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Acrylics and emulsion paint
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Message
Posted
I’ve been playing around with emulsion paint mixed with acrylics and have just posted one of the results in the gallery. It's an abstract and if you want to take a peek it’s at:
http://www.painters-online.co.uk/Gallery/Michael-Edwards-Contraposition/_ga106397_pg1
Following some kind comments I received I thought it might be interesting to repeat my replies here:
(1) I found the emulsion a great help especially with this sort of effect - the acrylics mix well and can be used as a colourant to the emulsion. Another point is that emulsion used in these quantities is so much cheaper than a costly tube of acrylic. I just love the way the two interact.
(2) emulsion is used on walls and lasts forever providing it isn't scuffed, knocked, of splashed with coffee etc - also I know a watercolourist who regularly uses it in conjunction with watercolours and I have heard of another who only paints in emulsion using the small sample pots - and I understand that some use it as a primer rather than the more expensive gesso - so why not! .
I just wondered if anyone has any experience of emulsion as an art medium and has any comments or thoughts to make.
Posted
Why, I wonder, did you prime them with Dulux emulsion? Anyway, you did - if you paint with acrylic on top, and the emulsion was an acrylic paint, it should stick all right - the long term consequences are anybody's guess, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. If it was an oil-based emulsion, then painting with acrylic on top would be a waste of paint - sooner or later, and probably sooner, it will bubble up and peel off.
You could overpaint with oil, on either surface - but again, the long term consequences would be unpredictable. Plenty of people have done it, though, and a good many will have used all sorts of materials which would have been worse, and got away with it.
By the way, congratulations on looking up an old thread before posting a new one - so often, people don't bother and ask a question that's been answered many times before: there's a wealth of advice on here if people were to dig a bit.
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
No I didn't prime them, they were never intended for art purpose, they were just used for displays to create a pop of colours behind ornaments. But since they are going to end up in the bin, I thought maybe I could rescue them, if I could do something with them. It was water based emulsion. Thanks
Posted
I'm currently painting with Valspar water-based gloss and Golden acrylics on primed fibreglass. Obviously the finish of the two products is completely different (gloss, satin) but when it's varnished it should appear uniform. In terms of application, I've painted with acrylic over the emulsion and while it doesn't adhere to the gloss the same as it does to the primer it still covers adequately and produces some nice effects. I'm sure using acrylic on these canvases should work fine.
Kay
Posted
Good advice Syd! The project I'm working on just now is for a piece of public art and I'm following a list of painting guidelines that have told me that artists' acrylic and emulsion are acceptable, so I'm going along with it (emulsion is covering larger areas better). If I was doing a piece of fine art to hang on a wall or for a gallery I'd go for artist acrylic, though I'm sure I've heard of people using house paint as a primer.