Experiments with Grounds

Typically when I start a painting, I like to begin with a "ground" (base layer).  Some acrylic materials are called "grounds", but you can use a variety of products as a ground.  Whether you are painting on canvas, wood, paper, or other substrate, most often it helps to prime the surface first to ensure the color you apply will be best received in your desired application.  For example, if you are painting on wood, canvas, masonite or other surface that has a darker color to it, it's very common to coat it with gesso, which is a white ground with a fine tooth to it (most pre-stretched canvases already come with gesso on them, that is why they are white).  Painting over a white surface will make your colors look brighter and truer, especially when you are doing washes or glazes where you are applying your color in thinly to expose its undertone.  It's also fun to paint over tinted grounds or absorbent grounds AND to use grounds in other layers of your paintings, not just the base layer!

One thing to note about grounds is their "tooth", which is the degree of roughness to the surface (think sandpaper!).  Most grounds have a finer tooth, but you can create a ground with a rougher tooth by using materials that have more grit to them.  Lately I've been mixing up my own grounds from a recipe of 2 or more materials, though sometimes I like to revisit single materials and this week I've been doing just that by experimenting with Acrylic Ground for Pastels and Micaceous Iron Oxide.  The tooth of both these materials is very fine, which makes for a lovely surface for applying both dry media and stains of color.

Micaceous Iron Oxide is one of Golden's Iridescent colors, it is made from hematite ore and dries to a dark gray.  It is a gorgeous material that I love adding to my work, especially in selective areas for an unexpected sparkly finish.  For my Micaceous experiment, I prepared a canvas surface with a thin layer of Acrylic Ground for Pastels, then made a drawing.  On top of the drawing, I drew in lines of Fluid Micaceous Iron Oxide (has more flow than the HeavyBody version), and I also created subtle stains by dampening areas of the drawing, then buffing in some "MIO" with a stiff brush.  I also painted a layer of Titanium White in the background and around the edges of my drawing to mask out unwanted pencil lines.

The effect of the Micaceous looks like a glittery graphite and because it has a tooth to it, I can now go over this underpainted layer with color washes and more illustration!

This next image is also a work in progress... my first layer was Acrylic Ground for Pastels applied thinly over a canvas using a long metal palette knife.  After this layer of "AGP" dried, I dampened it with water using a wide synthetic brush, then applied stains of Fluid Acrylic color.  I really enjoy watching how stains travel across this surface!

For my second layer, I wanted some irregular texture, so I ripped up some pieces of chessecloth and adhered them down with an acrylic gel mixture that simulates an encaustic beeswax...using a flexible metal palette knife will help ensure a smooth application of the gel.  The photo on the right shows this gel as being white, because it was still wet when I took the photo.  It has since dried and I've applied my third layer which was another thin application of Acrylic Ground for Pastels (no photo yet). AGP is translucent in a thin layer, so after it dried, I could still see my underpainted layers.  My goal on this project was to create a surface I could use for illustration...the canvas is now prepped and my fourth layer will be a drawing. 

Stay tuned for updates of these layered projects as well as other layering tips and techniques!