January 14, 30 Paintings in 30 Days Hosted by Leslie Saeta.
Day 14: 6 hours, Monthly Total: 42
Yesterday, I went to a wonderful workshop
given by a Golden Representative.
It was an opportunity to explore some of the Golden mediums, pastes and paints. Sandy, was full of information and ideas.
Our first experience was to experiment with molding pastes.
Sandy presented us with boards that had regular molding paste (smooth) on one side and coarse molding past on the other. We painted them with Fluid paints. The Fluids are good because you can see the textures below. We wet down the boards with water before we applied the paints.
The coarse is on the right with the smooth being of the left.
I've used the smooth before to paint with alcohol inks. I have to say I didn't notice a big difference when I painted on canvas - but there was some. It becomes more important if you want the paints to rest on the surface and react to each other instead on soaking in. Both pastes will accept watercolors and the coarse is good for pencils and pastels. I really enjoyed the Fluid colors. You don't need much pigment as these are very strong. They're a bit pricey too. You can make them last longer by adding Golden's Regular Gel to them; 70% gel to 30% paint.
Then we wet the smooth side down and added a layer of Golden's Open Paints to it. Using the eraser side of a pencil we scratched away the paint while it was wet to reveal the bottom colors.
Course Molding paste peaked with a palette knife.
You can also use a plastic bag to get the peaks. Lightly dry brush paint over the peaks. This piece has a bit of everything - metallic paint, interference paint and fluids.
Coarse Pumice Gel
This was my favorite.
It reminds me of a painting I grew up with that my mother used to call the mustard painting (due to the colors used). I have always loved this texture. The paint is the Fluids with a lot of water. The pigment goes in the groves and mixes the the joining colors while exposing he peaks.
Interference, Metallic and Fluids on black paper.
Don't forget you can also mix the interference and metallic with other colors for different effects.
Tybek Paper
Usually used as house wrap. It won't let water through but it will let vapors out. What a wonderful surface to paint on. Such a strong paper, yet the light will shine through it and you can see the threads going through it. It made for a wonderful background.
We painted with Open paints which are more like oils. It has a longer dry time but not quite as long as oils. It has a nice thick quality to it. Don't use water as a thinner, use a polymer medium .
I had bought a Golden sampler a few years back and I didn't really understand what everything was for so I brought it to ask.
I finally learned what the Silverpoint Drawing Ground was for. How was it that I missed this in all my years? Just spread this out on a board, let dry and then go ahead and scratch the surface with anything metal. I used a paperclip. Some of my favorite drawing were drawn by the Masters using this method and I never knew it. What fun!
I was interested in
Self Leveling gels which will be wonderful over some of the collage work I'm hoping to do in the future.
Our last project was to paint a portrait using
Williamsburg Oil paints and a palette knife. I love palette knives but I was a bit out of my comfort zone. Instead of linseed oil we used Galkyd Lite to decrease the dry time. It was very nice but I missed the smell and creaminess of Linseed.
All in all, a great way to spend a Saturday.
