literally.  I mean it in a way that it allows me to think and paint outside the norm.  See something how I see it.  If you don't see it, that is totally A O K! This lesson taught me something huge - more than a new technique.  It taught me that it is okay to try and fail (if you want to think of it as failure, I guess).  I already have some great new ideas on how to incorporate this kind of painting into MY style.

...until next time

Faux Encaustic?

Well as usual my blog posts got the better of me and I once again neglected it. Seems to be the story of my life.  I am trying real hard to take time away from the shop to actually work on art, but life just seems to continually get in my way.

The rest of May & June were beyond busy in the shop and for that I thank you all for your continued support.  I also in my infinite wisdom finally caved and took on a teaching schedule at a local shop. I taught 4 classes during that time and am looking forward to starting up again in the fall.  Had a great group of ladies that had a ton of fun seeing into my world of crazy art creations.  Pretty sure I scared some and scarred others, hahaha!!

July was a total blur as we had about 10 days of actual holidays where we spent it with my family celebrating my Dad's 85th birthday.  We had 19 out of the 34 of us which is a pretty good turn out.  Ever since we lost Mom, we make a point of getting together as a family and celebrating any milestone possible.  Needless to say, this was an important one.  We came back from our holidays a few days early as we needed to help out Hubby's Mom.  She had knee replacement surgery this past fall and it has not been an easy go.  After taking her back and forth to the city a few time for Dr appointments and tests - it was determined to be a cracked knee cap.  She has no idea how it happened but  it has and now we need to wait a bit longer to see if it will heal on it's own.  Totally unsure how that works considering it is a knee replacement, not a real live bone...but what do I know, I'm not the Doctor.

So we've been back for a week now and I took full advantage of it an decided to delve into some Faux Encaustic work.  I took an hour or two each day and tried my hand at it.  I have been reading a lot of books lately on this and even though it may be basically the same process, how they all go about it is so different (frustrating).

The first one I found about it that I thought I would try my hand it was in a book called The New Acrylic - The Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints (Rheni Tauchid).  I was reading it while in one of the many waiting rooms over the past couple of weeks.  I came across the article on Acrylic Encaustic so thought I would give it a try once I was home.  So in Wendy fashion, I dove right in head first, only to get hung up pretty quick.  The article did not give near enough information which I figured out too late.  So if you follow me on Instagram (@w2scrpbk) or the shops Facebook page (@W2 Scrapbooking & Mixed Media Art Studio), you will have seen a good amount of this already.

Day One...

I am working on a 12x12" (Mdf topped) Cradle-board that I made myself.  I prepped the surface with two good coats of White Gesso.  Once the gesso was totally dried, I applied a mix of  Adirondack Acrylic Metallic Pearl and DecoArt Fluid Acrylic Interference Blue paint with a 1/2" Flat Wash Brush

Once it was dry, I applied a thick coat of  3D Gloss Gel with my metal palette knife.

No need to get it too smooth, just be sure you have the entire substrate covered. NOTE: be conscience of the amount of gel you use.  I used way too much and most of it went into the garbage as I did the squeegee step!

While it is still wet, apply a thin layer of diluted transparent paint - in this case I used Golden Fluid Acrylic Phthalo Blue (Red Shade). Reminder that Gels are white out of the container but do dry clear.

Now take a squeegee or large palette knife and smooth out the surface.

Now, using a mark making tool of some sort, etch in some focal points in the wet surface.  I used a small wooden dowel.

The great part here is if you are not happy with your markings, just go over them again with your trowel/knife/squeegee, which is what I did.  Only downfall is that it will continue to move the colors.  This is how it looked at the end of day one.  

It now needed to fully dry for at least 24 hours now.  It has been a very humid summer for us which is not normal by any means.  Surprisingly enough, I was able to find my patience and wait the 24 hours! Yay me!! 

Day Two...

This was where I was starting to get frustrated on the directions in the book and the direction the piece was taking.  So after applying the wash, I went totally off and decided to add some more texture, literally!

The photo below shows the application of a Phthlo Blue (Red Shade) wash over the dried piece.

The book did not really tell me what color of wash to use, I just thought it should be a dark one as it was quite 'white' still.  So once I wiped off some of the wash with a rag, I decided to add some texture in the form of found items in my stash.  I used rough cut pieces of rug gripper, drywall mesh, a mesh ribbon and some bits from circular plastic canvases.  All applied using the same 3D Gloss Gel.

Here are a few close ups so you can see the textures.

