Tutorial: How to make your palette Metallic

Welcome Back

[Appologies for the delay in setting the second video to public, oops!! All sorted, it will work fine now].

As part of the Adventures in Acrylics online workshop series, I’d like to share a way to spice up your existing colour palette. This time with the help of metallic colours. If you are a colour magpie like me, and would love all your favourite colours as metallic or interference colours, there is an affordable way to do this. In today’s tutorial I’ll share another way to achieve this.

Make your Palette metallic with Winsor & Newton Galeria; Metallic colours

Earlier in the series, I showed how to use interference paint to take a regular palette of colours and give them a mica flip.

This is another option to take your colours and transform them into metallic colours of any hue.

You Will Need

• Jar of water
• Non stick craft sheet (for easy clean up)
• Palette knife
• Plate to mix on
• Winsor & Newton Galleria acrylic paint. Options: Silver, Gold and Copper

Method

• Put a small amount of gold paint onto your palette
• Put a small amount of colour paint onto your pallet in a different area
• Mix a small amount of metallic paint into your chosen colour.
• Mix using the palette knife

If the colour you are mixing into is opaque and over powering the metallic, work in the other direction. Starting with the metallic colour and adding just a touch of your straight paint colour until you get the depth of colour you like.

The metallic colour shows up best on or over darker colours and surfaces.

Options/Added Extras

Experiment applying thin washes of metallic colour over surfaces painted in dark colours.

Try painting your surface in the metallic colour and adding a thin watery wash of colour to it. This will produce a more matt effect, but the metallic will show through more transparent colours.

Links

For suppliers and manufacturers, check out the Art – Supplies tab at the top of the blog

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and give it a try. Its fun to experiment mixing your supplies together. By varying the amounts of metallic and colour you can get a huge amount of options from just a few colours.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

Adventures in Acrylics: Online workshop

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Product Review: Winsor & Newton; Galeria; Metallic colours

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In today’s post I will be reviewing; Winsor & Newton Galleria Acrylic paint in the metallic colours.

Winsor & Newton, Galeria Metallic colours

Product Details

• Manufacturer/Brand; Winsor & Newton: Galeria
• Item number
• RRP at time of writing: £3.50 for 60 ml tubes

Reason For Buying

I love metallic colours for adding highlight to projects.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Galeria is a flow formula acrylic paint, which I find very versatile.
• Easy to mix
• Affordable price
• Great quality
• Each metallic colour more than doubles your existing palette by mixing and turning original colours metallic.
• Well fitting lids

Cons

• Haven’t got any.

Build Quality

Excellent. The tubes are durable, metal in the case of the 60 ml size. The lids fit well and the shape means there’s more to get hold of, when you want to remove them. Don’t be put off by the price, these are superb paints and perform well.

Value for Money

Excellent. A great price to try new colours without breaking the bank

Would I buy it Again?

Totally, I bought all the metallic colours currently in the range; Gold, Silver and Copper.

Summing up

If you haven’t tried metallic paint before, these are fantastic. The flow formula acrylic means they dry fast and are easy to clean off tools. They mix well with Galleria colours to turn your existing palette metallic. BARGAIN! I’ll be sharing how to do that in a later tutorial.

Links

• Winsor & Newton Manufacturers site
• Galeria. Manufacturers product page also links to colour chart

Available from all good art stores, check out my art supplies tab at the top of the blog for listings.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

Adventures in Acrylics: Online workshop

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Tutorial: Brushed Metal Distress; Paint effect

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This is a technique that I discovered by accident when playing experimenting with my new Interference acrylic colours. This paint works best over dark colours so I created a dark background and was layering the interference colour and really liked the effect. With a little practice you can make it look like brushed metal.

Brushed Metal Paint effect, perfect for art journaling and surface decoration

You Will Need

• Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Paint: Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna
• Daler Rowney Interference acrylic colour; Shimmering Gold
• White Mount board
• Plate to mix colours on
• Two scraps of rag
• Palette knife
• Jar of water

Method

• Use the palette knife to apply a layer of Burnt Umber over the whole mount board panel, allow this layer to dry.
• With a rag apply interference gold in ‘grain direction’ as seen in the video and previously in the weathered wood tutorial. Allow this layer to dry.
• With a rag, apply some Burnt Sienna in ‘grain direction’ like you did with the gold. Burnt sienna is semi transparent and will let earlier layers show through but this will warm the colours up and tone down any areas that are looking too bright. Allow this layer to dry.
• Continue to build your layer till you have an effect that you like, if you like a darker tone go back in with some Burnt Umber with the rag to deepen some areas or perhaps create a frame to the piece.

Like with the other techniques, to get the best results it’s all about the blending. Build up the layers gradually for the best results and allow each layer to dry before you apply the next.

Options/Added Extras

Winsor & Newton Galeria is a flow formula acrylic paint, so the finished result will be flat. This makes it ideal for art journals, ATC and pieces you wish to write or stamp over. If you want a more dimensional effect use a heavy bodied acrylic paint such as Daler Rowney Cryla which will add more dimension to the piece.

