workable fixative question

[andymania]

I recently sprayed some colored pencil work with Krylon Workable Fixative. I tried working over it again with colored pencils but i noticed the transparent coating would chip off and remove the color. Any ideas about this? I thought you can rework over your work hence the name "workable" fixative.

[johnnyhotrod]

It depends on what brand of color pencils you are using. I have tried doing the same thing and found out that prismacolor pencils work the best for this. Hope this helps.

[andymania]

prismacolor lol

[Medelo]

How much fixative did you put on the piece? A light layer should still allow you to work on it well but if you lathered it like crazy you might as well be working on plastic.

[Jason Ross]

Workable fixative does not work well with colored pencils. Colored pencils have a wax base that when disturbed will crack or move under the fixative. Workabe fixative in theory is supposed to create a new drawing surface over pencils or other medium. The wax base of prismacolors repell the fixative for the most part leaving a layer of wax between the fixative and the paper/board. The Fixative will not acutally "fix" the wax to the paper. Fixative works best when it can be fully absorbed into the "ground". Instead of "Fixing" the colored pencils try using a solvent to melt the wax base of the pencils leaving the color. I mean you can only layer so much wax on top of other wax before the pencils just simple slide around the color under it. Turpenoid and lighter fluid are pretty good for disolving wax based and of course oil mediums. But understanding the limitations of colored pencils will help with frustraions of trying something that just isn't possible.

[andymania]

Ahhh...

Thanks for the in depth explanation Jason. Yeah, I use turpenoid to break down the wax, but even that method has limitations. The pigment builds up without the wax and it still becomes slick regardless. Anyway, I am trying to make my colors really pop with some sort of fixative cause i noticed the turpenoid makes the colors a little dull. Maybe Krylon Crystal Clear will be better for this instead of the workable fixative.

-Andy

[Jason Ross]

Maybe Krylon Crystal Clear will be better for this instead of the workable fixative.
-Andy

I tried that as well...it still becomes slick. You'll probably have better luck if you used the board without gesso or if you only go 1 or 2 passes with the colored penicils...after 1 or 2 passes i found that painting over the colored pencils was the only way to finish up what the pencils couldn't.

i just realized that you were the OP in the "Gesso on illustration board question " thread. I talked a little about the board you're using.