My Mediums...

I thought I would share all the little extra goodies that I play with, besides actual paint. These are what sometimes gives that painting a little extra 'omph'... or what makes some techniques possible.

I'll start with the watercolour mediums, since I only have three of them:

The blending medium is one that I don't use too much, it mostly extends the drying time of the watercolour, but I also find that sometimes it affects the look of it too. Masking fluid is my favourite, and hands down most used watercolour medium - it just takes the stress out of things sometimes. The iridescent medium is one that I use the most around Christmas - adding some shimmer into my watercolour Christmas cards.

Now to the Acrylic mediums, of which I have tons...but I've also been collecting them a long, long time:

These are all just spray varnishes - I don't use them as much now as I used to. The one of the far right gives a remarkable shiny surface, especially when you put on coat after coat. I think in the beginning, I went through cans of that stuff because I loved the shininess of it.

These are all the "fun" mediums. The string gel and tar gel are essentially the same thing - they react a tiny bit different, but generally the same idea. Gold mica flakes are nice little shiny gold pieces embedded in a clear substrate. The also give a nice texture. Glass beads - are just that: tiny round beads that are crystal clear - once again, amazing texture! Iridescent medium for acrylics, is the same idea as the watercolour one, but this one works with acrylics instead. And one of my favourites: crackle paste. This stuff is super light - you'll wonder at first if there's anything in it! It takes a little bit to get used to, but the results are amazing. It's not a good project for any sort of 'control freak' artist though: as you cannot control what is does or how it does it...you just got to let this medium do it's thing!

Acrylic glazing liquid is something that I used in every acrylic piece I've ever worked on - it thins the paint without going all watery.  Polymer varnish - a varnish for finished acrylic pieces, there's a whole process for using this stuff, including thinning, ect - so be sure to check up on the Golden website if you use this stuff; it is definitely not a 'use out of the bottle' product. Gesso is a staple in every studio. I have a smaller bottle of glazing fluid on the top right, but it's the same thing as the golden project. I tend to use this smaller bottle for collaging elements, as I find this solution thicker (but that might just be because it's coming up to about 3-4 years old). Soft Gel is something to add some texture to pieces, and my latest small project included using this in a stencil. 

 So there we have it! All my acrylic mediums...

And they all fit nicely into a single box for storage :D