Hello! It’s Robyn Wood with you today sharing a different project to my usual papercraft focussed ones. I started a photography degree earlier this year and have the opportunity to be involved in a student exhibition so decided to pop in an abstract canvas as well as a photograph. I’d like to share some of my process with you and how I used the Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative and Gloss Varnish to finish my canvas.
Abstract art is something I’ve been exploring the last few years, taking a lesson here and there from a variety of teachers while attempting to come up with my own process and style. I usually start with some lovely white space and cover it with scribbles of charcoal pencil.
Next ,I spritz the surface with a little water and start dropping acrylic ink here and there to create little puddles of colour. The black charcoal dissolves a little and creates a lovely range of tones. Some areas are ‘encouraged’ to flow in one way or another with the help of a brush.
I add a few crystals of rock salt to areas that are damp, the effect this creates when dry is magic. The plastic pieces are torn into manageable pieces and laid over the top of the puddles and the canvas is left flat until the whole surface is totally dry.
The end result when the plastic is lifted and salt brushed away is totally unpredictable but I love the effect. You could also achieve something similar using stencils and stamps.
Once my canvas was dry, I used white pastel and marked out large, uneven roughly circular shapes over parts of the surface that I particularly liked. The circles were the parts that would stay in the final piece, the rest would become background.
I gently went around the shapes with soft pastels in colours that would blend to become the background. I worked in thin layers so that I could easily get an idea of where the canvas was headed design wise.
Soft pastels create a bit of dust are mixable until fixed with a varnish. I used this property to paint out my background with white acrylic paint. The paint mixed with the soft pastel to give a range of softly coloured shades. I kept the canvas flat throughout the process so I didn’t lose any precious, coloured pastel dust. Once the background was complete, I sprayed the canvas with two coats of Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative and allowed it to dry.
Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative is brilliant for sealing surfaces while a work is in progress. The workable, matt nature can be worked on top of for further layers on a piece without having the layers beneath the spray be affected. As with all aerosols, read and follow the directions on the can and only spray in a well-ventilated area.
I then went over my canvas, fixing up any areas that needed a little extra colour, repeating the process above of adding a touch of soft pastel and painting over it with white acrylic paint.
Once the canvas was fully dry, I let it sit a couple of days for the acrylic paint to cure then sprayed it with two coats of Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish, allowing each coat to dry in between. Once fully dry, my canvas was ready to hang!
Supplies:
- Helmar Crystal Kote Fixative
- Helmar Crystal Kote Gloss Varnish
- Acrylic inks
- White acrylic paint
- Black charcoal
- Soft pastels
- Variety of plastic wrap, bubble wrap or stencils
- Spray bottle of water
I hope you have enjoyed learning how this project was created and I’d love to see what you create. I'm sorry to say that this will be my last post for the Helmar Creative Team as I've decided uni life needs a bit more attention. I've really enjoyed being a part of this amazing team and I thank you all for your comments on my projects. On the positive side, my leaving means there is room for other creative souls to join the team and I encourage you to consider applying. I'm sure I'll be back with a guest post in the future so until then…
