Acrylic grounds & tar gel

I painted the back of a pressed board with a number of different undercoats, one for each ruler width.

1, 2: burnt umber *
3: mix of titanium liquid and extra heavy matte gel
4: zinc white
5: stainless steel
6: mars black**
7: light molding paste
8: mix of titanium liquid and extra heavy matte gel
8.5, 9: burnt sienna *
10: clear gloss gel over the green board

** not from Golden
* mixed from the liquid paints — and i must have mixed in a gel. I was aiming for burnt sienna to begin with, but too much green came out in one “drop” — the phthalo green seems much thicker than the other liquid paints. The hansa yellow medium seems absolutely impotent.

I painted over these stripes with the tar gel mixed with magenta (i may have tried mixing it to napthamide maroon). It’s too runny to mix on a palette, so i mixed in a bowl destined to become a cat grass planter. Drooling the paint seemed unrewarding (perhaps because i had not mixed up enough to get a feel for the process), but it did leave solid ridges on the board. It was slighly translucent in puddle form. When painted as a gel glaze it was very translucent. It doesn’t seem to hold brushstrokes the way liquid paint mixed with the glazeing fluid does.

I also mixed up some liquid paints with the glazing liquid: cobalt/cerulean blue (the zinc white, in a heavier body, seems pretty darn opaque), napthamide maroon, and nickle azo yellow (again with the impotent yellow and too much green problem), and then simple mixture of phthalo green and quinacridone magenta with the glazing liquid.

The yellows and the cerulean blue stand out as they cross the dark bands. The purples and greens pop out against the whites. The glazes over the light molding paste are quite pleasant — it’s much more absorbent and the brush strokes disappear.

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