Check my portfolio for 6 new pieces from the past few months! I’ve been working in acrylics lately, using acrylic glazing medium to make my acrylics behave a bit like oils in glazes that dry a LOT faster!
“Revontulet” – acrylic on canvas, 2.5 feet x 5 feet. A painting of the aurora borealis. I wanted to create the atmosphere of a distant memory of this event, almost mystical and mythical in scope. I used a dark indigo ground and mixed a little metallic blue paint into the wispy light areas that I built up slowly with very thin layers of glaze to make it stand out.
“Foggy Night” 18″x24″, acrylic on canvas board. A foggy night over a riverbank. I tried a new effect with a hazy, cloudy background and pointillism laid over it using metallic paint. I wanted to create the impression of droplets against a glass window, or a car windshield, and I wanted the sharpness of the dots to make the fogginess of the background look even hazier in contrast. This is an imaginary landscape.
“Annexation” acrylic on canvas, 32″x18″ A harrowing image of a child being abducted by the Slender Man. I used pointillism laid over a blue and purple solid ground to emphasize the barely remembered, nightmarish aspects of the mythical event. This painting explores irrational fears of the dark and of being a child alone in a vast, scary place.
“Nude with Drapes” acrylic on canvas, 18″x24″. A basic portrait with a model. I used thin glazes of acrylic to create a gauzy effect.
“Cistern Branches” acrylic on wood, 18″x12″. Tree branches in the Cistern yard at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina.
“Cistern Bench” acrylic on canvas board, 9″x12″. Another view of the beautiful, historic Cistern at CofC, in Charleston, SC. My favourite place on campus (when it’s not full of mosquitoes).
Hi, Alizey,
Great work. I love your effects! I am looking to glaze a big painting as part of the background. How did you do the “foggy” in Foggy Night. It’s awesome.
Thanks,
NIna
Hi Nina! Do you use oils or acrylics? I used acrylics for this painting; I added a lot of Golden brand Acrylic Glazing Medium to thin down my pigments and applied them in thin layers of many complementary colors. I also used a few metallic paints mixed with the Glazing medium and alternated them with matte paints (although the glazing medium gives a satin finish) in layers to give depth to my background. The overlay of dots gave it further depth, as I was trying to mimic the effect of raindrops on a window.
In oils, I would simply recommend adding a lot of oil medium (Galkyd is my favourite) to thin down the paint, and then applying it in thin layers, letting each one dry before adding the next one.
Hope this helps! Good luck on your painting. I’d love to see it when it’s done!
Hey, Alizey,
Thanks so much! I used to use oils but switched to acrylics. Your comments are very helpful. I am going to do some practice attempts – adding the metallics is a great idea. I’ll be happy to send my painting when I finish it – which will be a while. Nina