Fresco {Chalk} Acrylics- a 'how to' reference

As we near the 3rd birthday of the launch of our extremely successful PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk acrylic paints in February 2011, it's time for a video that summarises how to enjoy them with your rubber stamps.

As of January 2013 we have 10 colour families of 4 in sets (light, medium, dark and super dark), 4 glazes, black, white, gold and silver, so in total, 48 Frescos.

We are about to extend this to 13 bang-on-trend colour families, including 4 new metallics, and 2 new glazes. This means 60 frescos will be soon be available as we move into our 3rd year showcasing these beautiful, unique, chalk finish paints.

As you may be aware, I have been a bit of a paint junkie for many many years. I have no hesitation in saying these paints are so easy to work with, produce superb results, and give you fantastic options for craft-project versatility due to the comprehensive colour range, and amazing characteristics. We have been overwhelmed with fabulous feedback from our customers over the last 2 years, and so we are thrilled, for a third year to be adding even more colours to this outstanding Fresco paint collection.

If you have not experienced these paints yet, here is an extensive list of Fresco Chalk Acrylic characteristics:

• High coverage on all surfaces, wood, metal, glass, paper, card, chipboard, Crackly Tissue, Crunchy waxed paper, Metal Card, Smoothy stamping card, Metal charms, plastics, ceramics, fabric...you get the idea...they can be used on any surface
• Perfect for indoor and outdoor use...so they are hardy!
• Water- based acrylic means clean up in water is easy.
• Extremely matte, chalk finish is perfect to stamp over with all kinds of inks, pigment, dye , and yes, as they are chalk, even distress inks can be used over these paints as they happily sink into the 'tooth' of the chalk.
• A variety of opaque, semi opaque and translucent colours allows you to enjoy the features that high, medium and low coverage paints offer. Eg high coverage means one coat is all that is necessary, or use the low coverage for building depth, shading, or blending both wet in wet or wet on dry
• No need for undercoat, gesso or primers, use direct onto any surface.
• Bang on trend, appealing colours specifically to designed to all work together harmoniously
• Frescos are suitable for altered art, mixed media, journaling, interior design, fine art, Scrapbooking, card making, textiles and general craft projects.
• Ideal and easy to write directly on for journalling or add additional colour and detail with a huge variety of pens, pencils, crayons, water soluble colours, dye sprays, mica sprays, inks etc
• Can be diluted with glazes or water and the colour pigmentation maintains its integrity.
• Permanent once dry on all surfaces and can be mixed with textile medium for permanance on fabric for washable items.
• Fast drying and durable.

So enjoy the video, and if you haven't yet tried Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics, then check out the many other things you can do with them at the PaperArtsy youtube channel

You can see all the colours available online here at PaperArtsy.

Yes we do wholesale all PaperArtsy branded products worldwide: stamps, flexi-bocks, paints, substrates and dies. Please direct trade enquiries to sales@paperartsy.co.uk Proof of VAT registration (or equivalent) required.

 

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Layers, cracks, texture....oh my

I think i've come to the conclusion that the layering of paint is the whole point of Acrylic Paint. Of course you can use it as one layer on an item if you wish, or you can water down and whitewash. So those things don't include layers at all. BUT, if you really want to enjoy the true nature of acrylic paints, then the excitement and unexpected loveliness comes from creating layers. Knowing when to use your opaques, when to use translucents, and how to create contrasting areas. It's not all that difficult, and you just keep going until you are happy with the effect. We have both light and dark shades of translucent paints - these can really make the layers more interesting.

I totally lose myself when I just let go and enjoy the process of letting the combinations flow. This is the accidental way to find out that blue can look amazing with orange, or pink, orange and red can pop with a touch of zesty zing bright yellow. Equally you find colours that are a real struggle to get to work. I am really not great at autumnals because I find they require a lot of drying between layers or you can get mud- but then mud is a shade of autumn right? But I have accidentally made tertiary colours like purple from inky pool and claret. OK so maybe this is basic colour theory, but I was never taught any of that stuff, so for me, colour theory happens in real life when I muck about and see it working or not working under my nose.

What I enjoy most about this experimentation, is that it takes as long as it takes, and you can keep tweaking until you are really happy. The feature of this piece is getting the crackle effect, and the paint layers to blend together.

I happily used up the left overs on the other sides of the wooden gift box, like the back, and I also painted the handles black, then rubbed treasure gold over them.

And, of course on the raised areas of texture (which is ferro under the paint), I have used lighter shades of Treasure Gold over the top, applied softly with a brush.

