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Tag Archives: acrylic

In: Paints

Acrylic Paints for Decorative Arts

For craft purposes, such as decorating wooden boxes or painting on leather or fabric, acrylic paints work best. They mix well, can be applied easily, dry fast, form permanent film, and the cleaning is quite simple. Although all acrylic paints have pigments (or dyes) as a colour agent and acrylic dispersion (or emulsion) as a binder, they are not the same for different purposes.

Acrylic paints for fabric contain a special plasticizer, so after use and stretch your painting will stay. Paints are usually thinner and go inside the treads, that’s why absorbing cotton is one of the best materials to use for textile painting. 

Paints for silk are even thinner and look more like ink rather than regular acrylic paints as silk is very fine and colours should penetrate inside and between the treads so no film is left on the surface.

For leather, acrylic paints for fabric work very well, but they may not have enough adhesion. Even though we remove all grease from the leather top surface, perfect cleaning is not really possible, and paints may peel off the surface. So, special paints are recommended.

Hot techniques in glass and ceramics provide the best effect as they kind of fuse to the surface and form a semi-permanent connection between the materials. For cold techniques, acrylic paints can be applied. And here regular acrylic paints do not work well. Glass is very sleek and regular binder doesn’t stick to its surface very well. That’s why special acrylic paints for glass and ceramics have a special bonding agent to provide extra adhesion. Glass paints can be transparent or opaque, creating beautiful stained glass effects.

Another special kind of paint is metallic-looking paint. Don’t fool yourself, gold paints have no gold, just mica powder to achieve a sparkling look. Mica particles just reflect the light and, being coloured, they imitate different kinds of metal: gold, silver, copper, bronze or even some exotic colours. However, they will look metallic just in certain light. Also, paints with mica powder usually contain solvents and stabilizing agents for smoother application and to prevent the separation of mica particles. For a true gilding experience, use our gilding kit. It doesn’t have gold or silver either but creates a solid metallic look regardless of the games of light.

How to choose right canvas
In: Practice

How to choose right canvas for your goals – Part I (Canvas)

When you paint on canvas, the canvas itself is the first thing to take care of. There is no one best canvas for all the goals as all they have different properties and price, but you can always choose something that fits your goals and budget. 

First of all, canvas itself as a fabric. Here we have different options: linen, cotton, polyester and different blends.

Choice here is not straight forward, as always, but generally speaking, the thicker the fabric the more weight it can hold, meaning the more paint and medium you can apply without risk of deformation.

Polyester canvas – when to use?

Polyester or cotton-polyester blends are the cheapest options that you can find even in dollar stores. They are very thin and usually have bigger gaps between threads leading in quality loss. Polyester is technically plastic and can’t absorb anything, meaning sizing and primer may not get a proper binding with the fabric. On top of that this canvas is usually very fragile and rips off easily. So, this kind of canvas is a good choice for children’s paintings, playing with paints or doing exercises and practicing some fast techniques. This kind of canvas is not working for any painting that you want to keep for a longer time.

Cotton or linen canvas?

Cotton and linen canvasses normally is a good choice for professional paintings, provided canvas is thick and properly treated before and after stretching. We’ll talk about that in separate topics. Generally speaking, we’re looking for thick canvas preferably with double thread. That’s something you can check on the back of the canvas (see the pic.).

Double-thread canvas is kind of weaving where one or two threads are doubled. For painting the best option when longitudinal thread is thick and single and weft thread is thin and double. This kind of weaving provides the strongest support, is thick and have smallest gaps between the threads. 

Normally linen canvas is thicker than cotton one, and that’s why more expensive. Not all artists can afford painting on linen. But it’s also not always necessary.

If you’re painting in layering techniques and not using heavy paints, a proper-quality cotton canvas is a very good choice. However, for heavy impasto painting linen canvas will provide a better solution as it’s stronger and more durable.

How to choose right canvasFine grained or coarse grained canvas?

There is no one universal recipe here either. Choice of texture depends on your techniques. If you’re working in fine layering and glazing techniques, the smoother the surface the better. Especially that’s very important for portrait painting. So, fine grain and even extra priming would be the right option here.  

For impasto techniques as well as working the involves different pastes, and textures as well as for palette knife painting coarser surface will fit better. The smooth finish is incapable to hold a large amount of paint.

Although, many mediums now can be applied on canvas, we’ll take a closer look at acrylic and oil paint application as the most traditional ones nowadays.

