Project – Transparent and Opaque

Exercise – Tonally graded wash/Overlaying washes

I decided to try these exercises in both oil and acrylic to get a feel of how differently (or similarly) each medium worked, using ultramarine paint and a large, flat brush.

The first photos are some of those that were made by diluting acrylic paint with water to grade the tone of the paint, along with the overlaid washes.  I found the acrylic paint quite difficult to work with in terms of getting a smooth wash – as the paint dries very quickly, it is a struggle to water down your paint quickly enough to get the next layer on before the previous one has dried.  In my attempts to work more quickly (second sheet), I found this could make the paint quite streaky as I was applying it more quickly.  

This second set was created by diluting oil paint with turps to lighten the colour.  This was slightly easier, but I found that by diluting the oils with turps made the paint sink into the paper very quickly (even though it was oil painting paper) and so the same problems occurred with speed of drying as with the acrylics above.

I tried some further colour mixes, painting both overlayed and wet-in-wet onto one sheet to make comparison easier – the first two photos are acrylic, the third oils diluted with turps:

This mix was too wet, as you can see the runs in the wet-in-wet and the backrun in the overlayed.  However, I think both show the interesting effects which can be achieved by making a “mistake”.  I particularly like the effect where the ultramarine has granulated over the light red paint on the right-hand side, settling into the canvas texture of the paper to give a very 3D-effect, almost like a textile surface.

This sheet used ultramarine and cad yellow and, although the wet-in-wet didn’t really blend (think the yellow was almost dry when the blue was painted) the overlayed was provided, again, a very interesting textured wash.

The oil washes above (just diluted with turps) gave an almost watercolour-like sheerness with the white paper showing through.

In both acrylic and oil the overlayed washes were more successful than both the single colour ones and the wet-in-wet washes:

•       Allowing the previous layer to dry (although time consuming for the oils) made for a much smoother merging of the colours (because you are not trying to work quite so quickly).
•      Also, because you have taken both colours from top to bottom of the sheet means the under layer still shows through somewhat, giving a more intense colour.
•       Adding a second layer of paint also means the paint is easier to apply and goes on much smoother, covering any imperfections in the underneath layer.
•       The colours merge differently – there is a more noticeable division in the wet-in-wet application, mainly because you are starting from opposite ends of the paper and so, even though you are trying to apply wet-in-wet, the paint has already dried slightly.
•       Both techniques could be used to build coloured glazes – although with different outcomes;

o   The wet-in-wet merging can give a smooth blend (especially in oils) and would be very useful for a quick sketch or underpainting where speed is of the essence.

o   Interesting (and often unpredictable) effects can be achieved by mixing very wet colours together (see above).

o   Overlaying transparent washes gives a much deeper intensity of colour, which would not be achieved by mixing the same colours together and then applying in a single layer.

o   Overlaying a wash over the top of an entire painting can be used to change the temperature of the painting (such as painting a very thin yellow glaze to increase the warmth).

o   Overlaying washes enables you to change the shade of a colour without mixing a new colour – I have not used this technique in acrylic/oils, but have in watercolours by adding another layer of the same colour to make it darker and/or more intense.

After I had written these notes, I visited the Tate Britain to do a Five C’s course with Richard Liley (more on that later).  After the course, I had a look around the gallery and one painting which caught my eye was Peter Doig's Echo Lake (1998)

This painting uses a range of paint applications throughout from thick impasto marks to very thinned washes of paint.  It was these washes I was interested to see as he has used them in the reflections on the water.  The paint here is very thin and clearly has run with streak marks where the wet paint has run into other colours.  You don’t often see paint that thin on a canvas, but in this situation it really works in terms of watery reflections to the image above.