If you want to see a looooong video of me figuring out how to layer the paints, then you can see it here on our You Tube channel.

We have an exciting week here ahead. Millie (14) and Ella (16) were 3 and 5 when we left New Zealand to come over to England. They fly back tomorrow evening to spend Christmas with the extended Franich family. They are a bit nervous about the trip, but I am sure they will be fine, and they are going to love getting to know all their Aunts, Uncles and cousins, and working on those sun tans. Gran and Poppy have been here to visit us a few times, so they are looking forward to meeting them off the plane on Wednesday in Auckland. Ella is in the middle of GCSE mocks, so she's hardly had time to pack her bag!

If you've been following me on twitter, you'll know our landlord decided a week or so ago that the kitchen could be re-fitted before Christmas. Well, we have a sink plumbed in. LOL. The temporary kitchen in the lounge is working out pretty well actually, but of course the only appliance I miss is the oven, which would be helpful come Christmas Day! They still have to tile, floor, paint and wire the whole kitchen back into the mains. Oh and fit the oven/extractor. In five days. I reckon they can do it. Just. But the dust everywhere is mental. I guess I'll spend all of the weekend cleaning and moving us back in. I reckon if its not done I can cope with Xmas dinner from a microwave and the 2 element has camp stove! Unless someone wants to drop a cooked turkey around??? LOL

I'll keep you posted.

Leandra

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My oldest technique: corner-corner-side

For me, this technique was a crucial 'a-ha' moment. About 15 years ago the concept of 'direct-to-paper' or DTP as we would refer to it in our yahoo groups back then was all the rage with Cats Eyes pigment ink pads (colour box) where the shape was specifically suited for DTP, and I also loved using the gorgeous VersaMagic ink (Tsukineko). Those colours were (and still are) so soft and chalky, and if you dried between layers you could put the lighter shades on top of the darker ones to soften back, or even successfully stamp the white on top of dark blues. Then we would stamp our preferred images in Brilliance Black, which was juicy, black, and dark, and easy to emboss in clear powder. Or background stamps in other lighter shades. he effect was very similar to this below, however, the piece below is done with Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints.

For DTP, we would apply the ink directly to you paper using the ink pad itself as the applicator, and because they were pigment inks, and wetter/thicker than dye inks they would blend beautifully, apply easily, and of course there was no mess. We did do try to do this with Adirondack ink (Ranger Industries), but dye inks, as you know have a firmer felt pad rather than the sponge of pigment ink pads, and so the dyes tend to suck onto the paper in one spot and are not as easy to blend, so to get the ink onto the paper more effectively, and softly for backgrounds, our preference was to use mens shaving brushes, or various thickness of stipple brushes to apply dye inks. These are the days of the Grid Technique, Masking stamped images, plenty of embossing powder, and who can forget the star books that kind of popped out and you could hang like a Christmas decoration.

Of course this all happened in the years before Distress Inks and Ink Applicator tools were invented! LOL Hard to imagine now isn't it! We did fabulous watercolour techniques with Adirondack dye inks, as they are non-permanent, I really think that colour palette has stood the test of time. I must have bought my first Lettuce and Cranberry ink pads about 19 years ago, and they are still reinked regularly, and still going strong.

So the challenge with all these inks was how to get the ink onto the paper backgrounds, and have a variety of blended colours across the entire piece. And, if possible, layers. And thus, about 11 years ago from my very own head was born the concept of 'corner-corner-side'.....11 years ago. Hmmmmmm....So it must have taken me at least 8 years to figure it out then? LOL

It's pretty simple, all you need is 2 groups of contrasting colours, eg blues/greens and a light, medium and dark of each group. You apply the lightest shade to 2 corners and the opposite side (centre) of your substrate. Then in the contrasting shade fill the 3 gaps, which should be the remaining corner, corner and opposite side. Now start building depth using the darker shades, and try to blend the different zones into each other so they don't look like separate blocks of colour. You can use background stamps as 'bridges' between the colours, for example, stamp a script in green over the blue zone, and postmarks in blue over the green zone.

So the natural progression was to also do this technique with distress inks, you can get some great effects when you apply, then knock back the concentrated ink with a baby wipe.

I also have done this for many years with acrylic paints, which I do find, are much easier than inks to get the zones to blend. Remember, the light shades like Vintage Lace and Snowflake, Moonlight, Ice Blue, Sherbet, Honey Dew are your blending friends!

So take a look at this video, and maybe 'corner, corner, side', even though it's quite an analytical and structured process, will help you achieve totally random, blended backgrounds. I hope you enjoy it!

 

Leandra

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