His Majesty, Ringo I, mixed media |
Blog 12
The
first two weeks of this month, I wrote about two different pastes. This week's blog
is about Pumice Gel,
a gel I love because of its texture. I played around with it on a
couple of experimental pieces before I used it for my painting “His
Majesty, Ringo I”.
Gels
use the same acrylic polymers as acrylic paint. Aside from Pumice
Gel, they are excellent adhesives for collage and mixed media pieces,
have excellent flexibility and show a resistance to chemicals, water
and ultraviolet radiation. Gels can be used to increase the
transparency, extend paint, and change the consistency of the acrylic
paint (e. g. Extra Heavy Gel) and change finishes (gloss, semi-gloss
or matte).
When
working with gels, mix your colour first before adding the gel as the
gel is white but dries clear. Unlike all the other gels that are
colourless, Pumice Gel is opaque. Basically, it is pumice (volcanic
lava) added to a gel medium.
Pumice
Gels are made with real pumice solids and thick gels. You can buy
three different varieties: fine, coarse and extra coarse. They all
dry to rough granular grey films that are hard, opaque, and
absorbent. They mix well with acrylic paint.
Fine
Pumice Gel is perfect to create finely textured surfaces which can be
used as a drawing ground for pastels, charcoal and graphite. Coarse
Pumice Gel and Extra Coarse Pumice Gel create more coarse textures
that look like concrete.
The New Planet, acrylic on coarse pumice gel |
To
increase flexibility, the Pumice Gel can be mixed with other gels and
mediums. If you apply paint on the coarse and extra coarse dried
pumice films, you get the appearance of dry brushing.
I
hope this month's look at different products has sparked your
curiosity. I encourage you to try something different, even if you
just play with different products. This is not only fun but will keep
you growing your skills. You might find out that you love some but do
not really see any use of others in your artworks. You could get an
introductory Gel Mediums and Molding Pastes to start in order to
avoid spending too much money.
Have
you already tried any gels or pastes in your artworks? Would you be
interested in attending a workshop to try them out? You can either
leave a comment or send me an email to kpeters@domingoinformatics.ca.
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