Sculpted Skins
Amy Shawley
A fun way that I like to incorporate textures and forms into my work is to use acrylic "skins". Skins happen when you apply acrylic paints and mediums to surface they won't stick to - when the acrylic is dry, you can peel it right off...for this project I used Reynolds freezer paper. Follow the steps below to see how you can make sculpted skins!
Above you will see the first couple steps to the process...I've taped some freezer paper around a cutting mat to have a sturdy support, then I pick my tools to apply the acrylic materials. Then I draw my outline for the skins and start to fill in the lines. I will typically "block in" the larger areas with a palette knife, then texture the top with a brush, and clean up my edges with a rubber paint shaper. The middle image above shows my finished sculpted trees, one done in Fiber Paste, the other in High Solid Gel (Matte). On the right you can see how I've start to peel back the skin after it has dried and cured...this usually takes a day (though this process may differ in your own studio given changes in ambient temperature and humidity).
The next step is to adhere your skins to your substrate...here I've chosen a hardboard that I gessoed (not in the photo is the second layer I applied on the board prior to skin adhesion which was Light Molding Paste). I used Matte Medium as my adhesive and glued the skins down to my board prepared with Light Molding Paste...when the adhesive was dry, then it was time to embellish the image with color...
Since I had Light Molding Paste in my background beneath the skins, I was able to do a wash of color. Think about how you will want to treat your surface with color before applying your skins. I wanted an absorbent finish to do washes, so I chose an absorbent paste...but if you want glazes or smooth blending in your background, you may consider using a material that dries to a smooth finish. I used Fluid acrylics in their full strength (no water added) to color the tree trunks and branches, then "feathered" some full strength neutral hues into the dampened surface around the tree bottoms.
I continued to add color over my Light Molding Paste, then when I was satisfied with my color washes, I let them dry then poured a layer of Clear Tar Gel over the whole surface to achieve a unified smoothness to the surface. After this was dry, I cancelled the gloss of the Clear Tar Gel by painting on a thin layer of Matte Medium, then added some color glazes on top of that.
Above you can see a side angle of how the texture of the skins stands out from the painting surface.
Another way to make sculpted skins is to used a mold (above), the process is a bit more advanced, so that I will save for a separate blog post!
I hope you will try making these at home! Please feel welcome to post your experiences with skins in the comments section below!