Skip to main content

Another Painting Tip. . .

The latest item to join the ranks of stuff on my painting table. . .  Liquitex Flow-Aid.

The last couple of days and evenings have seen yours truly actually feel well enough to sit down to the painting table and get some things done, or just about done.  I've also started on the base with the painter, country gentleman, and his valet.  The usual Winsor&Newton alkyd oils thinned heavily with Liquin Original for the basic clothing colors.  

They'll need to dry overnight (I painted in my pajamas early this morning), but the effects will be, I think, some of the nicest yet.  The trick seems to be less paint and more Liquin, which, when mixed together on the palette paper, provides a really nice, thin puddle of color to spead around the figure surfaces with the brush and let it settle into folds, creases, etc.  I'll post an in-progress photo tomorrow or the next day.

The other items on this same base -- a chair, bench, bucket, and chest of our good artist's painting materials along with his easel -- were given their basic coats of acrylic Citadel hobby paints yesterday evening, and I got sneaky.  I've been looking around for a medium to make acrylic paints flow better, much like Liquin does for oils, and I found something on the shelf at our local arts and crafts store midweek, which is pictured above.  Liquitex Flow-Aid, which affects the surface tension of paints it is mixed with, thinning them, making them flow better, and extending their working time by just a wee bit.  Here's what the Liquitex.com website has to say about the product:


  • Use in conjunction with any acrylic medium or acrylic color when increased flow and absorption and decreased film tension and friction are important.  
  • A flow enhancer that improves the flow, absorption and blending of any water-soluble paint (i.e. acrylic paint), medium, ink or dye.  
  • Minimizes brush marks by reducing friction of paint application.  
  • Does not contain binder. Over thinning of acrylic paint with Liquitex Flow-AidTM and applying to a non-absorbent surface (i.e. gessoed canvas) may result in poor adhesion. Always make a test piece for your particular application and surface.  
  • On non-absorbent surfaces, will increase the fluidity and open (drying) time of the paint.  
  • On absorbent surfaces, will act as a stain, dye or watercolor. 

 
Acrylic paints that have been mixed the stuff settle better into nooks and crannies on figures surfaces and thin slightly on raised areas (a white undercoat works best), and everything is dry in just a few minutes.  If you too are searching around for something that might make your painting a bit easier, you might want to give Flow-Aid a try and see if you like the results.

The long and short of this is that I used a Citadel dark brown (the former GW 'Scorched Brown') thinned with Flow-Aid for all of these wooden items.  It settled very nicely into the wood grain modeled by the sculptors, who originally produced the greens for these castings.  I'll dry brush with some gray paint to make everything resemble aged, weather wood a bit more, and then all of that should be done, and the figures themselves can be finished in fairly short order.

And what of the musicians, music stands, dogs, and etc?  Just a few minor touch-ups and a bit more judicious lining with dark brown (this evening after supper and the Young Master's bedtime), and they'll be ready for a coat of two of the glossy varnish.  I got busy yesterday afternoon and attached all of them to their permanent bases, which will then need a bit of terrain work (fine sand, a wash of dark brown acrylic paint, some Woodland Scenics grass scatter material and a tiny shrub or two).  

Then, I can turn my full attention to those frolicking aristocrats from Jackdaw.  I've already attached these to irregularly shaped bases of two-four figures each: people dancing, conversing, helping themselves to drinks from servants' trays, presenting themselves to ladies, children playing in front of the musical combo as they do, and so forth.  I can almost see Dame Maggie Smith dressed in mid-18th century gear, observing the events of the afternoon through her lorgnette. . .  and making cutting remarks! 

Comments

A J said…
Thanks for the tip. Liquitex sounds like it will be useful, especially in warmer weather when paint tends to dry too quickly.
Ken said…
As A J said, thank you for the tip. I have been in the habit of using distilled water to thin the Delta Ceramcoat craft-store acrylics I habitually use.

I get fairly good results (my amateur standing as a figure-painter is in no danger), and if nothing else the system is dead cheap, but I think I will give the Liquitex a try. The local craft store is well equipped with art supplies, usually at good prices.
marinergrim said…
I use Klear floor polish -does the same job at a fraction of the price. Windowlene window cleaner is also an excellent brush cleaner.

Popular posts from this blog

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

And It's the End of September!!!

  Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November.  With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important,  I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

Happy September 2nd!!!

    T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part.  To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view.  The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group.  Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one.  It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise.   ...