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Painting with acrylics on paper
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Message
Posted
I've been doing a few acrylic studies of various Venetian scenes. When I've finished I'll repaint the best one on a larger scale.
I've been using rough watercolour paper for the studies. What strikes me is how difficult it is to get soft natural edges with acrylics. The paintings look a bit crude because many of the boundaries between colours are too sharp. I've tried a retarder in the past, although it only delays drying by about 15 minutes.
When I do the final painting it will be acrylic on gesso treated MDF. Usually it's easier with this kind of surface to get softer edges if necessary. It might be because it's less absorbent than watercolour paper.
Has anybody any advice on how to control edges in acrylics?
Edited
by keora
Posted
Hi Keora. I have painted acrylics on rough watercolour paper but found it unsatisfactory somehow . i now use canvas boards which I find give an excellent surface to work on and quite cheap from Jacksons. Acrylic does have a hard edge to it and you have to be quick to blend them to avoid this. you can of course give a little swirl to the edge of the applied colour using a damp brush as .a form of blender. This works quite well for white clouds against a blue sky and gives a fuzzy edge to them with no hard edges. Hope this helps so give it a try. Regards , Syd
Posted
With great difficulty - particularly in the early stages of the painting process; as you go on, overlaying washes/coats/glazes will probably give you a better result than seeking to emulate the properties of watercolour: because the paint dries (generally) flat, you can add body colour and gradually soften edges; use a little white in the mix, whatever your choice of white might be - Zinc white will give you clearer tints; Winsor and Newton also do a mixing white.
There's no particular reason why watercolour type washes won't work, other than that the paint is somewhat thin and scratchy when diluted, more so than watercolour, and often needs the addition of white to bulk it up; it's more the texture of the paint itself than the fact that it dries too soon. You could also try these 'interactive' acrylics: I haven't, because quick drying is one of the advantages of acrylic for me; but it might give you what you're after. Or - just more water with it (advice once given to me, but in relation to Scotch rather than paint).
Acrylics, more than almost any other paint, do seem to go through a This Is Awful! stage before they're fit to be unleashed on the world: this is why it's useful to keep a photographic record of your work in progress - you'll wonder, as I've often done, how you ever emerged from that stage where the paint seems to respond, and look, like toothpaste mixed with Polyfilla: and it's all about building it up, and working in layers. It's easier to soften edges when you have a bed of paint to glaze or scumble over. But that's more true of work on canvas or board - if working on watercolour paper, the answer probably lies in more water, strengthening the wash, letting it dry, and then coming back at it - a thing you wouldn't do in watercolour without huge risk of backruns and other disasters.
You can also soften edges using a tool we all have - the finger; or scrubbing with a kitchen towel. Thing about acrylic is that on the right surface, you can keep overpainting and adjusting until the cows come home: but it's always good, and time- and paint-saving, if you can develop techniques which get you where you want to be quickly, rather than slapping more and more paint on in the vague hope it'll come out right in the end: not something you can take for granted if working on paper.
Posted
As art is only an impression of what you see do you really want it in soft focus?
Art executed in acrylics is meant to be different. Its not oils. Its not watercolor.
Perhaps if you must continue in a watercolourist mindset: try acrylic inks on heavy grade 360 gm Clairefontaine Acrylique Paper...or W&N textured Galeria Paper [this gives an awful online image!].
Posted
Phil makes a useful point, which perhaps encapsulates my reservations about interactive acrylics - they seem to me to be looking for a problem created because painters have looked to acrylics to provide the same results as they can get with other media. And they can, of course, but the struggle to cause them to can be a bit of an uphill and rocky road.
It was David Hockney who pointed out that acrylics were tailor-made for a glazing technique, transparent or semi-transparent veils of colour which can make the question raised - about blending and softening edges - fall into place: you can achieve so much with acrylic without soft blending, either by exploiting its full potential for hard-edge paintings or by glazing or scumbling or both over those edges to achieve a softer focus.
Good point about acrylic inks, too - or you could try Chromacolour acrylics, which will blend very well on paper and are capable of massive dilution without loss of adhesion - see their website for details.
Posted
untreated watercolour paper seems a little to dry for me .a coat of coloured cheap acrylic helps,,, or a coat of white emulsion ,though it will buckle it .,,I use a few offcuts from the DIY
store or raid a skip when neighbours are putting in new cupboards ,and draw bottoms are ok ,,I am getting used to using acrylics and the mixing ,some say they go darker
the cheap ones do ,for me ,not the decent ones ,thin some down and they act slippery ;ok as a glaze i suppose .,but what load of messing about cleaning up wearing pinny
washing the bowl out ,,,,moving the dishes to clean the brushes ,,cleaning bottom of the sink
,,weer is me watta culers
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
this morning I prepared a couple of sheets of cheap watercolour paper ,I mixed some cheap acrylic colour with some PVA (( a litre from the DIY near to.me)not expensive )) first I coated one side
picked up my heat gun (I use a heat gun instead of a hair drier .. it is much hotter and better, ///the one I use ,is a crafters one .not the one used to remove paint but still very hot)
then the other side was coated . and flat .ideal for acrylics .
the PVA is actually the same you can use for glazing .you can also use it as varnish to your finished work
Posted
I was looking at a painting yesterday that was done with various types of red wine. I'm tempted to try this, I have a bottle at home that I've had since last Christmas and I know I'll never drink it.
I've tried acrylic on watercolour paper but I too found it too dry, I ended up fighting with it too much. I've taken to using mountboard, it has transformed the medium for me.