Media (paints)

As an artist I'm a huge fan of using paints,as with all my work i like to combine the use of all the different kinds of paint in my work as they all provide fantastic properties,all though this year most of my work has been based on using acrylic paints as i have done alot of research on pop art in which acrylics were and still are used in pop art .


Acrylics paints have been around for almost two decades,they are made by combining coloured pigments with a synthetic resin.The thing i like most about acrylic paints are that due to being water soluble they dry very quickly which in some senses can work to your advances as you can quickly work over them time and time again and can apply in thin washes or thick,unlike oil paints.


For those artists who previously tended to combine water colour with gouache,acrylics provide an alternative method with sometimes better results from my own point of view.As they can be used on any surface they are perfect for the likes of myself whom like to experiment on different surfaces and textures rather than a plain canvas.


Watercolour are also a past time favourite of mine due to there transparent glazes of colour which appear to be luminous when applied to a white background in which are important characteristics of watercolour.The tones of colour completely depend on the amount of water added to dilute the raw pigment.The powdered pigments are bound in gum arabic, which is soluble in water.Pigments can be divided into two groups mineral organic,


Mineral:Earth colours

-Yellow ochre

-Terre verte

-natural ultra marine

-Artificial: Cobalt blue,viridian,cadmium.

Organic:

-Animal:Indian Yellow,sepia,carmine.

-Vegetable:The madders,indigo,sap green

-Artificial:Prussian blue.


Washes and colour mixing



When i was in secondary school i was advised that the best way to handle working with watercolour is to start with nature.Blue skies for example made up of gradated washes which bear little relationship to the rest of the rest of the painting,think of it as your foreground.Colour masses which simply merge into each other are difficult to control so you need to have a certain amount of control over the paintbrush and the amount of water you use.At first i found it extremely difficult to control the colours merging but that comes in handy sometimes especially when your painting from a distance in which you can create a somewhat undetailed but fairly accurate account of what your looking at with the use of colour.


Gouache


Gouache paints are opaque and tend to dry lighter than when first applied.They have been in use for a much longer period than watercolour,yet recently have been replaced to some extent by acrylic paints which can achieve a similar effect with the controlled use of diluting them with water.Gouache colour can be used thickly or can be watered down dependant on what effect you want to achieve,it can be used on white paper,coloured paper,cardboard and manila wrapping paper.The opacity of gouache ,and the fact that light colours can be layed upon dark divides the similarity between the characteristics of watercolours. Therefore there is no point in using it as a substitute for watercolour as it should be exploited for its own inherent qualities.I find that dry brushes (brush starved of colour) works well with gouache as you can add texture to a painting without having to use other materials mixed with the paint.


Oil Paint


I have never really enjoyed working with oil paints due to being very impatient when i start a piece of work i cannot wait to see the out come and find that from previous use i continue to work on top of it and never seem to finish the piece as it takes so long to dry, i feel i end up ruining the painting as i continue to constantly build up colour and end up with a huge smudge.As it has been a medium most widely used by artists for hundreds of years,i appreciate the beautiful paintings we are so lucky to be able to see up close in our galleries.The mixing and manipulation of oil paint can create beautiful brushstrokes ,texture and glaze.It can be used to give expression to very different levels of feeling.(Van Gogh-turner seascape/William Turner-Snowstorm).




Oil paint is made by mixing powdered pigments with certain types of drying vegetable oils-linseed or poppy oil.There fore this is the reason for the slow drying process which comes as an advantage to artists when doing a still life or portrait .Also even when dry the colours retain their tonality and do not become lighter.


The use of oil to bind pigment was supposedly developed in the low countries in the fifteenth century.In Venice ,it is said that oil paint was used to combat the effect on wall paintings of the high humidity and general dampness from the canals .