Bugeyedmonster's Stomping Grounds

There is this 'exercise' one of my painting teachers mentioned. Where you take burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. Your white is the white of the paper, the burnt sienna is your warm, ultramarine blue is for your cool shades, and together they make your black.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BnUKkG7DkBL/?utm_source=ig_web_options_share_sheet

There is a BIG difference between the Derwent burnt sienna and the Neocolor burnt sienna.

I now need to look at some other pencils I might have, and see what their burnt sienna colors look like.

The Liquitex demo-man (Peter Andrew) came by Thursday morning at Eastfield. I'm only mentioning it now as I had to work Thursday evening and after having to get up early Thursday morning, after working at Kohl's in the evening, I had to take a nap.

But it was really great. I learned a lot. Found out why sometimes my attempts to use acrylic like watercolor break down. You can use a little water to dilute acrylic but when you use too much water, the polymer molecules can't bond together when they dry. So I need to use one of the mediums, instead of too much water.

The additives are NOT like mediums. You can use too much of an additive. (Andrews equated additives to Tabasco sauce.) If you like glazing, they have a glazing medium that you only need to put a drop of the color in to get your glaze. He suggested buying those droplet bottles from Sally's or another beauty store and using those to store your glazes. (They look like miniature versions of ketchup bottles. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?)

I also found out one reason why I have trouble with hues. (Hue colors are colors that imitate 'real' colors. Like Cadmium Yellow to Cadmium Yellow Hue, or Alizarin Crimson to Alizarin Crimson Hue.) I've always hated hue colors because I have trouble mixing them, they always end up looking like mud.

Mr. Andrews mentioned that you have to look at the back of the tube to see what pigments they used in making a particular hue color. The cad yellow hue was a mix of one yellow plus a touch of some red. Ah-ha! No wonder when I tried to mix it with blue I didn't get a pretty green.

The hue colors are non-toxic and non-fugitive. That might make me go back to cadmium hues and alizarin hues. Alizarin crimson is one of my favorite reds, but it's very fugitive, meaning it fades if exposed to too much sunlight. (I guess you could call it a vampire color then.) Cadmium colors are very lovely, but hey, heavy metal in your bloodstream is not good. (As opposed to heavy metal music in your bloodstream, which is much better than heavy metals.)

Have you ever looked at the back of a tube of Liquitex? It tells you the pigment, gives you the Munsell rating, tells you if the paint is opaque or transparent or translucent. But it also shows a phone number on the back. That phone number is their help line. I never knew that Liquitex had a help line that you can call.

You can also build up layers of opaque acrylic paint, and then carve into it, exposing the different layers. I just realized one could use that method to make a huge stamp. He had a sample where he had painted the layers onto a piece of linoleum. So the size of the stamp would be limited only by the size of the linoleum.

He had a 'piece of pizza' that had been sculpted with different layers of acrylic.

Andrews mentioned that acrylic needs at least a week to 'cure'. It may be dry to the touch, it it needs to cure to become plasticine. Now I know what happened to some hairsticks. (The acrylic paint came off, but I started attempting to wear them in a day. Note to self: wait a full week next time.)

He showed us a cheap way to keep your acrylic from drying out. Put a wet paper towel on part of your palette, and squeeze your paint out on that. You still use the regular uncovered palette as usual. It dried on the palette, but after the demo the paint on the wet paper towel was still fresh. You can also use a humidifier to keep your acrylic from drying out.

Titanium white bleaches out color, while zinc white is a transparent white that doesn't bleach out color. So zinc white is good for glazes. (Or if you don't want to loose the saturation of the color.)

Alcohol will 'melt' acrylic paint. (Before the week dry point.) It does break it down, that might be a cool effect to play with. (I now have a reason to buy lite beer.)

Slow-Dri Gel Retarder shrinks as it dries. (Must remember that.)

Use fluid medium for glaze and gel mediums for thick paint. With paint 75% gel medium to 25% acrylic paint.

A drop of ammonia will get rid of mold in acrylic paint without bothering the paint.

Soft Body acrylic is in both jars and tubes, however it is messier in the tube form. Liquitex only put it in tube form because people see the jar of acrylic as a craft product. So it's just a perception issue. (I'll admit that I've never looked at the jar acrylic, I always reach straight for the tube stuff.)

He showed us how you can use acrylics to do a photocopy transfer to a shirt or other fabric.

