Encaustic, acrylic, cold wax and oil paintings
The addition of texture to an acrylic painting can add a lot of visual interest. I will typically start all of my paintings with acrylics and them sometimes switch to oil paint. There are many wonderful acrylic mediums that are made commercially: pumice, crystalline, hard … Continue readingAcrylic Painting: More Texture
I am always on the lookout for new art supply resources. Since most of my art supplies are ordered online and shipped, it is important to find stores that carry large inventories and have experience with volume shipping. Since I have been doing this for … Continue readingArt Supply Resources
The cold wax painting process creates a rich (often textured) matte surface on canvas or a wood panel. I usually begin a painting using acrylics, whether I paint over it with cold wax or oil paint with any medium. Acrylics dry super fast on a … Continue readingCold Wax Painting
Oil paint bars are surprisingly easy to make yourself. While there are some excellent commercial products (R&F, Shiva), they are relatively expensive. Also, when you make them yourself, it’s possible to mix them in any color combination, control the amount of pigment, and also the … Continue readingOil Paint Bar Recipe
I have been using quite a bit of cold wax medium in my recent paintings and have combined and greatly simplified recipes I’ve found online from other artists. I love the rich textural quality of this medium and also the fact that it speeds up … Continue readingCold Wax Medium Recipe
There are several ways to get a crackle effect with acrylic paint. This is an easy one using just glue and paint. I’ve never tried this one before and the effect is interesting. This is actually a very old way to make crackle glazes for … Continue readingAcrylic Paint Crackle Effect
There is a large variety of acrylic paint mediums available. Besides improving paint flow many of these were created to add texture to a painting. I add matte medium to all of my paints on the palette to improve paint flow and increase coverage. Gloss … Continue readingAcrylic Paint: DIY Mediums
Adding texture to acrylic paintings is easily done as there are so many mediums available for artists today. The photo shows a simple exercise to test different types of acrylic mediums. I used Golden Acrylic products for this and all of them dry transparent. In … Continue readingAcrylic Painting: Texture
This acrylic painting exercise uses 3 primary colors: cyan blue, yellow, and magenta. I also add titanium white and matte medium to my palette. I first laid out the paint and premixed some colors. The first layer is just random dark marks, The second layer … Continue readingAcrylic Painting Exercise: Primary Colors
Want to eliminate the texture on a canvas before you paint? You can gesso/sand and gesso/sand or mix Floetrol Flood with gesso (consistency of cream) and paint it on the canvas. Floetrol is a commercial paint additive that conditions paint – eliminates brush strokes, so … Continue readingEliminate Canvas Texture