The Artist Surfaces Company

The Artist Surfaces Company make high quality, stretcher bars and canvases and hand-made artist surfaces and products for artists, galleries and museums in the UK and offer 10% student discount. Their expert team is made up of staff who have had over 20 years experience in the art industry, making and selling museum quality artist surfaces products for one of London’s previous, most prestigious framers, John Jones. www.theartistsurfacescompany.co.uk 020 3488 3462 sales@theartistsurfacescompany.co.uk The workshop address; The Sawmill, 27 Ayot Green Welwyn, Herts AL6 9BA

The Methods Room – Graduate Painting

A website generated by Graduate Painting entitled “The Methods Room”, presents our two research projects: the Material Research Project and the Discourse Project. Website: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/methods-room/​  It’s a virtual mirror of the actual Methods Room in Studio 2 – please also check that out! It can also be accessed through the main Slade website under “Research – Material Research Project”.

Graphite

This e.book introduces the exhibition ‘Grey Matters: Graphite’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum held in November 2011 – March 2012. The book by Jane Munro provides an illustrated analysis of the many works featured in the show. It includes an historical overview of the material, it’s origins and many uses over four centuries. Graphite

How to Make Oil Pastels

“How To Make Oil Pastels” by Kenneth Leslie -exerpt from Oil Pastel: Materials and Technique for Today’s Artist What You Will Need: Pigment Turpentine Stand Oil Blended White Beeswax A large can that fits in an old pot, to serve as a double boiler Large palette knife Soft clay or homemade modeling dough (see recipe below) Plate glass or plexiglass on which to grind pigments Rubber gloves to protect hands from hot drips ——————- (Recipe for modeling dough) 1 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup salt 1 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 tablespoons cream of tartar 3 tablespoons vegetable oil Mix Read more

Egg tempera on MDF

Eun’s Painting 2011. Support – MDF. Ground – One layer of handmade gesso:  Gelatine and whitening, with titianium white pigment. Paint – Three layers of each coloured pigment, 10 pigments in total Each pigment is mixed with a little titainium white to lighten the tone, as mixing with egg yolk, as well as three layers can darken the colour slightly. Binder – egg yolk and water The images show 1 cm sections of the painting. Sanded paint surface.

Paper: Watercolour Paper

Watercolour Paper Machine-made watercolor papers come in three surfaces: Rough Hot-pressed or HP Cold-pressed (or NOT). Rough watercolor paper has a prominent tooth, or textured surface. This creates a grainy effect as pools of water collect in the indentations in the paper. Hot-pressed watercolor paper has a fine-grained, smooth surface, with almost no tooth. Paint dries very quickly on it. This makes it ideal for large, even washes of color. Cold-pressed watercolor paper has a slightly textured surface, somewhere in between rough and hot-pressed paper. Watercolor paper differs from manufacturer to manufacturer, so experiment not only with the different kinds Read more

Sanded gesso ground

15mm section of acrylic gesso surface. This surface shows three layers of acrylic gesso. Each layer is sanded to achieve a very smooth even ground for painting. The surprise with this image is the apparently rough appearance of the surface close up. perhaps it needs more sanding..

Gels

Impasto gels are thick gels used to create heavy impasto textures and to give colours more body and volume. They may be used alone, mixed with, or painted over with acrylic colours to impart different sheens and textures to colours. Impasto Gels are flexible and will not crack even when applied in thick layers. They have excellent adhesive properties. painting_materials_lascaux_gels

Acrylic size

Sizing minimizes the penetration of the priming and paint layers to the back of the canvas -making the canvas impervious before applying primer Hydro Sealer is used for sizing or preparing substrates ranging from moderately porous concrete to highly absorbent sand plaster before applying acrylic colours. painting_materials_lascauxproduct_size

Acrylic Size

Lascaux  Acrylic Size Plextol D498 The above are two examples of synthetic materials that can be used in place of animal based sizes. Although they are intended for use in acrylic based systems they can be used in conjunction with commercially produced oil primers although it is advisable to use acrylic primers over acrylic sizes. PVA is prone to deterioration and should be avoided. Acrylic priming systems are easier to use; unlike traditional materials, their properties are predictable, strengths do not vary from batch to batch and the entire process is speeded up.