Blue Morpho

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 12 x 12 inch canvas 

Today's painting started with leftover paint on a small canvas. With the addition of Inktense block shavings, glass bead gel, some spritzes of water and more paint it turned into a Blue Morpho butterfly. I painted the butterfly on a Golden acrylic grounds for pastels skin then used gloss gel to glue it on the painting.

Another bouquet

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas 

Here's another bouquet for my online friends. This one started with high flow acrylics on a canvas prepped with Golden acrylic grounds for pastels. It's fun to wet the canvas, drip the paint and watch it spread. Once again I used a black pastel to sketch the bouquet followed by glazing medium to fix the pastel lines. I painted the flowers with fluid acrylics, toned down the background with a Titan Buff glaze and added some dry brushed highlights.

Charlotte in the window

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 x 12 inch canvas 

I finished Charlotte's portrait. I just need to give it a day or two before I give it a clear acrylic isolation coat.

To summarize the process, this painting started with random splashes of color on a canvas prepped with Golden acrylic grounds for pastels. In parallel I drew Charlotte on a skin of acrylic grounds for pastels using Cretacolor Aquamonolith watercolor pencils. Since the acrylic grounds are translucent, I was able to place the skin over a photo of Charlotte and trace to get a more accurate drawing.

 I glazed the canvas with Golden Titan Buff then added gauzy fabric for the curtains.

Before gluing Charlotte to the canvas I used molding paste to create the surface where she would lie (impressed with a paper towel to give it texture). I also painted her silhouette in Titan Buff. Since the acrylic grounds are translucent I needed an opaque background for the collage element.

After gluing Charlotte to the canvas with gloss gel, I embellished her and the background with more paint and glazes.

Work in progress, day 2

Mixed media on acrylic grounds for pastels 

I did a little more work on Charlotte's portrait. Tonight I drew Charlotte on the acrylic skin with Cretacolor Aquamonolith watercolor pencils. I alternated between drawing with pencils then brushing on acrylic glazing liquid. The acrlic ground for pastels has enough tooth that I was able to layer more pencil strokes after each layer of glaze. The glaze liquifies the watercolor pencils and acts as a fixative. I may follow up with some acrylic highlights and shadows, but so far I am pleased with the results.

Below is the canvas after I glazed it to mute the colors then used matte gel to add some gauzy fabric  to simulate sheer curtains. After it dries it will need more glazes before I add Charlotte to the scene. I'm going for the impression of a window overlooking a flower garden.

Work in progress 

Starting new paintings

I went shopping today, took advantage of a couple coupons and bought some canvases. I've been away from the paints for a while and decided I needed to get my creative juices flowing again. So tonight I started a couple new paintings while I'm watching the Super Bowl.

My sister and niece want paintings of Charlotte, my sister's doggie companion. For the first painting my plan is to paint her on an acrylic skin then collage it on a mixed media background, a technique I saw in Amy Shawley's blog. Below is a photo of the first layer of the background. It's pretty colorful now but the plan is to tone it down with future layers. This layer was done by dropping Golden high flow acrylics on a canvas prepped with Golden acrylic grounds for pastels.

I decided to use up some deli sheets I had painted with leftover paint as the first layer of the next painting. I have no idea where this one is going, but I like the colors.

Here's another canvas waiting for me. I prepped this with diluted orange and magenta fluid acrylics before I left for vacation. The plan is to paint a landscape, probably a waterfall, when the spirit moves me. I used a similar underpainting in my last painting and liked the result, so why not do it again.

Experimenting with different media

Painting by Vicky Christensen, mixed media on 16 X 12 inch hardboard panel 

I bought some Golden acrylic grounds for pastels a couple weeks ago and decided to experiment. I did a Google search for inspiration and found Amy Shawley's blog. I love her art! Amongst her many blog posts I found one in which she used acrylic grounds for pastels as both a drawing surface and to take advantage of its absorbency. With that as an inspiration I applied a layer of the grounds to an old painting, let it dry, then started to experiment. The grounds are translucent so the original painting served as a base for subsequent layers.

I experimented with wetting the surface then adding drops of high flow acrylics. After letting it dry I used some Cretacolor Aquamonolith watercolor pencils to draw on the surface. I wanted to experiment with applying a pastel fixative  (in this case SpectraFix) to see if I could seal the watercolor before coating with another layer of acrylic medium. I had mixed success. As expected, the fixative caused a shift in pigment intensity. After letting the fixative dry I painted over the watercolors with glazing medium with mixed results. The watercolor pigments were stable in some spots but smeared in one area. Note to self, more coats of fixative, more drying time.

I wanted to tone down the color in some areas so I followed up with a glaze of Titan Buff. This was my first time using Golden glazing medium and I was really impressed with how smooth my glazes went on in comparison to a competitor's product. To be fair, the texture of the pastel ground may have played a part.

Amy Shawley also uses the Golden pastel grounds as an acrylic skin. After you let the skin dry you can draw and paint on the surface and use the finished skin as a collage element. Check her blog!