When I first started doing art all those years ago I drew pictures. Even when I painted I more or less drew pictures. But one day I became a painter, and my first foray into the painting realm was using water colors. You can get all kinds of nifty effects using water color but because of their transparent nature once you do something you are kind of stuck with it. Sure you can do lifts, etc, but I ultimately transitioned into acrylic paint because it dried fast, was opaque and allowed me to do “watercolor” the way I wanted to do it. However there are a few things that acrylic paint does not lend itself well to that watercolor did brilliantly — it did not do the wet on wet fuzzy blend and it really did not run very well.
However things have changed in the land of acrylic paints. More mediums and types of paint are now available than ever before.
Recently I spend a decent chunk of change on some new art supplies, Golden Fluid Acrylics. I purchased 18 bottles of paint and some flow released for about $300. Some of you out there are probably thinking, “Wow that is a lot of money for that paint. I can pick up my Series 7 for a lot less than that.” I have used Series 7 and other student grade paints. They tend to have a much lower pigment load so it limits what you can do with them. I find using professional paints and mediums to be fairly cost effective, and a lot more versatile-I can’t go back to using cheap paint having experienced using the good stuff. I also purchased locally instead of online, which probably could have saved me some coin, but I have another philosophy about supporting local retailers when I can.
Had to show an image of my new art supplies. We artists get excited about things like that-Jake Beckman
Anyway, the reason I did this purchase is because I wanted to play with runny paint. As I move into the abstract realm with my art I felt a bit limited in the effects I could achieve using my heavy bodied paints and mediums. Sometimes I like splattering, dripping and runny paint. Of course I started playing with them right away. So far I have determine if you use the flow release as directed, you do indeed get paint that is as watery as you want it to be. It splatters well out of a misting bottle.
One way I have been using the flow release is to make a 10 water to 1 flow release mix in a misting bottle then spray it onto the wet paint on the canvas. Gives you a bit more control over fuzzy blending effects.
I have also mixed paint and flow release in a small cup (I got some disposible 2.5 oz plastic cups at a restaurant supply to use for mixing small quantities of this or that) and then drooled it on a vertical canvas. Very nice.
If you want to drip paint ala Jackson Pollock, thinning down tar gel & paint mix in a squeeze bottle creates a thicker stringier paint strand.
The fluid acrylics have nice high pigment load & a slightly viscous consistency. They paint smoothly. Because of the pigment load you can use water as a thinner without having the color break.
In the abstract painting Solar Flare I made use of the spraying flow release and water on wet paint & drooling paint techniques I just describe to create some nice random patterns on my painting. 
After I decided it was drooled on enough, I splattered it with orange paint, then used a fine brush to pick out edge detail I liked. Sometime the idea of doing the concentric circles occurred to me, and then I worked it over to unify the painting better.
Solar Flare, abstract painting 11 inch x14 inch in red, yellow, orange and brown acrylic paint on watercolor paper by Jake Beckman
I hope you like it. Solar Flare is painted on a sheet of 11x14 inch cold press water color paper, which was painted on both sides with gesso before applying the acrylic paint. Solar Flare is for sale, make me an offer.
Yours in Art
Jake, Artist, AKAJake.com Come Experience the Art!
The artist has federally copyrighted all the artwork in this blog. The artist retains all reproduction and publishing copyrights. You may not copy, re-distribute, imitate, derive OR otherwise use these images in any form without the explicit written permission of the artist.
