Matte medium to canvas?

[Fenriswolf]

Hey all,

I wanted to try printing out a drawing I've done digitally and paint over it using acrylics. I've a couple questions concerning this, as it is not the usual method in which I work. (I'm usually either ALL traditional, or ALL digital)

-Can an image be pasted to canvas via matte medium, or does it have to be a rigid surface, like Masonite or Illustration board? I'm not sure if it'd hold up well on a canvas, but like I said, I've never tried it.

-Is Liquitex a good acrylic brand, or is it pretty much student grade? If it's not a good brand, are there any you can recommend? It's been a long time since I've used acrylics, and I've never been formally taught the technical side of using it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Any answers would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Elwell]

Question 1: yes, but it will be harder to do, and more prone to failure down the line. If you've never done any wet mounting before, I'd strongly suggest using a rigid surface.
Question 2: Liquitex is good paint, one of the top acrylic brands.

[dbclemons]

Just to add, there is a line of Liquitex paint called Basics that is student grade, but all their others are pro level. There are many other brands like Golden, Tri-Art, Old Holland, etc.

[Uli]

Hi,
I've been doing that kind of thing during the last weeks. I have printed on 300g watercolour paper though. I used an inkjet printer, so with acrylics, the print colour will dissolve in the water/acrylics and might stain your painting (the lighter areas). You might need to work in several layers or print with a laser printer. I was told that laser printers print only up to about 250g paper, not 300 or more.
But its fun to do. Will you post the results?

[Fenriswolf]

I will indeed post the results. I actually have the underpainting that I'll be printing out up in the critique forum. It's under the title, "Wizardry and Such."

And thanks all for the info. I'm relieved that Liquitex is a good brand, I wasn't looking forward to shelling out a bunch of money for a new set of paints. Now I only have to supplement the colors I do have. :)

[Blue]

Hi,
I've been doing that kind of thing during the last weeks. I have printed on 300g watercolour paper though. I used an inkjet printer, so with acrylics, the print colour will dissolve in the water/acrylics and might stain your painting (the lighter areas). You might need to work in several layers or print with a laser printer. I was told that laser printers print only up to about 250g paper, not 300 or more.
But its fun to do. Will you post the results?

You need to spray a few coats of fixatif before you start applying paint. You can make a real mess if you don't.

Donato Giancola has a page with a how-to for this kind of thing. As far as I know, everything he does is mounted on Masonite. http://www.donatoart.com/technique/mounting/mounting.html

[Uli]

Oh, thank you Blue, I'll check that out. I had some nice effects with dissolved background colour though ;-) But I'll try fixatif next time.

[Jason Ross]

Seems like a lot of steps to "maybe" get the desired results. Transfer paper or projection might be more efficient. Especially when you consider the fact that the pencils will most likely go bye bye anyway once you start laying in your color.

[Grendel Grack]

Regular fixative (like workable or final) may not completely seal an inkjet print. I've used a variety of fixative to seal water-soluble paint layers on paper (like watercolor and gouache) and the only product that works with any consistency is Lascaux Acrylic Spray fixative. Workable fixative may be OK for your purposes, but if you don't want it to smear when you apply successive paint layers, try an acrylic fixative. Definitely do a test run before you apply it to your final piece.

You could also try some of the new Golden Digital Ground products. You can paint a layer of digital ground on a piece of paper, run that through your printer, and the end result is an acrylic film embedded with your inkjet ink. There are also a few other ways to do it. Here's some more info at Golden's site (http://www.goldenpaints.com/mixmoremedia/index.php)

Edit: I thought that I should also mention to use caution when working with fixative and other spray products. They often are very flammable and contain noxious vapors. Use with good ventilation, outside, or wear a respirator (this is the best method). Don't eat or drink in the area that you are working with these chemicals. Always read the bottle for more info.

[dbclemons]

As long as we're mentioning other things, you might want to consider something we've been talking about recently in another thread: drafting film (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=148529). It's a thin synthetic material that can be painted (or drawn) on with a variety of media included acrylics, and can also be run through a printer like regular paper. It comes in a form that is two-sided matte. If you print on the back (flipped) you could paint on the front without having to worry about messing up the printed ink. The frosted matte surface tends to lighten the value a bit for anything on the back or that it sits on top of.