 

 

 I needed to do some more reading and research on the Internet (videos and such) for other artists who did this sort of thing now as I was not at all happy with the direction it was going.  Once again it needed 24 hours to dry as I was using the heavy gel.

In my Internet search, I came across an interesting site with a French artist who is let's just say, very inspiring!  Laly Mille has some of the most beautiful work I have seen in a while.  I found her (again) when I did a google search of 'Acrylic Encaustic' - I say again as low and behold I already follow her on Instagram! Go figure! The one that really stood out to me was this video I found on YouTube (her channel link here). It got my mind really swirling with ideas on how I could improve what I had started and how I could do future pieces.

Day Three...

I started out applying a new 'wash' - but in this case, I decided on doing a glaze.  I used Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid (Satin) with Golden Fluid Acrylic Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold.  I allowed it to set for about two minutes then I proceed to wipe it off with a baby wipe.

I let it sit for about three minutes (ya, lost my patience again) and poured over Golden Self Leveling Clear Gel and tried to tip and tilt the board to spread it out and gave up quickly and used a palette knife.

Now once again, this needed 24 hours to dry! UGH so not good at this part of arting!  NOTE: at this point, I should have tinted my gel and I think I would have been happier, but hey...there's always a next time!

I continued to do more reading on this and pulled out some of my books in my ever growing art book collections and came up with two more that I thought were helpful.  Rethinking Acrylic - Radical Solutions for Exploiting the World's Most Versatile Medium (Patti Brady) and Acrylic Painting for Encaustic Effects - 45 Was Free Techniques (Sandra Duran Wilson).  The Patti Brady one was my favorite - not necessarily for the information (there really wasn't a lot), but it is so loaded with more general information on understanding acrylics in general.  Patti is not only an accomplished artist, she is Golden Artist Colors Inc Working Artist Program Director and you will often see her in their videos.  Here is the link to here site.  Another artist I looked for info on this was Jodi Ohl.  She has a workshop called Fearless Faux Encaustic that I have had for a while and think I need to go back and look at again.  It has been a long time and I honestly can't remember much about it. 

Day Four...

If you can imagine, even after 24 hours this was not totally dry!  But I push on and scratched and scraped in some marks using a piercing tool, chopstick and a metal staple remover.

Hard to see here, but as I was pushing in using the chopstick, it actually kind of molded back into it's flattened state.  I was able to finally get a few ridges, but hardly noticeable.

I added some F+W Acrylic Ink in Sepia in the areas where I scratched and scraped.

really working in with the brush...

I then used a cotton rag and wiped it off so to leave the ink in the cracks and crevices. 

I again was not overly happy here, so i decided to  add some solid color in the form of a mixture of Golden Regular Gel (Matte), Liquitex Heavy Body Paint Titanium White and Prima Artisan Powder in French Sage.

I wiped and added until I was happy(ish). 

End of day, getting to like it again, even though I can pretty much say there is nothing Encaustic about this anymore.  But staying positive on it as I am learning a ton on what not to do and what I can do in future applications - in the wise words of Mr Tim Gunn, "Make it work!" That I am!!

Day Five...

Here is what I was (am) hoping to be the last day of applications!  I took note from a part of Lay Mille's video and added some white scribbles using Golden High Flow Acrylic Titanium White paint in a Fineliner.

I also used some Golden Fluid Acrylic in Raw Umber in hopes of adding more emphasis on the scratches and areas of texture. 

The final application was to tone down the shininess of the piece.  For this I used a mix of Golden Soft Gel (Matte) and Golden Fluid Acrylic Iridescent Gold (Fine) and applied it with a brush first then tried to smooth it out with my Ranger Craft Squeegee. 

I did make sure the scribbles were totally dry before applying this final coat.  I used my Ranger Heat Tool and a little bit of my patience!

 

Here are a few close ups...

You can see already in the photos that the shininess is not as prominent and that makes me happy.  You know how I get with Shiny Objects...Squirrel!!

Here it is today, day six, fully dry and not near as shiny!  Am I happy with it? Not sure yet, not something I would normally do outside a journal.     

But will say I did learn a lot and will definitely try more like this.  I already have some cool ideas on how to do this on another substrate but not actually leaving the found objects in the piece.  I would like to do some using collage elements as well, I think that would be very interesting and possible not as time consuming!

If you lasted all the way through this very long post, thank you, hoping you enjoyed my trials and errors along the way and look forward to hearing your take on it too!

Until next time...hopefully not a long time...