Experiment with different base colours and mixes for other effects.

Links

• Daler Rowney
• Daler Rowney Shimmering Colours
• Shimmering colours at Jackson’s Art Supplies
• Winsor & Newton

Hope you have enjoyed the video and will give the technique a try, do let me know how you get on. I’d love to see what you create using this technique.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

Adventures in Acrylics: Online workshop

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Video Tutorial: Purple Distressed Panel

Welcome Back

As part of the online workshop

Vintage Purple Distressed Panel

You Will Need

• Winsor & Newton Galeria Flow formula Acrylic paint: Winsor Violet
• Daler Rowney; Shimmering Colours: Shimmering Gold
• Cotton Rag
• Jar of Water
• Palette Knife
• White Mount board
• Plate to mix colours on

Method

• Apply a layer of Winsor Violet to the mount board using the palette knife. Allow this layer to dry before you move on.
• For a darker finish apply a second layer of Winsor Violet to the mount-board. If you apply the paint generously, you can also dab the flat of the knife into the paint to create additional texture. Allow this layer to dry fully before you move on.
• Put some Gold Interference colour onto the plate. Pick up some of this colour using the rag. Dab off the excess paint on to a clean area of the paint. You only want a small amount on the cloth.
• Swipe the rag over the board, just catching the top surface. The colour will catch on areas of texture and highlight them. While you get used to the technique, start on the sides of the board and work inwards, if you have too much paint on the cloth you will get a different effect! By starting at the edges of the board and working inwards, the excess paint will be worked off a little on the sides of the board.

Options/Added Extras

Vary how you apply the paint, for different effects. Use varying amounts of paint at each stage and experiment to discover an effect that you like. Try applying the Shimmering gold over other dark colours of card or paint to find more colour combinations you like.

Links

• Introducing Shimmering colours
• Daler Rowney
• Daler Rowney Shimmering Colours
• Shimmering colours at Jackson’s Art Supplies

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, do let me know what you think and I’d love to see your experiments with this technique.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

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Purple Distressed Book

Welcome Back

It’s nice to be posting pictures of projects again This book features a purple distressed panel that I’ll show you how to create in friday’s video tutorial.

Distressed Purple book, check out the gold.

Delicious isn’t it? You only need two paints to achieve this effect, come back on friday to see how to create this effect.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Video Tutorial: Dark Wood paint effect

Welcome Back

In today’s post, as part of the Adventures in Acrylics workshop, I’ll be sharing a tutorial on how to create a wonderful dark wood paint effect. It looks something like rosewood, or perhaps mahogany, but whatever you want to call it, this gives a beautiful effect. Like the previous tutorial, this is super simple to create and waiting for the paint to dry between layers, is the most time-consuming part.

Here’s what a finished piece looks like

Dark Wood paint effect for Adventures in Acrylics

You Will Need

• Winsor & Newton: Galeria Acrylic paint; Buff Titanium, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.
• White mount board
• Jar of water
• Scrap of rag for cleaning.

Method

I’ll include a written description of the process, for those who don’t speak English, there’s always the trusty translator, check out the TRANSLATE THIS SITE link, in the side bar.

• Put some Buff Titanium on the palette, than use the palette knife to apply a layer paint over the white surface of the mount board. Apply the paint generously, as if you were buttering bread Change direction with your knife and leave a few white areas here and there. Allow this layer to dry fully, before you move on.
• Clean your knife in the water, while you wait for the paint to dry.
• Next, put out some Burnt Sienna onto your palette, pick up some paint on the knife and apply the Burnt Sienna in patches, here and there over the Titanium Buff. Change direction when applying the paint to create textures. Leave some of the white areas and some areas of the buff titanium visible. Allow this layer to dry fully, before you move on.
• Clean your knife in the water, while you wait for the paint to dry.
• Put some Burnt Umber onto your palette, this is a semi transparent colour and will allow the other layers to be seen through it. Pick up a generous amount of Burnt Umber onto your knife. You only need a thin-film of the paint over the card, but the knife will move better over the card if it has a layer of paint across it. Apply a thin layer of the Burnt Umber over the whole piece and allow this to dry. Try not to go over this layer too many times as it tends to get sticky as its drying and if you want a smooth result you don’t want to over work it. Allow this layer to fully dry before you move on.
• Clean your knife in the water, while you wait for the paint to dry.
• If you feel your piece is looking too bright apply a second layer of the Burnt Umber over the card, either just in places or over the whole thing, depending on the look you are going for.

Dark Wood paint effect for Adventures in Acrylics

The earlier layers glow through the semi transparent Burnt Umber, and add lots of visual interest and texture to the piece. Like the weathered wood, you can make this more textured by using heavy bodied acrylic paint like Daler Rowney Cryla if you prefer or use mediums to change how your Galeria paint behaves. This original version is reasonably smooth so if you wanted to stamp or write over the surface you could do so. It would also take  image transfers if you wanted to add some.