He also gave us names of people who do 'different' things with acrylic. (Rather than treat it as a substitute for oil paint.) Franklin White, Jamie Bollenbach, Kirstin Lamb. The group Terracycle does some interesting things with acrylic paint. I have to look these folks up. One of them was doing Giacometti style figures by building up layers of paint on fishing line. Once dry and 'cured' these figures can stand on their own. You can find them on the Liquitex website.

We (those of us in attendance at the demo) got a book "The Acrylic Book" which is chock full of information on acrylic. I've only started looking at it. Plus we got some meduim and a tube of Acra red.

Peter Andrews also mentioned that if you know anyone who does unusual things with acrylic paint, tell Liquitex. Acrylic paint is such a 'new' medium as compared to oil, watercolor or stone or clay.

If you have at least 30 folks in your group or school who would like to have a Liquitex demo-person come by, contact Liquitex. I had gotten a card from Peter Andrews but now I can't find it. He has a website at www.peterandrew.net but contacting Liquitex is probably the best way to get a demo to come to your area.

If you've ever wanted to try the Daniel Smith watercolor sticks, they are having a buy one get one offer on some of the sticks.

DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Sticks -
Buy One, Get One FREE: Phthalo Blue GS and NEW Pyrrol Orange
http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-001-900-555
Buy One, Get One FREE: Pyrrol Red and NEW Phthalo Turquoise
http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-001-900-556
Buy One, Get One FREE: Ultramarine Blue and NEW Hansa Yellow Light
http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-001-900-557

They are usually $12.49 each. I've not purchased these before. I have heard that it's sort of like a stick of watercolor paint, you can pull paint directly from the stick or you can rub it on wet paper. Or rub it on dry paper and then wet the paper. I'm sure I'll have fun with them.

And it wasn't just the BOGO that convinced me to try them; DS is also having a free shipping offer, with no minimum. Copy down the web coupon code on the front of their website. You fill out your order, then complete the billing and address information. When you get to the 'review order' page, that's when there is a spot for entering the coupon code.

Free Shipping! Yeah! Shipping costs have been going up like crazy.

Anyway, thought that I'd spread the word.

It's like humans gone to the hermit crabs. And I would love one of these for a Halloween costume.

I saw these on eBay...

3 DERWENT 38ct PASTEL COLLECTION MIXED MEDIA SETS
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200532705359
Listed at $14.98 for right now. I've got my eye on this one, but it might go for more than I should spend right now.

From Chris_1960
Derwent 24 Watercolour Pencils - US $5.88
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250713088165

Derwent 38 Pastel Collection Coloured Pencils - US $8.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250713092463

Derwent 38 Sketching Pencils - US $8.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250713091529

Derwent 24 Sketching Collection Pencils - US $5.88
http://cgi.ebay.com/Derwent-24-Sketching-Collection-Pencils-/250713081442

Derwent 36 Watercolour Pencils - US $9.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/Derwent-36-Watercolour-Pencils-/250713085001

Derwent 24 Studio Colour Pencils - US $5.88
http://cgi.ebay.com/Derwent-24-Studio-Colour-Pencils-/250712059895

Derwent 24 Graphic - US $5.88
http://cgi.ebay.com/Derwent-24-Graphic-/250713531624

Aw heck, just go check what this guy has under the "Art Supplies" category.
http://crafts.shop.ebay.com/Art-Supplies-/11783/i.html?_catref=1&_fln=1&_ipg=25&_ssn=chris_1960&_trksid=p3911.c0.m282

Don't know if that link will work... but he's got some pretty good stuff for cheap.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/52937083/24-derwent-inktense-pencils
Not bad in the price. I probably would buy them if I hadn't already purchased a set of 24.

And I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with my pack of 12.

As seen on this post
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6515259&postcount=58
and this post
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9718801#post9718801

In case you can't see the posts, here are the images...

Title: A GUERRILLA PAINTER'S NOTEBOOK - Volume I
Author: Carl Judson
Summary: A collection of 14 of Carl Judson's essays on the ups and downs of Guerrilla Painting. 8½" x 11", 30 pages with 83 color reproductions. Paperback.
http://www.carljudson.com/gpnotebook.htm

You can order the book on that page, or read some of the articles. Great advice for beginning painters who want to try plein air painting.

Though on the limited palette essay; I've had a lot of success doing just sienna brown and ultra blue. Combine both and you get black, and the white canvas/paper is your white.

A note to beginning painters; you don't really need that black in that set. You can always combine colors to make black. If you throw away that black, you'll now have room for another color.