PAINTERS: HIE THEE TO A DOLLAR STORE!

Cheap and plastic, yes, but thrifty!

Save paint in these containers...they have lids!

And the painting knives would be great for kids.

(Kids don't always clean their tools properly.)

And you get three knives to a package! 

Mixed media artist could use these so often!

Dollar Tree or Dollar General, I don't recall, but well worth a trip!

NEW WAYS TO LIQUEFY YOUR TUBE ACRYLICS

AND DO IT WITH COMMON HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS!

 Today’s post is an addition to or further exploration of my last post, where I used Future floor polish (now called Pledge Floor Care with Future shine), basically a clear acrylic emulsion about as viscous as vegetable oil. I learned that it was a great extender or flow improver. Future floor polish is also both a great clear coat on finishes (especially on Yupo!), and a barrier between two different kinds of finishes.

Thin, flowy acrylics can be used to drip, spatter, pour, as an ink in pens, airbrushes, and squeeze bottles. They also make great glazes, especially when added to clear acrylic medium. But thinning acrylics can be tricky! Your paint MUST be like skim milk WITHOUT any lumps! I thinned and creamed the tube or craft paint with a little water first.

Many of you may already know that isopropyl alcohol can be splattered into wet, fluid acrylics to create a cool effect.

Well, it can also be used as an acrylic paint thinner! But this time I will discuss another unconventional, unexpected thinning medium. 


This stuff works great to liquefy acrylic paint!



Thinning Acrylics with Glass Cleaner

In its usual form, glass cleaner is a blue tinted liquid. Unlike the floor polish, glass cleaner has no acrylic binder so it cannot extend the paint, merely thin it. Glass cleaner has a tiny amount of detergent and some alcohol to reduce surface tension of the water. Most glass cleaners also have ammonia which helps to keep acrylic emulsions liquified.

TIP: Next time you finish a painting session with leftover paint, make some of it liquid and pour into a clean spray or squeeze bottle. Be sure to label the bottle as "fluid." 

Hey, thanks for viewing this post...I hope you try this stuff, as well as
the floor polish and the alcohol!

And have fun, fun, fun till your daddy takes the T-Bird away!



Just Messin' Around with Leftover Art Materials

DON'T DISCARD DRIBS & DABS

Here's a great way to use up art media rather
than throwing it away!

 

Even the support for this exploration should be spare sturdy paper, cardboard, foam core, or an unwanted painting. Use it up!

 

As you finish an art-making session, stroke leftover paint here and there onto the spare substrate. (It helps clean your brushes of excess paint, too.) Eventually you might like the colors and effects enough to use the painting as a background for a new work!

 

Here's what I did with some fine sand I had mixed with golden ochre paint and fluid acrylic medium:

 

 

 

 

I applied the mixture to foam core and drew into it
to create the lines you see. Note the leftover bit of tissue I adhered to one corner when I ran out of sand.

 

A day later and another painting sesh finished,

I saved extra inks by applying them to my (now dry) sandy "spare."

It was teal Bombay India ink and Scattered Straw distress ink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On another day, I added burnt sienna airbrush color, which is liquid. Next, I made a blackened blue mixture from leftover acrylics and used that in places. Still not done!

Finally, I added accents of vivid red-orange and white. Sand (even mixed with acrylic medium) is very absorbent, I found!

 

Since you never, ever, EVER want to rinse acrylic paint down your pipes, this is a great way to use up extra paint & experiment at the same time. Just mess around a bit!

 

 

 

 

 



Painting Tip Brought to You by the Folks at CPi!

This little pointer is for the artist with an Rx! I use my clean, empty pill bottles to save leftover acrylic paint. When I've finished a painting session, I simply cannot waste that expensive paint, let alone add it to the landfill. If you use this tip, be sure to paint a dab of the color on the lid, since colored pill bottles make it difficult to tell which color paint is inside!
This tip is one of many in The Complete Photo Guide to Creative Painting, available now online and in bookstores.