April 4, 2016

In January I attended a demo of Golden products where I was inspired to pick up a few new items to try out. This isn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be, but I learned some things along the way. Here’s my process:

1. Black gesso on the edges of a 6″ X 6″ canvas
2. Golden fibre paste applied with a stencil to create a raised design
3. Slight sanding of the fibre paste to soften the edges a bit – this wasn’t all that effective due to the spring of the canvas though
4. Soaked the surface fairly thoroughly by spraying it with water
5. Applied drops of Golden high flow acrylics: indigo, dioxazine purple, green gold, iridescent pearl
6. Applied spray inks
7. Sprayed water here and there, removed water here and there, all rather haphazardly
8. Repeated steps 5-7 again
9. Three thick coats of Golden clear tar gel. A slight misting of rubbing alcohol helped to eliminate the bubbles on the surface.
10. Hand-lettered text added with a Golden marker and high flow acrylic in Indigo

Notes:

1. As much as I tried, I was unable to get the hi-flow acrylic to bleed like watercolour. I will play with this more and see if I can accomplish it yet.
2. I really should have taken another photo after I finished adding colour and before the clear tar gel (next time I will)
3. I’m a little concerned that the very thick layer of clear tar gel may crack as I chose a canvas support for this one. I will try it on masonite next to see what happens there.
4. I had wanted to build the tar gel up until it created a smooth surface, but at three coats it seemed to becoming the slightest bit cloudy so I stopped there, even though it still has uneven areas.
5. I like the depth that is created between the background and the paint applied to the surface of the tar gel. It might be interesting to build up an image between layers of tar gel to see what that would do.
6. Next time I clean the marker, I have to remember to remove the ball-bearings from the marker BEFORE dumping any unused paint down the drain. Sadly, I did NOT do this and my ball-bearings are now somewhere in the drain system rather than in the marker itself.

The text I chose was inspired by:

• Austin Kleon
• the last four kilometres of my long run yesterday in preparation for next month’s half-marathon
• the general malaise and lack of inspiration I’ve been experiencing in my artwork lately.

I’m still working on my second experimental stencil piece and we’ll see how that one turns out.