Glazing and Texture with Golden OPEN Acrylics
Glazing and the adding of texture to the painted surface are important techniques for creating interesting paintings. Glazing is adding semitransparent layers of various colors. Depending on the colors and the transparency of the layers, beautiful smooth effects can be achieved, particularly an atmospheric depth can be added to the painted surface. On the other hand, texture can be added to the surface to bring that part of the surface to protrude forward. Taken together they are in a sense opposite, but make a powerful pair.
To illustrate how Golden OPEN Acrylic paints can be used to achieve both glazing and texture effects I will describe the steps I used to develop the following painting, titled "Together". The image below is a work in progress and will be replaced when the painting is completed.
To illustrate how Golden OPEN Acrylic paints can be used to achieve both glazing and texture effects I will describe the steps I used to develop the following painting, titled "Together". The image below is a work in progress and will be replaced when the painting is completed.
The objective of this painting is to convey the peaceful feeling of the the atmospheric mist over the water punctuated by the crashing waves. It is therefore a natural to illustrate the use of glazing to achieve the atmospheric depth over the water, and the use of texture to highlight the lively crashing waves.
Initial Composition Planning
The following image is the cropped reference picture with a grid superimposed on it to aid the drawing of the image on the canvas surface. In doing the drawing I decided to move the two people back to the two third line so that the focal point will lie on two thirds line and encompass the two people and the left edge of the large crashing wave.
The transferred drawing can be seen on the canvas below. In addition, a thin layer of the key colors have been applied over the drawn image.
Initial Glazing Layers
The following image is the result of about six layers of glazing. The starting pont was the images above, where the sky area has three bands of color, a neutral blue at the top, a warm yellow in the middle ban, and a warm red at the bottom. First, the yellow was extended toward the top by glazing it over the initial blue. The warm red was also extended by glazing it into the yellow band, yielding a warm red orange. Next a cool red was glazed over the warm red just above the horizon.
Following this a blue glaze was placed over the whole sky area. Notice that when the blue is glazed over the cool red near the horizon, we begin to get the purple color just above the horizon. Several layers of blue and some additional layers of yellow and red brought the painting to the sate pictured below.
Following this a blue glaze was placed over the whole sky area. Notice that when the blue is glazed over the cool red near the horizon, we begin to get the purple color just above the horizon. Several layers of blue and some additional layers of yellow and red brought the painting to the sate pictured below.
The paint for each glaze layer is a mixture of the golden open paint of the desired hue mixed with a pool of OPEN Gloss Medium. The ration of the amount of paint to medium determines the transparency of the glaze layer. I tended to use highly transparent layers so that I could slowly build up the color to the desired hue. If you build up slowly with transparent layers you can slowly approach the effect you want. This is the safe way to do it. If you build up with fewer less transparent layers and over shoot your target it is difficult to get back to your target. To get back you need to paint the area with an opaque light color, often white, and build up the glazes again.
When applying a glaze over a previous layer, the previous layer must be dry. The problem was that the glazing paint made up of a mixture of Golden OPEN paint and OPEN Gloss Medium his quite slows drying. I had to wait three days between layers! To remedy this, I mixed up a new medium composed of half OPEN Gloss Medium and half the regular fast drying Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid, pictured in the photo below. The resulting medium enabled a layer to dry in one day, while still remaining workable within the painting session. the best of both worlds.
After making this change, the painting moved along much faster.
When applying a glaze over a previous layer, the previous layer must be dry. The problem was that the glazing paint made up of a mixture of Golden OPEN paint and OPEN Gloss Medium his quite slows drying. I had to wait three days between layers! To remedy this, I mixed up a new medium composed of half OPEN Gloss Medium and half the regular fast drying Golden Acrylic Glazing Liquid, pictured in the photo below. The resulting medium enabled a layer to dry in one day, while still remaining workable within the painting session. the best of both worlds.
After making this change, the painting moved along much faster.
Similarly, glazing was applied to the water area of the painting, the thin water on the beach and the beach itself, as depicted below.
Initial Application of Texture
This section is in preparation. Please check back for updates!
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern. There are two types of foam on the wave surface, as depicted in the close up of the next phase of the painting below. There is a flat pattern on the smooth surface of the wave. This was achieved with a thin application of paint. Then there is the crashing foam on the crest of the wave as it breaks and rolls toward the shore. To depict this I wanted to achieve a textured application of paint as can be seen below.
To chief the testured effect I used a combination of gel mediums mixed with the paint. Specifically, I used a combination of the two products pictured below: the fast drying regular acrylic gel (semi glass) and the slow drying OPEN acrylic gel (gloss). Mixing these two products allows you to control both the drying time and the consistency of the mixture.
The open gel medium is softer whereas the regular gel medium has more body and can form sharp peaks, as depicted in the image below. When the OPEN paint is mixed with the gel medium highly textured surfaces can be created.
I used a mixture of the two mediums that had sufficient texture and a relaxed drying time. the results are shown in the following two photos.
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern.
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern.
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern.
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern.
As you can see in the above image, no coloration has been applied to the foam and splash of the wave pattern.
Application of a Sufamoto Glaze