Choosing canvas for acrylic painting

Acrylic paint is quite universal and easy-going, so most of the canvas will work well for acrylic. Choose the material, finish, size and priming that fits your goals for this or that particular painting and enjoy your creative process. Acrylic forms one non-separable layer with primer on canvas, which makes painting process seamless.

Choosing canvas for oil painting

Oil is the most complex medium and requires more skills, knowledge and experience. Here the way how the canvas was treated and primed matters a lot. We’ll have a separate article on this matter too, but for now let’s assume that the canvas is well sized and primed.

Here we have two different kinds of primers that can be used: acrylic or oil. Acrylic primer is universal and can be used for both acrylic and oil. However, to create a better binding with canvas and to prolong the life of finished oil painting (increase time of polymerization) in this case we’d suggest to start the first layer with underpainting that will create a shield between canvas and your actual paintwork.

Acrylic primer normally contains a lot of chalk inside, which is very porous and “drains” oil from painting layer. To prevent this we should create a layer that links acrylic and oil. It should be a painting layer containing  gums inside, that “seals” the pores and crates the perfect adhesion for oil paints.

However, based on my experience, the best primer for oil paints is oil primer. As oil priming doesn’t work for acrylic and also takes much longer time for canvas preparation at manufacturers’ side, less and less of them offer this option. Oil primed canvas has a lot of misuse that also forces manufacturers stop making them.

Oil primed canvas should be treated as an oil painting that is standing alone for a long time. That means if you choose oil primed canvas, treat it with retouching medium first for a proper adhesion.

That’s a very basic information regarding choosing canvas for your painting. In Part II we’ll pay attention to other aspects of canvas, such as support for it. You’ll get answers on the following questions: What is the difference in use of stretched canvas and canvas on board? How do proper stretchers look like?

(c) RUSART

Titanium White PW6 pigment
In: Pigments

Pigment Guide: Titanium White (PW6)

Let’s take a closer look at pigments that we’re using and what properties they have and how they affect your paintings. 

Colour Index: PW6

Colour Constitution Number: CI 77891

Food colour index: E171

Titanium White As Pigment

Titanium white is one of the most used colours in acrylic and oil as we use it for mixing colours, as is and as a colour extender for some colours. The pigment itself looks like a brilliant white powder that due to its heavy weight and other characteristics reminds extra fine feta cheese by appearance. 

Chemically speaking, it’s just titanium dioxide (TiO2). Mixed with oil or acrylic gives pure opaque white colour with slightly cold undertone. Titanium dioxide has remarkable optical properties, with a very high refractive index close to that of diamond.

White colour is one of the most essential colours in oil and acrylic painting as artists use it a lot for mixing most of the time. An average painting contains over 60% of white, that’s why the right white colour choice is very important.

Titanium White History

Titanium white is quite new type of pigment, compared to many other historical colours, like ochres or umbers. It replaced most other kinds of white only in 1916, when became part of mass production. 

Thanks to titanium white “discovery” oil painting moved from “toxic” medium to a safe one. Before titanium white  was discovered artists widely used lead white that caused mental health and body disease, including cancer. Lead white settles in bones and accumulates with the time,. However, this fact helped historians find Caravaggio’s remains.

Just reminding you a short story of this great artist, who influenced Velazquez, Rembrandt and other famous artists and masters. Entered Rome in his 18-19, he apprenticed some artists, changing them quite fast, learning new things. Sometimes in 7-8 years he started his own career. With a good luck and great talent, Caravaggio worked for some of the most important patrons of the day, including Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the banker Ottavio Costa. They commissioned a lot paintings and promoted Caravaggio as an artist.

How all these related to lead white? Being a genius artist, Caravaggio had a very unstable temper. Some researchers relate this to lead white exposure. So, after many smaller violent incidents where Caravaggio was involved, it happened that he killed a man during a street fight. He got arrested and as punishment he had leave Rome for good. 

Caravaggio and lead whiteCaravaggio moved from one place to another across Italy, begging pardon and a chance to return to Rome. Eventually, he got granted this right in exchange of all the paintings he ever done. A deal is a deal. But then for some reason (was it just a bad luck accident or a planned action – nobody knows), a ship with all his paintings left to Rome before Caravaggio boarded. So he got stuck in Port’Ercole. After that moment his life and death was a mystery.  And here lead white helped find Caravaggio’s body. In 2010 body remains were identified as Caravaggio’s based on time, locale and lead concentration in bones.

