Ready for Paint

With a fairly detailed drawing completed, I'm ready to prepare the paper for paint - remember, I'm using acrylics.

I found out some time ago - quite by accident - that applying an acrylic sealer to the paper opens up a world of possibilities and allows me to create some interesting textures using techniques such as scumbling and glazing.  Scumbling over a sealed surface with thinned acrylics results in an appearance much like the granulation seen with some watercolor paints, but it does take a little practice to control the degree to which the paint breaks up into clumps.  Using a combination of water and flow medium or binder to thin the paint affects the result too, as does the ratio of each within the mix.  A sealed surface also allows me to push the paint around or more easily wipe it from the surface.

One aspect of acrylic paint that's often mentioned as a handicap is that it dries quickly.  As my technique involves overlaying a series of thin glazes to build up the depth of colour and texture I want, I have the opposite problem and use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process between glazes.

Barring accidents, my next post will contain some photographs of painting in progress.

Best wishes

Pete