Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Acrylic Glazes

Part One

Using acrylic glazes gives depth to your work.  Each translucent layer of paint shines through the next.  I used acrylic glazes in the bird journal spread that I completed last week.  I began with a glaze of yellow, followed by 2 greens.  I used both darker and lighter green glazes to apply the leaf stencil.  That is how I achieved such depth in the background.

I have been using two different glazing mediums.  I've had both of them for years, so I'm not sure of the availability of either product in today's market.  The first is Windsor & Newton Acrylic Gloss Medium.  I'm relatively sure you can still buy that even though the packaging may have changed.  The second is a product made by Plaid, Neutral Wall Glaze (For Decorative and Faux Finish Effects)  I bought it at Michaels craft store probably ten years ago.  I used  that to transform our white kitchen cabinets to wood grain.  (That's another blog post!)  Once again, this product may still be available, but I can't say for sure.  It has a nice consistency and is a bit more liquid than the gloss medium. With either product, a little goes a long, long way!

Today, I began with a rich yellow artist acrylic and mixed it 50/50 with the wall glaze.  I left some areas of the page white. 

While the yellow was still wet, I mixed a 50/50 solution of the wall glaze with orange artist acrylic.  I applied this glaze in heavy, impasto style with a brush over some of the yellow and some of the white paper.

I took a wad of used, dried paper towel and daubed, sponged and lifted some of the orange glaze.  I took my brush and sprinkled drops of water over the glaze and let water sit for a few minutes.  Then I blotted off the water with the same paper towel.

Using the same 50/50 mix, I made a glaze from Brilliant Red artist acrylic and applied it to the page in the same way as the orange.

Here, you can see the nice effects created by lifting the paint and spraying or dropping water into the glaze.  It makes the background very textural and detailed with barely any effort.

I used a Pilot VBall XFine pen to add a design on the left side of the spread.  I reused my leaf stencil from the bird pages and some of the orange glaze randomly applied leaves across both pages.  Then, I added some curvy lines across both pages and filled them in with orange glaze.

I'm not sure where these pages are headed - I really don't have anything in mind for them.  We'll have to see which of my creative muses takes over and where she heads.  Come back next week for Part 2. Right now, I'm feeling a party!

Try working with some acrylic glazes in your journal.  Your pages will be rich in color and full of depth.  Wherever your muse directs you, remember: "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"