Pallet Management
As I covered in my Blog post of 5/17/12, it is important to me to have the same pools of color workable on my pallet so that I can reuse and modify the colors as I progress with the painting process. The Golden OPEN Acrylics are wonderful for this. I have used the same paint on my pallet for weeks and in some cases months, and the color pools are still workable! My oil painting friends are amazed at this when they see it!
However, to achieve this important capability requires some very specific working procedures. I will illustrate this process through photos of my pallets for the Statue of Liberty painting covered in my Blog post.
The following photo depicts the pallet that I have been using for the statue land and water objects.
However, to achieve this important capability requires some very specific working procedures. I will illustrate this process through photos of my pallets for the Statue of Liberty painting covered in my Blog post.
The following photo depicts the pallet that I have been using for the statue land and water objects.
Note the first important aspect, the pallet is a sheet of plexiglass, with a neutral backing. To keep the paints workable it is important to use a nonporous surface!!! The reason for this is that we do not want the surface to absorb ANY moisture from the paint.
The second important point is that I use NO water at any time in the painting process, except to clean the brushes. If I use water to clean a brush during the painting process, I make sure to wipe it in a paper towel before using it again with paint. During the painting process, if I want to dilute or thicken the paint, I use the various mediums that are part of the OPEN line. Or mixtures of OPEN and regular mediums for pallet knife painting, as described under the Pallet Knife Button or in posts on 4/1/12 and 4/2/12. Note all of the containers of medium on my painting table in the above photo.
The final cleaning of the brushes at the end of the painting session is a special process which I will describe later in this post.
The third point I want to make is that I may use multiple pallets for a single painting. In the case of the Statue of Liberty painting, I have a second pallet for the sky and water portions of the picture, which is depicted in the examples below. The reason for this is that the sky and sea are large areas with many shades and tints of color that I want to preserve and modify as I develop this part of the painting.
The forth important point is that between painting sessions the pallets must be stored in airtight containers. The following photo depicts my plexiglass pallet in my air tight container.
The second important point is that I use NO water at any time in the painting process, except to clean the brushes. If I use water to clean a brush during the painting process, I make sure to wipe it in a paper towel before using it again with paint. During the painting process, if I want to dilute or thicken the paint, I use the various mediums that are part of the OPEN line. Or mixtures of OPEN and regular mediums for pallet knife painting, as described under the Pallet Knife Button or in posts on 4/1/12 and 4/2/12. Note all of the containers of medium on my painting table in the above photo.
The final cleaning of the brushes at the end of the painting session is a special process which I will describe later in this post.
The third point I want to make is that I may use multiple pallets for a single painting. In the case of the Statue of Liberty painting, I have a second pallet for the sky and water portions of the picture, which is depicted in the examples below. The reason for this is that the sky and sea are large areas with many shades and tints of color that I want to preserve and modify as I develop this part of the painting.
The forth important point is that between painting sessions the pallets must be stored in airtight containers. The following photo depicts my plexiglass pallet in my air tight container.
Note a very important point! Before sealing the container, I always spray the pallet with OPEN Thinner. I fill the spray bottle shown at the right hand side of the photo with OPEN thinner, and use it to spray the pallet before sealing the lid. I may very occasionally spray the pallet during a long painting session to control the consistency of the paint on the pallet.
Again it is important not to use water for this purpose. Water breaks down the binder in the paint and exacerbates color shift as colors dry. To under stand the color shift issue, paint is composed of color pigment particles suspended in a medium. When water is added to the acrylic medium it turns white, which will lighten the color. However, when the paint dries and the water evaporates the medium will return to its transparent state and the color of the paint will be reduced in value. Before I realized this and was using water with my paints, I remember the case where I had placed a number of light highlights on the painting surface which looke great when the water wetted paint was applied, but DISSAPPEARED when the paint dried! Wow was I surprised.
The final topic I want to discuss is the process for cleaning the brushes as depicted in the following photo.
Again it is important not to use water for this purpose. Water breaks down the binder in the paint and exacerbates color shift as colors dry. To under stand the color shift issue, paint is composed of color pigment particles suspended in a medium. When water is added to the acrylic medium it turns white, which will lighten the color. However, when the paint dries and the water evaporates the medium will return to its transparent state and the color of the paint will be reduced in value. Before I realized this and was using water with my paints, I remember the case where I had placed a number of light highlights on the painting surface which looke great when the water wetted paint was applied, but DISSAPPEARED when the paint dried! Wow was I surprised.
The final topic I want to discuss is the process for cleaning the brushes as depicted in the following photo.
Once the pallet is carefully sealed away, I can use the lid to clean my brushes. Note, I number my pallet cases to keep things strait, as I work on numerous painting at once. The first step in brush cleaning is to dip the brush into a cup of water and then paint on a paper towel as depicted above. I will do this several times until it seems that most of the paint has been removed. I may also swish the brush around in the water before painting on the paper towel to hasten the process. Once the brush seems pretty clean, I will squeeze a puddle of the OPEN Thinner on the top of the pallet box, as depicted above. I then press the paint brush into the thinner puddle. As I do this, no matter how clean the brush seems after the water cleaning, you will see pigment streaming out from the brush from around the base of the brush hairs. I always find this amazing. I then will swish the brush in the water, dry in on the towel, and then brush it into the thinner puddle again. This process may be repeated several times until no pigment is visible when the brush is squeezed in the thinner puddle. At which point, I rinse the brush in a clean cup of water, form the brush hairs by stroking the brush on a clean portion of the paper towel, and then hang the brush with the hairs pointing down to dry.
This process seems to be extremely effective and prolongs the life of my brushes. This is important to me in that I use very high quality brushes, including sable, mongoose, and bristle.
This process seems to be extremely effective and prolongs the life of my brushes. This is important to me in that I use very high quality brushes, including sable, mongoose, and bristle.
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Copyright @ 2011, Joe Bergholm, All rights reserved.