Basic Acrylic/Spackle Mix and Pressed Textures
Our second mixed-media class was about using spackle to add texture to your paintings. Jeanne gave us some hints about using texture: in a realistic image the texture should go closer to the ‘front’ of a painting, mimicking life where the texture/details are at the front of your vision and the rest fades back; if you are doing a pure abstract, however, this does not apply as you are looking for rythmn and contrast of textures.
Jeanne mixed up a big batch of basic spackle/medium mix: 75% spackle (Redi-mix) to 25% medium, the type of medium used depending on the thickness you require. Once it had been laid down on the canvas (primarily with a palette knife), she did a demo of running a comb through it, and pressing various items into it such as plastic lace doilys, stencils, etc.
Then we got to play. I added the plain spackle/medium mix to my holyman painting and pressed in a plastic lace doily. Another student used a ‘stencil’ that was the leftover holes from sequin-making, resulting in a honeycomb grid that she wrapped around the side of a wood panel (how cool was that?!)
spackle/medium mix after plastic lace doily was pressed into it
Our super instructor’s site: http://jeannekrabbendam.com/ On her site she has her work and offers lots of different workshops and courses.