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NOTES FROM JIM COBB
UPDATES ON THE NEW MEDIUMS
As featured in Australian Artist Magazine - click to download the article
The ten winners of competition about “What Unlocking Formula is used for” are published below:
Diane Boenkendorft • Eileen Jenkins • Rosemary Bronkhurst • Alanye Pohlmann • Leanne Kelly
Des Embry • Adrienne Wilkie • Jenni Zammit • Alyssia Bond • Annette McCrossin
How To Avoid The Misuse Of Unlocking Formula
It is simpler, when you need to use Unlocking Formula and keep your painting wet, to just dip your brush in it and continue painting. If you are using an atomizer spray you need to be careful, because if you spray too much the medium and the thin paint will dribble down the painting, unless it is placed in a horizontal position. Note the Unlocking Formula must penetrate the layer of partly dry paint that you want to keep working with, and if it is a thin layer of paint that you are keeping wet, it takes very little Unlocking Formula to dissolve it and make it run. Whereas if you have a relatively thick juicy layer of partly dry paint, there is much more paint in the layer that you are activating, and it can absorb a larger amount of Unlocking Formula.
The Unlocking Formula is easy to use and does keep your painting wet when you wanted to, but as I have commented above using too much Unlocking Formula in an atomizer spray can cause the problems I have mentioned. There is a learning process involved in using it, and the safest way to utilize it is to place your painting in a horizontal position so that the paint does not run if you used to much Unlocking Formula.
Do you have any questions about this? Email your question to marketing@chromaonline.com.
My Impression About The New Mediums
- I think the concept of the ladder series based on viscosity is very simple and workable and makes it easy to choose mediums.
- I think most people will have the same experience that I have had trying the mediums out – it is very difficult to describe how to use paint in words but what I found at a instinctive level is that I like all of the mediums and I still developing ways to using them.
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This is an abstract painting done on watercolour paper using Free Flow because of its ability to flow out evenly as you can see in the image. Water is often the medium of choice for Free Flow because of its gouache like behavior, but Thin Medium exaggerates the flow characteristics of the paint when a flat application is desired.
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In this painting we can see a repetition of the previous process already described for image number one using Free Flow on watercolour paper.
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This painting was done on canvas using Atelier Interactive with rather large quantities of Thick Painting Medium, which was placed on the palette with the colours. The medium was dipped into and mixed with colours as required – this ends up being done rather instinctively because the medium controls the spreadability of the paint while maintaining an oil painterly effect.
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Do you know the old Billie Holiday ”Strange Fruit” song? Done on watercolour paper with Free Flow and a fair bit of Holding Medium.
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Unfinished painting on watercolour paper using Free Flow diluted with water and Thin Medium.
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A more painterly landscape treatment again on watercolour paper using Atelier Interactive and the new Thick Painting Medium.
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A Free Flow painting using just water, done before the mediums were invented.
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Demonstration painting showing the use of Middle Medium for glazing and layering.
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Atelier Interactive painting using the Middle Medium for gradations and layering.
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Another demonstration painting using mainly the Middle Medium. It can be useful when you have the convenience of a ladder series of mediums to choose different mediums to try to emphasize particular characteristics.
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Figure painting done with Atelier Interactive and using a lot of Thick Painting Medium to achieve the oil painterly effect.
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Another flat abstract on water color paper taking advantage of the vividness of Free Flow - I used Thin Medium to emphasize the flat even colour surface of the application.
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Another Free Flow painting on watercolour paper which looks like a gouache.
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Another Free Flow painting done in situ at Chillagoe with its typical black surrounding hills. (It is interesting that the blackness of the hills is actually a mold, and the rock underneath sparkling white marble).
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Chillagoe landscape again done in situ using Free Flow – no medium just water.
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Figure painting done with Atelier Interactive and using a lot of Thick Painting Medium to achieve the oil painterly effect.