Monday, September 26, 2011

Experimenting with fixative layers, Part 2

5x10 inches


This post is a continuation from yesterday. -Click here- for part 1.

So I stopped spraying after the three layers from yesterday night. I think I reached the limit of what would be paintable. Even though the fixative is supposed to be workable with watercolors, I could see that it was slowly clogging up the paper's porousness. In some areas like the upper left, especially, it starts to get really grainy. Which isn't a bad thing -- it added a new dimension of texture. But I can see that if I kept going, the pigment would just start to roll off. Maybe a lighter hand with spraying in the future, would allow for more layers.

Also, that weird blotchiness that I mentioned this particular sheet of paper had? That never quite went away, but those areas started repelling pigment even more so than others. I was left with a lot of mottled whitish areas that were just refusing to take any color.


I pulled out a white gel pen, and started doing something with those splotches. Some of those splotches I had done on purpose; it was the ones from the paper's weirdness that I had to work at more to integrate. I added a dusting of white highlights in those areas, as well as adding highlights to the figure herself.

A lot of this is something I would usually have done via lifting instead. But because of the fixative, it kind of turns this whole process into something like a melding of watercolor and acrylic techniques. It's watercolor while a current layer is wet, but then it becomes permanent like acrylic once it's dried and I spray it.







Softening the hard edges of the gel-pen white. Adding more hints of blues and oranges to the shading.

Happy with the result, and definitely something I will try again in the future. I was pushing the extreme with this one, spraying so often and across the whole piece, but it was to see how far I could take it. Probably would use it more selectively, and with a lighter hand on the spray nozzle!

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this very interesting technique experiment with us. I imagine you could better control the later fixative effects if you masked off the area you weren't working on, but I wonder how it would interact with your mask. I guess that at the very least, you could put some cardstock over parts of your work while you spray it.

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  2. The painting is simply stunning! Excellent work, and it was interesting to read about your experience with fixative layers too.

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  3. Hi Stephanie, your works are wonderful *o*
    I added you in my sites list on my blog!
    http://behind-the-curtain-emanuela.blogspot.com/

    ❤ have a nice day!
    Emanuela.

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  4. I must say I love grainy texture that came with fixative. Great work.

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  5. Love it! You have done texture well and compensated nicely for those splotches, making them a highlight of the piece. Nice!

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  6. Stephanie,

    Thanks for the very informative walkthrough! The fixative certainly does add a new, grainy texture, and could be quite interesting when planned for! The depth of color resulting from fixative use is just beautiful.

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  7. I've not heard of it before, but it looks interesting! I'll have to give it a try.

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  8. Oh, she is so beautiful and serene! (I love your work... and you do such wonderful things with glowing light!)

    Thanks again for sharing your experiences with this experiment.

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  9. This piece is just gorgeous! I think you may have inspired me to paint a painting with galaxies and nebulae now! :)

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  10. I was just going through the old posts and had missed this one before. I love it.... You are just amazing. I had a watercolor painting that I was giving to a little girl and was thinking that maybe I should spray it with fixative just in case but was scared to thinking it might spoil my paint. Not only did you show me otherwise but also you showed a very unique and interesting way to paint. Thank you so much.

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  11. You're welcome Robin! I've actually really come to like working this way.

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  12. Thanks for posting your experiment. I just had the same idea with using the fixative between layers, and decided to do a quick google to see if anyone had already given it a whirl. I'm headed out to grab some fixative... thanks again. Beautiful work!

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