Throwing Caution to the Wind

By painful experience (the kind that really teaches!) I have learned that I have to test my materials. Last week I tested whether gold iridescent InkAid (the magic goop I use to print digital inks on top of acrylic paint) that has been shaken and let settle for 24 hours produces less bubbles on application than Ink Aid that is just shaken and used immediately. (It does, so now there are no little burst bubbles all over my artwork.) I tested which of my various acrylic gels and pastes that call themselves clear, actually are clear when I make textures on top of paint instead of cloudy. (Clear modeling paste turns out not to be clear – Grrr.) Previously I tested various finishing substances to protect my artwork from UV rays and abrasion, but now I want to do those tests again with new products as the one I used before is a dreadfully toxic aerosol and who wants to do that. The list of tests done and tests yet to be done goes on, but I think you get the picture.

I’m careful to make sure that I’m only testing one thing at a time. I have a little black book in which I write down what I’m testing and in red pencil I write what the result was. After I get the result, I write down what the next tests should be. I feel I should be wearing a white lab coat and have a clipboard. When I do these tests I feel very grown up and sensible.  However the problem with testing is that  it can go on forever. There is always another variable to consider. I really ought to. . .  And I get tired of ought tos. I’m in this game to see new pictures.

So today I took the other path, the one that throws caution to the wind. I just jumped in and did it and I’ll find out later this week if it is going to work or not. This was way more fun. I used the masking fluid that watercolour painters use to mask out the shape of my tree before I painted wild acrylic paints over top. Then I took the mask off and now the stylized tree looks all beautiful in white silhouette surrounded by a yellowy-green world. WooHoo!  But it might not work. (But I don’t care right now!) Tune in next week to find out what happened.