Phil Garrett - Inside Acrylics: Studio Secrets from Todays Top Artists

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To my loving family: Zelphia Louise Miller, Carey Elizabeth Garrett and David Robert Garrett.

MEMENTO/JONES GAP II

Phil Garrett

Acrylic on canvas

36 36 (91cm 91cm)

This book is a guide for painters of all skill levels seeking a comprehensive and user-friendly approach to working with acrylic paints and their respective gels and mediums to achieve a level of finesse that has traditionally been the domain of oil paints.

The great thing about acrylics is their versatility. They can be used in varying degrees of thick and thin within the same painting, and you arent beholden to many of the traditional rules that can hamper other media. And with the addition of the new slow-drying (open) paints, acrylic artists now have a whole range of drying-time options that werent available to them before.

The artists included in this book all have distinctive approaches to working with acrylic paints and techniques they have developed over many years of trial and error. They are happy to share that expertise with you. In fact, I am going to give you one of my top secrets for painting success right now: Paint all the time! The more you practice, the more informed your technique will become, and the better your artwork will be.

Happy painting!

MEMENTO NIKKO

Phil Garrett

Acrylic on panel

36 36 (91cm 91cm)

Private collection

Acrylic paint has such appeal to me and the other artists in this book because of its versatility. An artist can paint on paper, canvas or linen, and vary the approach on all those different surfaces with the same set of acrylic paints.

This chapter will cover the tools, materials and studio set-ups that I feel are essential to the contemporary acrylic painter. Over time, as you progress in your own creative process, you will discover other tools and methods of your own.

Painting is physical work and demands a working set-up that affords ease of movement and the ability to work in relative comfort for extended periods of time.

The options for easels and work tables (taborets) are varied. I use several easels in my studioa large double-masted easel that cranks up and down for large canvas and heavy panels, a windmill-type easel that allows me to spin a painting as I work on it (great for glazing large areas upside down to avoid drips!), and an easel that can be vertical or lay flat.

I have several work tables as well. I use a heavy wooden table on large casters for starting smaller paintings, building panels and varnishing. I have a metal kitchen island table on casters that serves as my palette and has storage underneath for gels, mediums, grounds and larger containers of paint.

I also have vertical storage for finished work, flat files for works on paper and enumerable other storage systems for paint, brushes, source materials, etc.

An artists heaven is an uncluttered, well lit space. At least thats what I hear!

Paint is basically made up of two thingspigment and binder. The pigment carries the substance or color. The binder forms the film that adheres that substance or color. A high-quality pigment will be the same or similar in all professional-grade artist paints. The difference between the different types of paints is related to the binder, not the pigment.

The binder for acrylic paint is a mix of acrylic solids in water. Acrylic binder is very flexible and structurally suitable for a lot of different supportsfrom stretched canvas to solid panels to walls. With the same system of acrylic paints, an artist can paint on paper, canvas or linen with various approaches on all of those different surfaces. It can be thinned with water and used like watercolor or thickened with gel to do incredible impastoed painting knife work.

Acrylic paints come in various formulations. The most common types that well focus on for the purposes of this book are heavy body, fluid and the new open (slow drying) acrylics.

Heavy body acrylics are thick and creamy. They are meant to be used like tube oil paints. Heavy body acrylics thin much easier with acrylic medium than they do with water.

Open acrylics are similar in consistency to heavy body paints and have the advantage of a longer drying time. This can make it easier to control blending and glazing.

Fluid acrylics work best for smoother applications and are easily thinned with water to make watercolor-like washes.

I teach a workshop on acrylic-like oils. One of the first things I tell my students is that if you want a rich vibrant paint, do not use water as a thinner. Because acrylic binder is made of water and acrylic solids, adding more water to the mixture upsets the balance of solids to pigment, resulting in a flatter and duller paint.

Obviously, if you are using acrylics like watercolor this doesnt apply. For most of what we will focus on in this book, however, adding some other form of binder is essential. Polymer mediums and gels come in many variations and work well as binders for keeping a rich paint application. Lets look at some examples.