With impasto painting the medium is highly important. The medium
chosen will dictate the texture or form of the painting. There are two types of
paint that can successfully work to create this textured, raised surface which
is evident in impasto paintings; first being oil paint. This is the most
popular choice as it is easy to manipulate because it takes a long time to dry.
Using oil based paint means that the artist can gradually build up the painting
and because it is a slow drying process means that the artist can change and
make corrections whereas before with the use of egg tempera this would have been difficult because it
dried very quickly. With the artist building up the painting gradually it
creates layers automatically creating this raised surface. The second
paint is Acrylic. This is a water based paint which is fast drying, it can be
water down to give the affect of watercolour, or can be applied thickly to give
the characteristic of oil paint. The main difference between acrylic and oil paint
is the drying time, oil paint allows
for more time to the blend colors together and apply even glazes over under
paintings this can an advantage for tonal impasto works, by can be a
disadvantage for artists working quickly with vibrant colours.
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| Jenny Saville Bleach oil on canvas 2008 |
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David Agenjo
TianYin Wang
Acrylic on canvas
2011
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One thing that I notice about oil impasto vs acrylic is that oil retains the brush strokes. Even though it takes longer to dry, I think it dries from the inside out. Acrylic forms a skin which when dry shrinks and when it shrinks it gets tight and all the brushstrokes are lost.
ReplyDeleteI bought some acrylic heavy gel which goes on cloudy and unfortunately it stays cloudy for almost a week if applied thickly so you have no idea the effect it will produce for almost a week. You have no idea what it's going to look like so what good is it? The tube gel for oil appears to be clear even in the tube so this would be a much better choice for clear impasto.
ReplyDeleteThat's beautiful!
ReplyDeleteUsing Elcometer will help to measure thickness