Paintin' That Bish All Up

I totally forgot to post yesterday - I want to try and at least post a little bit even if my brain is otherwise occupied. It's been a rough week, I haven't had much to say that wasn't heinously negative and no one wants to hear me bitch about my mundane life bullshit. Well, I don't want to hear me do it, anyhow.
But I did get a glass of water poured into my keyboard and underneath my laptop.
So, you know. The thrills never end!

One of the big reasons I haven't posted was I was too busy painting yesterday! I work mostly mixed media and acrylics, and I can rock a tube of acrylic like nobody's biz, even the cheap shit from Michael's (oh, Michaels, you are the bane and yet utter love of my entire existence). I know a lot of people hesitate and go over to those nasty smelly oils because of the difficulty and tempestuousness of working in acrylic, but I guess I just started there and grew there and that's where I'm at. Plus, oils reek and take forever to cure and are all mushy and like nasty frosting from the depths of hell.
That said, I have an old friend who I introduced to acrylics one drunken painterly night, and he's kicked some major ass in that arena. His oils are bitchin like woah: (http://treesfromthewoods.blogspot.com/2011/02/warning-artists-are-bad-for-environment.html). I'm a little envious, but more covetous!

Anyhow, how I like to primarily rock those bitchy acrylics is to do acrylic washes, which are time consuming but worth it for workability and coverage. What you do is you get a stack of those little to-go condiment cups - mine are about a 1.5 oz size - WITH lids. My grandma introduced me to using those instead of aluminum packets or palettes with acrylics. So not worth the hassle, plus, the cups are recyclable. Bonus!
You put your measured/eyeballed amount of paint in the cup, and then add a thinning medium. I prefer Mod Podge because I am a dirty, dirty whore for decoupage and assemblage and it's the best shit for either just about. You can also use Elmer's glue, carpenter's glue (this can backfire and fuck your brushes up but good, make sure you have GOOD brush cleaner or turpentine on hand), or any other paste medium. I also like to add some water to get things nice and thinned. I dig the opacity of acrylics, but I do like to mimic a watercolor wash or a creamy oily blend (but without the aforementioned heinous intrinsic Oil-ness) and BOTH can be achieved with the right ratio of floaty adhesive medium to water to paint. You do have to get a feel for it, play around on a big piece of cardboard and do lots of tests.

One of the most fun ways to get going with acrylic washes is to make an Eric Carle inspired collage piece. You just use plain rice paper or, if you're patient and brave, plain tissue paper. You can freeform your image, or do a little sketch on your mounting medium. With lightweight papers, all you really need is watercolor paper to bear the light load. Once you've prepped your paint washes and your work area, you take a sheet of rice/tissue paper and paint your wash on. Don't overload it, treat the paper like you're doing watercolors on it.  You can make it as thin or thick as you like, and once the first coat dries, you can always go back over in contrasting colors, or complimentary if you like to be all matchy-matchy.
After all of your gorgeous acrylic washed tissue sheets are dried, you apply them to your board, either over your (very, very light) sketch. Or mix media it. Play around! I like to use this method and apply it over newsprint to obscure the words and just get the graphic effect of the type.

Here's my background wash I finished today for an aquatic art nouveau-ish piece I've been rolling around in my head:

yeah, I suck at taking pictures... 

I will also blame my proper lighting and the gloss of the paint as it was drying. 

So there.

Anyways, shitty lighting aside, I sharpened the crap out of this in Picassa so you can see some of the layers. I think this is my sixth or seventh. The first two, I did aqua green and blue washes, all over, no definition. Then a pale blue wash with a wavy brush texture (oh! Acrylics and mod podge = subtle texture love), then a pea green layer just on chunky highlight areas, then a blue vertical wash for tint and coverage, then green again with a rag removal technique to make it even MORE translucent, then the final coat is a vertical aqua streaking done with a sponge brush dragged down it and a rag removal in some areas.
Over the top of all of these washes is going to be a solid acrylic border and a mixed media center (like a center of creamy gross rotting corpse under the ocean goodness). This is my outer sketch, and it goes without saying don't rip my shit off or I'll fucking cut you. If you get inspired and riff off of me, that is so cool, but credit me with said Art-'spo or I will, again, cut you.
That said, I was inspired by Erica Moen, this propaganda poster from the Netherlands, and this propaganda poster from my beloved homeland of the Republic of Cascadia.

I'm not super tidy with my ref sketches. I know what I meant, ok.
Also, I like jellyfishes. Ignore the giant scallop center, it was nice but got tossed out.

So I'd better get back to it, my two canvases (the second is another post for another time, also pretty crap with dead shit, I AM my mother's daughter *snifflesniffle*) are finally dry. Those washes, they take longer than plain acrylics to dry, just so you know. And depending on which type of adhesive you use, the sheen dries differently. I am using semigloss acrylics with a gloss Mod Podge, with has a nice, soft sheen that looks good when you mix a bit of neutral metallic into your washes, too. It's fun to play with. Don't fear acrylics! Make them your bitch!