Friday 20 August 2010

Jordan - a sticky wicket!

Jordan. Acrylic on 240g textured canvass paper
(7x10 inches)

This is Jordan, who has been a friend of mine on MySpace and Facebook a number of years now. Like many young girls of her age, she often posts photos of herself but this is the first one I ever saw of her without braces on her teeth. I guess they've gone now and she can really smile with the best of us.


Jordan kindly agreed to let me do this painting and post it. I thought I would try acrylic this time, but I really got myself on to a sticky wicket with this one. Regular readers will know that I have only done one painting so far in acrylics, so I am really on unfamiliar territory with the medium. While acrylics give you more time than watercolour, they are quick drying and boy do they stick to the palette too! Before I could get down to more detail, the whole thing (and the paints) started to dry out on me, everything including the brushes got really sticky, so I eventually gave up on it, hastily adding a bit of background colour.


While this is a little rough for my liking, Jordan seemed very impressed with it. To be honest, I really need some tutoring with this medium or a lot, lot more practice. Anyway, here it is 'warts 'n all', ready for all to pull apart!

9 comments:

  1. Oh!....I get to be the first to comment!
    Can I say, that you've got some great brush work happening - especially in the background.
    I think this canvas weave paper is good .... how did you find it ?
    The sticky problem is so frustrating, and water alone doesn't seem to fix it much. I found investing in some flow medium a big help and in the summer here I also use a retarder sometimes which slows the drying.
    The colours in your painting are great Frank - they reflect Jordan's happy nature.

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  2. I had thought of suggesting ..... Alice has already done that. Never mind its a lovely work.

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  3. @Alice - thanks for the tip, I will look into retarder. Don't know if you have WHSmith outlets where you are Alice, but this is their own branded paper, which is half the price of Windsor & Newton. It's really thick and has a canvass texture and feel to it.

    @AK - thanks for commenting, it seems you and Alice have the same advice.

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  4. Very charming portrait Frank! I love the colors. She looks like a fun, free spirited girl :)

    And her jeans look awesome, great job on those too.

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  5. Thanks Crystal, funnily enough, the jeans were the fastest part to do in this painting - couple of minutes tops.

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  6. Have you tried the slow drying medium? It's a clear gel that doesn't dilute the colours but does slow down the drying time. A good tip though is to use KY Jelly! It does exactly the same thing for a fraction of the price! That's a tip I learned from the incredibly talented Artist, John Myatt and it does help! Just squirt a dollop of it in your paint and mix it in before you paint. You can also keep a waterspray next to you and spray the area you want to keep movable, though it still doesn't allow much more time. Flow medium is great too.

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  7. Thanks for the tips Sandra, maybe with a little help from my friends, I'll be master of this medium yet!

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  8. I'm glad I read this! This is the same problem that I had with my first attempt at acrylic! I can see that you had problems with the paint, but as for the portrait itself, I think you must have started with a great sketch. Thank you Alice for the tips!

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  9. I'm glad you read it too, Raena - your input is always so helpful. I've taken Alice's advice and invested in some 'flow improver', which apparently can be used with watercolour too.

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