And now, back to titanium white – it was such a relief for painters when a better and safer white was discovered. In oils titanium white is pretty stubborn, when you try to make paint from it. It forms very tacky and heavy clamps that not easy to bring to a smooth paste consistency. That’s why manufacturers often mix titanium white with zinc white or some fillers. And here another story begins…

Titanium White Additives

There are no legal requirements to indicate the full list of ingredients on a label. That’s why titanium white can have many other filling agents inside that may even make a tube feel heavier. So, Titanium white may include:

  • PW3 Basic Lead Sulphate White
  • PW4 Zinc Oxide White
  • PW7 Zinc Sulphide White
  • PW10 Barium Carbonate
  • PW18 Marble Dust or a lower grade chalk composition
  • PW19 Kaolin
  • PW21 Barium Sulfate

Titanium White Manufacturing and Toxicity

What about toxicity, titanium white as is in paints is non-toxic. Its stability caused a very wide range of use beyond art materials. Only 28% of titanium dioxide is used for paints, 10% used for plastic, and about 6% for bleaching paper. The rest 56% belong to other industries, such as food, sun screens, other cosmetics (toothpastes) and other. Ingested, TiO2 has been identified as possibly carcinogenic, but this doesn’t stop manufacturers from using it in food.

Where titanium dioxide is coming from? It’s extracted and processed from natural minerals, either ilmenite, rutile or titanium slag. Titanium pigment is extracted by using either sulphuric acid or chlorine. The rutile contains up to 95% of TiO2, while ilmenite has only 45-60%.

What about the main manufacturers, here market belongs to China. About 2.3 million metric tonnes a year is produced there. That also explains why Chinese paints go much cheaper than ones made in other countries. The second place belongs to South Africa with about 1 million metric tonnes produced. Canada takes the fourth place here (680 thousands) and the USA produces just 100 thousands metric tonnes a year.

Titanium White Properties

And now, finally, practical use. Titanium white is opaque, which is very beneficial when you’re working with light tints or when mixing colours that require great coverage. Some manufactures add titanium white to yellow colours to increase their coverage properties, as well as to many other mixes.

Titanium white also makes wonderful greys and many other tints. Lightfastness is excellent.

Drying time in oil depends on many factors, but generally speaking it dries moderate slowly. Titanium White works well with most oil mediums, containing gums, petroleum products or turpentines. The dry film is thick and flexible, without tendency to cracking.

(c) RUSART

How To Read Paint Labels
In: Paints

How To Read Paint Labels

That’s very important to know what you’re buying and some information about your paints is available on labels:

  • paint name
  • grade
  • pigment used
  • binder
  • lightfastness
  • transparency
  • safety note

Paint name

Although there are many common names for paints we used to see around, there is no standard on how to name a colour. The spectrum contains millions of colours and all they can be named differently. 

Some manufacturers use traditional and most common names, such as cadmium red medium, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue etc. These names stand for pigments used and it’s easy to understand what is inside the tube.

Some names can be unique due to marketing goals or multiple pigment used. For example, Australian Grey or Australian Leaf Light by Art Spectrum or Portland Grays by Gamblin or Raw Umber Leningrad by Nevskaya Palitra. 

Also, the same pigment treated differently can provide a wide verity of hues, shades and transparency level. One of champions in that is PY42 Iron Oxide Yellow ,which has about 100 different names.

Paint grade

Paint grade is also a very questionable category as there is no standards of marking paints student or artist grade. For RUSART, we split paints into 4 categories: children, student, artist and professional. Most manufactures offer 2 categories: student and artist grade.

The main difference in paint grading is pigment load, quality of pigments used as well as fillers and mediums added.

  1. Children grade. We have a special article about art supplies for children. Generally speaking, the main criterium here is safety. Pigments used here are non-toxic and must have certain certification and labelling. Normally we talk about watercolours here and they contain a lot of dextrin (sugar) and starch instead of more expensive components.
  2. Student grade. Safety is not the main criteria here. Usually these paints lower budget for everyday use and practice. Pigment load normally lays between 3 and 20%. All the rest are fillers and binders. Cobalts and cadmiums are normally hues here, which means not real. Although professional artists prefer to use higher quality brands, student paints are still very helpful for underpainting and sketching due to there lower price.
  3. Artist and professional grade. That’s the main target for professional artists. Binders and pigment load vary, but most paints still contain fillers. If earlier information on pigment load was available in safety data sheets, for now it’s hard to find real numbers. According to our experience, pigment load in artist grade paints is between 15-70%. We will talk about pigment load in a special article.