Options/Added Extras

In the coming weeks/months I’ll be introducing you to some acrylic mediums. As well as mixing the mediums to your paints, you can also use some of them as a glazing layer. If you already have some, you could paint over the finished piece with matt or gloss medium.

• The matt medium will not change the appearance of the finished piece, but it will seal in and protect the layers of paint.
• The gloss medium will dry to a high shine, and make the piece look as if it has been polished.

Experiment with what you have and see which you prefer. You don’t have to add the glaze layer, but it will help seal the paint in.

Links

Check out the Art tab at the top of the blog for details of suppliers where you can find a local stockist and also colour charts for the paints I’m using.

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and will give the technique a try, it is simple to do and by varying your colours or how you apply the paint, there are plenty of opportunities for further experiment with this idea. I’d love to see your results and how you incorporate this technique into your own projects. Do leave me comment with a link to what you create.

For more in this Adventures in Acrylics series check out the dedicated class page.

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

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Acrylic Paint; My leap of faith

Welcome Back

Earlier this week I set The Virtual Crafting Challenge as ‘Make a Wish come true’. For my contribution to the challenge I’m going to take a leaf of faith, here’s what I’m going to do.

Adventures with Acrylic Paint

A couple of years ago I bought a set of Golden Fluid Acrylic paints and a bunch of mediums and took a class with Julie Pritchard. Both the materials and the class blew my mind, they were so good. Trouble is, after the end of the class, my artistic angst kicked in and although I’ve done a few things with them, I was stuck in the ‘I want to use them but they cost a lot to replace, ‘I’ll SAVE them for a special project’. DOOMED! Once I’d said that, no project was special enough. There my beautiful paint sat, revered in their Really Useful box and doomed to dry out in the bottles. Loved and very much wanted but too precious to use

My Golden stash...isn't it lovely!!

I needed a Plan B! I love my Ranger Acrylic Dabbers but they are a swine for clogging up on me, but the Golden’s are expensive so I needed to try something else. I tried Daler Rowney System 3 as it was more fluid, but PHEW did it smell of fumes {splutter, cough}! So although the consistancy was great, I didn’t like using it.

Last year for my birthday, thanks to my wonderful MIL and Ebay bargains, I was able to get trial sets of Daler Rowney Cryla and also Winsor and Newton’s new acrylics Galeria. I loved the Cryla but for what I want to do with them, the heavy body consistency was too thick.

Daler Rowney Paint set

The Winsor and Newton Galeria on the other hand are great, they flow beautifully and are affordable.

W&N Galeria Acrylic Paint

So my leap of faith was to increase my palette of Galeria colours, to include the colours I used most with my Ranger inks. This way I can try out my inking techniques with the paints and have a water-resistant finish, which is more suitable for decorating book covers. I also added the Daler Rowney Shimmering colours to the stash box. Shimmering colours are Daler Rowney interference colours, I’d have bought these AGES ago, if I’d realised they were more fluid than the Cryla.

Daler Rowney: Shimmering Colours set

To stop myself getting so precious about the paints, I have ‘gathered’ the paint together in one box, this way I’ll be more tempted to try different kinds of paint on lots of surfaces to discover the results. I’m going to group the mediums together in another box too, so instead of just using my favorites I try them all.

In the end I had to put the Cryla in a separate box, firstly their consistency is quite different to the Galleria and secondly, I’m feeble and couldn’t lift the box with them ALL in together! Putting too many tubes on top of each other also risked the whole lot crushing itself too.

Winsor & Newton: Galleria Acrylic Paint

One of the ‘joys’ of dyslexia is that I’m always loosing things, or can’t remember where I put things, my plan is that by putting stash together in related boxes like this, I will be less likely to lose things. It’s much harder to lose a big box of something than it is to forget where you put a tube of paint

LOVE Really Useful boxes, they are just the right sizes and they stack too! The 3 litre one, made for DVDs, is the perfect height for 75 ml Cryla tubes The 9 litre Really Useful box was just the right height for the mediums too They are really sturdy and stack too.

'Really Useful box' full of acrylic mediums

Remember how much fun it was in primary school, when there was a box of ‘stuff’ on the table and you could create with anything in the box?

That is what I’m going for, all the options in one place together, mix ‘em up and see what happens.

So this month I’ll be turning mad professor and having a jolly good play with the paints and mediums and when I discover anything exciting along the way, you’ll be the first to know. I may be some time

Links

If I’ve tempted you with these pictures and you want to know more about how I got on with the paints. Here are links to my reviews about the paint, that I published when I first got them.

• Golden Fluid Acrylic
• Daler Rowney Cryla
• Winsor and Newton Galeria

How about you, will you be joining in with The Virtual Crafting Challenge this month? I’d love to hear about your adventures and what you’ll be doing with this month’s theme.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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