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The question of the day is…

Why do I have so much acrylic paint?!

I was trying to get organized today, and put all my brands of acrylic paint together by color. I’ve got the higher grade Liquitex and Golden paints, and I’ve got many brands of craft paint. They have different consistencies, some being more fluid than others. They also have different opacities. The professional, or artist’s grade paint varies from some craft paint in that it doesn’t have additives, and there is, generally, more pigment in the paint. Additives theoretically weaken the chemical bond that holds the paint together to some degree, and thus, weaken the adhesion of the paint to certain surfaces. Water does the same thing. It is best to mix acrylic paint with mediums instead. Mediums are acrylic polymer emulsions, which is what the paint itself is made of, only the paint has pigment added to it.

By contrast, these are my boxes of watercolor paint. Not nearly as large a collection. Here’s the deal…Watercolor mixes so much more nicely. The colors are soft and natural looking. I can also mix watercolor instinctively, probably because I grew up watching my mom paint. I’m sure I passively absorbed a lot of mixing knowledge.

Acrylic, on the other hand, is so vibrant in its purest form, the professional grade, that it can be frustrating to mix. Colors don’t do what I expect them to do, and they come out too strong for my taste. The craft paint comes in hundreds of soft colors that I like much better. So, to compensate for the possible additives, I try mixing craft paint with, and coating it with acrylic medium, and then coating it with varnish. Mediums can also be like glue that lock things in, like when you do decoupage. I also mix both grades of paint together. Sometimes it isn’t clear from the labels on the acrylic paint brands that you find in craft stores, which grade they are, or if they have additives at all. The only thing I can say is that the pigments are not as strong, which can work to your advantage in some instances.

Oil, with its more natural-looking colors, is of course an option for anyone who doesn’t mind the smell, the longer drying time, and the cleanup issues. I like to take the non-toxic route and clean up with water. I can’t stand the oil smell either.

I shrank a loose canvas recently, but then someone furry, with pointy ears and a tail sat on it. It got all saggy again. I had some unprimed canvas, and this morning, I pulled the factory canvas off to replace it. I had to staple and re-staple to get it right.

I finally got two canvases done, primed with gesso, and coated with a couple of layers of white paint. The texture is still not as smooth as the factory canvases, but I can’t keep fussing! Sometimes these small, fix-it projects aren’t worthwhile. I think these will work out okay though.
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Still fusing the world together, one piece at a time

Okay, yeah, that would be an ambitious project, and I’m not sure a necessarily good one to take on. I am, however, still fusing my appliquéd pieces together for my Lucy dolls. I know these don’t look all that different here from the last time I posted about them, but I’ve gotten more done on them. They just don’t look like “something” until they come together, all sewn and stuffed, and they take a long time to make. I’ll be embellishing them next.

Thanks everyone who wrote to tell me they voted for my “Hug Me! Slug” in Etsy’s Handmade Kids Challenge, and thanks to everyone who didn’t write to tell me they voted too 😉 The polls are open until September 8th. You can still vote for my Gerard the “Hug Me! Slug” here (if you haven’t already)…I really appreciate it!

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Please vote for me!!!

I’m a finalist in the Etsy Handmade Kids Challenge! I’m so happy! Gerard, my “Hug Me! Slug” is is in the toy category. Please, please, please go vote for him (and me!) here. All you need is an Etsy user ID. It’s free and easy to get one. You can vote only once in each category and, by voting, you get a chance to win an Etsy shopping spree. You can read all about the Handmade Kids Challenge and Sweepstakes here.

This is Gerard. He has already found a home, but you can still see his listing here.

The photos on the voting page rearrange themselves, and so you might have to look for him a little on the page. Etsy will be having a guest panel of judges from Boingboing, Cookie, decor8, Martha Stewart Living, Ohdeedoh, Parents and Treehugger. I’m so excited. I have been on Etsy for some time now, hoping to be found amidst the many handmade items by all sorts of artists and craftspeople. Thanks Etsy!

Gerard is happy about it too, or I’m sure he would be. I hope someone will tell him!

I’m still making my dolls. They got dresses, stockings, and shoes today, or some of them did. I’m making progress.
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Sunday afternoon

I’m gessoing some little, very little, canvases this afternoon. The canvas looked wobbly and loose on one, and so I dunked it in hot water to shrink it. I should have done that before I added more gesso, since it did shrink and my new coat of gesso came puckering off.

I’m going to try some mini animal portraits. I have no idea what that will be like, especially with acrylic paint on canvas. The texture of the canvas and the heaviness of the paint might be a challenge to getting fine detail. They are only 3 x 4 inches. They should be relatively fast to get painted at least, and I need some quicker path to satisfaction while I’m making all my dolls. It’s good to make a bunch of things simultaneously because you can be more organized about it, but it’s bad in that you have to wait so long to have that sense of accomplishment you get when you are holding something finished in your hands.

I also picked up a new journal for myself. I’ve been journaling since I was twelve or thirteen, but I’ve always picked out plain school-type spiral notebooks. I’m intimidated by anything too “fancy”. I used to write in them more regularly. In recent years, I’ve tended to turn to them almost only when I’ve been sad or angry, and don’t want to overburden anyone else by talking about it too much. I hate to think what my life will look like to anyone who might read them someday! I am cheerful most of the time, and I am hoping by having a more cheerful looking journal, I might be tempted to “branch out” again.

I’ve had this Cat Steven’s song in my head for a couple of days now, “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out“, from Harold and Maude.

I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and there have been moments when I’ve had to stop myself and remember that my life really isn’t, and doesn’t have to be, complicated. I have a home, enough to sustain me, people (and kitties) who love me, and things to do that I enjoy and find rewarding. I’ve tried too hard, in recent years, to add one more very-important-to-me thing to my life, a family of my own, and in doing that, I have tried too hard to accept a lot of unhappiness. I feel like I am at a crossroads, emotionally, where I need to choose to release myself from the pressure I feel, choose to have faith in my own future, and not be sad about it. I’ve said a lot of things would “never” happen for me before in my life, and been very wrong.