Pigment used

One of the most important information for colour choice. Paint tube will indicate colour index (CI) that stands for chemical characteristics of pigment used. CI will start with N or P. ’N’ stands for ‘Natural’ and ‘P’ stands for ‘Pigment’. Then a colour identification comes: 

  • Y – Yellow
  • W – White
  • B – Blue
  • Br – Brown
  • Bl – Black
  • R – Red
  • V – violet
  • G – green
  • O – Orange

Index doesn’t show exactly the colour or a colour wheel. For example, PR101 is rather red-brown than bright red or PY42 is ochre but still refers to yellow colours.

Then index itself comes. It’s just a number. You can check pigment index names and their technical characteristics here >>

Transparency

This normally has 3 categories: transparent, semi-transparent and opaque. Usually manufacturers include a symbol – a square. If the square is empty the paint is transparent, if it’s half-filled – semitransparent and if the square is black the paint refers to opaque category.

Lightfastness

Nowadays that term is getting replaced with weather resistance, meaning how much paint will change its colours with time under different conditions: exposure to light, UV, moisture, temperature etc.

Safety note

Working with some pigments may involve some risks. For example, cadmiums and cobalts are known to contribute into cancer development. Emerald green (PG21) is extremely toxic and poisonous. Once used as a rat poison and to preserve wood. It was called a trendy color that killed many in victorian society. 

Some other pigments, such as zinc white, can be harmful for environment and are not supposed to be disposed into water or soil. Paints intended for sale in the USA should have safety warning for such pigments. In Canada paints may or may not contain such warnings.

And some other things that you should keep in mind:

  1. Not all ingredients used in paints will be on the label
  2. Term ‘acrylic emulsion’ or ‘acrylic dispersion’ combines many chemical ingredients, including ammonia and solvents and these ingredients will not be listed separately
  3. Oil paints may contain lead or barium sulphate fillers that will not be shown on the labels either
  4. Manufacturing date is normally absent on paint labels

As you can see, labels can give a lot of information on what’s inside. However, some very important things can be still omitted.

water based paints and water soluble paints
In: Manufacturing

Why water-based paints are not water-based

Now we can see more and more labels saying “water-based paint” or “water-based varnish” or “water-based medium”. In fact, only few kinds of products can be truly called “water-based”. Let’s look inside “water based paints” meaning.

Why company use “water-based” for their labels?

All these comes from the times when acrylic paints started to appear on the art supplies market and when a massive campaign against oil painting began. Wherever possible acrylic paint advocates poured a bucket of dirt on oil painting manufactures claiming that oil paints are toxic, not safe, and acrylic paints are much better, because they are water-based. Then the market was roughly split into “toxic oil-based” products and “safe water-based” ones with the big lie started.

Now manufacturers have many reasons to call more and more products “water-based” because:

  • “water” means natural and “water-based” attracts customers
  • “water-based” is a clear statement and easy to understand
  • labelling paints as “water-based” is a simple way to stay apart from alcohol- and oil-based ones.

Water-based vs water-soluble paints

A true meaning of “water-base” is a mixture or solution of pigment, dye or tint in water. We use these fluids for tinting plaster, paper, gesso or primer and other mediums. You can find tints at our shop too.

Manufacturers also use pigments dissolved in water for fresco painting, where wall plaster serves as a binder. For any other cases we need a binder to “glue” pigment particles together and keep them attached to a support, such as paper, canvas, wood etc. Binder is a base for any paint. So, water based paint meaning is very narrow. And talking about “water-based” paints we should rather say “water soluble” paints.

Water soluble paints include a very wide range of products:

  • watercolours (based on Arabic gum)
  • acrylic paints (based on acrylic dispersion or emulsion )
  • Latex paints (based on acrylic resin)
  • Water-soluble ink (based on acrylic dispersion)
  • Gouache (based on Arabic gum or acrylic dispersion)
  • PVAc tempera paints (based on poly vinyl acetate)
  • Casein paints (based on casein and oil)
  • Finger paints (based on dextrin, starch and other sugar-glue binders)

As you see, a spectrum of “water-based” paints is very wide and it doesn’t always mean “water plus pigment only” pair.

Potential other ingredients for water-soluble paints

Depending on kind of paint and its intent to use paints will have some other components beyond just binder:

  • Fillers – to make a tube look bigger and replace expensive components like pigments
  • Enhancers – to make paints spread easier, enrich colours or achieve other properties, like opacity/transparency, increase viscosity, add gloss or matt finish, reduce or increase drying time and other
  • Preservatives – to prevent mold growing and extend shelf life
  • Humectants – to prevent paints from drying 

And here we can find some harmless components, such as honey, clays, marble dust, corn syrup, starches, dextrin, essential oils, resins, silica, glycerine etc. 

