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Alan Owen´s Question about using a palette knife with acrylics
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Message
Posted
alanowen (25/01/2017)Above question appeared on the forum and I thought it was worth a thread of its own rather than being drowned in 5 pages of all sorts. My answer would be that you probably need some kind of a filler as a think layer of acrylics would shrink to a fraction of its original size.
....is there any one who uses acrylics with a palette knife? Would they be too thin? Are there some which are made for this high relief style?? thanks for you time
Posted
Yes there are artists doing this acrylics knife painting , but one has to work quickly and and have a very flat surface.
using a cheap paper that has been coated with PVA has to be flat ,, paint both sides this helps .
looking to view these painted acrylics or oils ,remember a lot of the portraits done in the Rolf Harris ,and Kiiffin Williams style to day ,or yesterday even ,
are accomplished ,by using a software that produces the drawing and the colouring in ,rather like painting by numbers (,Syd will tell you the I pad has the capabillities )
I see some of these on the gallery ,, do others recognise this I don't think so .
flower type paintings look good in the high relief paint .yes I shall try one , we see a lot of gauche added to flower paintings don't we, and
artist use a base filler to represent knife work before painting on top .like walls/ cottages / remember the round plaster plaques ,that were all the go years ago
and the rubber moulds you could buy fill with plaster of paris and paint yourself..
there is so much more fun ,,,,,than ,,how to paint watercolour wash ,,,
Posted
Most of the acrylics have an impasto potential...I'm just too messy with a blade & W&N Artists' Acrylic.
You can buy thicker alternative brands e.g. Liquitex.
OR you can mix ordinary W&N Artists' Acrylic with W&N Modelling Paste, even try their Textured Paste...be mean and use dry sieved builders sand even!
Posted
thank you Sylvia ..I tried one this morning I,have pinafore but i risked it ,,,and I have ruined a pair of my best pants serves me right for thinking I could keep clean with oils ,
I am not happy with it so I won't use it ,,like I need practice with a knife ,,,one thing I notice spray on the cliffs is not detailed ,,attempting that if the under paint is wet is a no no.
I love his use of greys ..I think he used a brush in parts ,,,, look carefully in the clouds could have been a round top stick,, the edge of a knife of leaves a clean scrape of the canvas . maybe a spatula ?
I think a wood board is better for a knife than canvas ,and thats why a lot of past painters used them ,,
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
I put a reply on the original post - agree it was a good idea to start a new thread, but do I want to copy and paste my comment here ..... probably not.
I see Sylvia has provided some background information on Sir Kyffin Williams, too.
It's the heavy bodied acrylic you need - Liquitex is another brand I've not yet tried, could be good: don't know. But System 3 is not made for knife work, although I think I've seen some examples of it being used with a painting knife - wasn't too convinced, as I remember. I would recommend Cryla, with our without Texture Paste - which would certainly give you more definition and physical shape, and there IS a shrinkage issue, so probably building it up in layers would be the answer, which you could do with the knife, or use brushes for the early layers and knife on top - or come to that, the other way round. That's the flexibility of acrylic.
Posted
after having a go with acrylics yesterday I found the cheaper ones ( wilco ,s ) did not colour up the darker quality ones .like yellow ochre had very little effect making a green , the blacks seemed to be a mixture of blue and a very dark green ,and if you tried to make a green, you ended up with a dirty dark green tone, so I will stick to system three ,
this is an acrylic I popped on for beginners .
it was done as simple as possible ,for learners to the knife in acrylic
this is an acrylic I popped on for beginners .
it was done as simple as possible ,for learners to the knife in acrylic
Edited
by alanowen
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