Dabbling in acrylics
Seeing as though watercolour and ink seem to have become my default media, I've recently been experimenting with acrylics, with a view to trying oils, pastels and more in due course. I've been put off trying acrylics in the past because of all I've heard from the "old school" neophobes - they dry too quickly, the colours aren't subtle enough, they're a poor man's oils, serious artists use oils...
First off I spent a happy afternoon mixing, splodging, testing grounds, brushes and multitudinous ways of mark-making using anything from bent bits of card to bottle caps. I fashioned a couple of "stay wet" palettes from chinese takeaway boxes by putting a damp sheet of kitchen roll topped with a piece of silicone baking paper, thereby keeping blobs of paint wet for a couple of weeks or more, so long as I remembered to click the lids shut!
A little commission from my husband's colleague for a couple of small dinosaur canvasses for her toddler son's room was a perfect excuse to try painting on wonderfully resilient canvas. Seeing as the result was none too shabby, I'm currently working on a generic beach scene on a larger canvas, using the paint as watercolour for the sky and sea and undiluted for the foreground.
So far so good - every day more paint on the canvas and less on me! Viva acrylics!