On top of those paints most likely will contain one or more of those: isopropyl alcohol, white spirits, solvents, ammonia, formalin, phthalates, xylene and other.

Always check list of ingredients, especially if work indoors. Manufacture safety data sheets do not disclose all information.

You can read more about different ingredients of paints and how they contribute into your art and your health in our knowledge base. And get updates to your email with our newsletter.

Art lessons with a professional artist - all levels to advanced welcome
In: News

“My goal is to help you discover yourself as an artist” – Elena NL

Elena Nahum Leroy is an art instructor, teaching drawing and painting art lessons since 2009 (in-person and online). Here you can find the most frequently asked questions regarding her way of teaching and what to expect from the classes with her.

What is Elena’s teaching experience?

Elena has been teaching classes since 2009 and she has crossed the line of 2000 students since that time. In winter 2020, right before COVID-19 restrictions, she had about 80 students she was personally teaching on weekly basis and her school RUSART Fine Arts Co. had over 200 “weekly” art students in total.

What are Elena’s mediums?

There are many 2D art mediums:

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • soft pastel,
  • oil pastel,
  • drawing,
  • ink,
  • markers,
  • coloured pencils,
  • collage,
  • mixed media.

Depending your level, Elena can help you with the mediums.

Art classes in Ottawa region - children, youth, adults, portfolio preparationBeginner’s level means you have never used this or that medium before or had some experience playing around (like paint parties). Elena can introduce you absolutely all listed mediums all the way from the beginning to upper intermediate level.  

Upper intermediate means you can freely work in a certain medium, but you still need professional advice on your ideas, material use, colour balancing and finishing your project (like portfolio preparation). Starting from this point Elena can help you with

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • soft pastel,
  • oil pastel,
  • drawing,
  • coloured pencils,
  • collage,
  • mixed media.

And if you need assistance at Advanced level, when you can freely work in a certain medium, but need deeper knowledge of techniques, materials, pastes, archival properties etc., Elena can help you with:

  • acrylic,
  • oil,
  • watercolours,
  • drawing, and
  • mixed media.

Oil Painting Lessons for Youth and Adults in OttawaWhat is Elena’s goal of teaching?

“I’m sure that if you decided to take art classes you’re already an artist inside and my role is to help you to find yourself.” – That’s what Elena is saying about her way of teaching.

Art is not a science and what works there may not work here. Yes, there are a lot of rules to know, but following the rules is not the key. For example, we can find “mistakes” in master pieces by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Eduard Manet, Edgar Degas and many other masters and famous artists. But their work are masterpieces regardless “mistakes”. The soul, not the rules, brings a picture to life and makes it look remarkable. So, the goal of art sessions here is to let another artist – YOU – to appear.

How your regular art lesson will look like?

You with your teacher will choose a project for your art lessons together. A project that matches your tastes, goals, and skills. Elena will tell you different ways of how this project can “go” and you choose which way looks better to you. Elena will explain what to do step-by-step to create your very own artwork in YOUR WAY. You’ll learn basics of composition, perspective, material use, and mixing colours.

The more projects you make with Elena the more styles and techniques you’ll try and learn. The goal here is to introduce as many styles and techniques as possible, so in the future you can choose what you like better and find yourself in arts. Even if you find this or that style too challenging or not a good match to your personality, at least you tried it and made a choice. Normally students prefer starting with realism (academism) as the classical way to study.

Pencils Drawing Private Lessons in ON and QCWhat about homework and independent practice?

Sometimes you’ll be asked to start painting or drawing from what you see, with no instruction for a short time, but with a thorough feedback from Elena. It may be a little bit frustrating at first to work on your own, but only this helps develop observation skills, wake up your mind, reveal your artistic personality, and eventually will make you independent.

If a painting or drawing implies repetition, you may be offered to do repetitive things at home, provided you have time and space for the homework. Yes, we’re trying to save your classroom time.

Does Elena paint for her students?

You may see big improvements after the first sessions or it may take some longer time, but you’ll definitely see progress from the first lesson. It may parents and friends think that Elena is drawing or painting for her students. This myth was completely gone after she switched to online art
lessons during pandemic times. There is no way she can touch your work via zoom.

But still she can make some demo on your work when it’s really needed or she can make finial touch if asked by a student. All these are the same for both kids and adults.

Does Elena help with portfolio?

Elena’s students get awards, participate in art shows and even sell their paintings! And yes, Elena also helps prepare portfolios for universities, colleges and art schools.

Where can I learn more about Elena Nahum Leroy?

 

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