And the plan now is to buy a good daylight lamp (just done in fact), so that I’m not stopped by the British winter gloom in these winter months
Soooooo….stuff learned in the process of doing my first ever oil paintng:
- A BIG canvas takes lot longer time than a smaller one , not JUST because it’s bigger, but because it’s harder to take the whole thing in as you work on it, and really you should have about 10ft at least to back away to see what your doing/what you’ve done and I had about 2!!
- Oil pastel never dries! Well I kind of knew this from having worked a lot with it in the past, but of course oil paint does, and whether you’re supposed to use both together (probably not!), and what the long term effects might be…..who knows. Anyway, I was about to put on the final layer on Friday – the net veil, which of course had to be last, as it was overlaid on the whole dress in reality, but even as I mixed up the watery (white spirity) paint for the purpose, I suddenly thought ‘this will melt the oil pastel and result in horrible big streaks across everything’. Luckily I thought this before I put brush to canvas, but anyway……so after much researching myself and hanging on the phone to a certain art suppliers who I’m afraid to say were not much use after spending about 15 mins to get though in the first place, and then being left with a silent line and me thinking I’d been forgotten about, and then having no joy at all, I tried searching the website of another art suppliers for a certain kind of matt varnish which is apparently the best thing to use as a fixative for oil pastel, and hey presto – they have it! Cass Art are the people, and their website is VERY good – well organised and easy to find what you’re looking for quickly.
- NB, this varnish is actually only the ‘Satin’ finish, as they don’t do the matt, but see below, in ‘MORE lengthy research’…
- Atlantis Art are the cheapest, best and have the biggest selection of canvas sizes to choose from and delivery is reasonable. (I decided against struggling on to a crowded tube train and overground train with even a smallish canvas (3 x 4ft say?) – no, that just wouldn’t work…..:-/
- After even MORE lengthy research, I have tracked down the MTN 94 matt varnish – the only supplier I have found in the UK, and that’s ‘Suspect Package’ in Manchester. I am now down with the hood (!) of graffiti artists in one of the coolest cities in the country, to whom they obviously supply every single colour that the spray paint company produces, plus the varnishes and loads of other stuff. They don’t have a flashy website, and seem to operate through their facebook page, and are obviously doing very well. There’s some nice images on said page too…have a look here. I’m good at tracking stuff down….
Speak soon, and Merry Christmas we’re almost there whether you like it or not!
Bobbie