There’s a maxim in oil painting: “Thick over Thin”. The same principle can be applied to acrylic painting – start with washy paint and build up to the thicker stuff. This is quite important with oils because, as the paint dries unevenly, the surface can become unstable: cracking, milkiness, separation….you name it, none of it is good. Acrylics are perhaps more tolerant to cracking, however I want to talk about why “Thick over Thin” also makes sense from an image point of view.
A thinly painted work can look unfinished, perhaps somewhat watercolourish. This is particularly true if white space is still evident. During the layout stage, image problems are solved and there is not too much to worry about in the paint surface. As key aspects of the image become established, the paint surface becomes important and generally, thick paint, decisively applied, creates painterly effects that are irreplaceable. Here are a few common threads in my painting:
- Paint lights more thickly and expressively than darks.
- Use the fewest brush strokes, with a largish brush wherever possible.
- With each stroke, limit brush movement – apply – modify and leave it be. This is good advice for palette knife painting too!
- Propagate effects that work – that is, when you like an effect, protect it and replicate it (sometimes easier said than done, I grant you).
- Attempt to turn errors into opportunities before suppressing or eliminating them – it’s invariably easier to use something than cover it up in it’s entirety.
- The effect of an image is often about the absence of “wrong” rather the “correctness” of anything.
- Thinly painted backgrounds rarely work – I often restate backgrounds with thicker paint, often matching the previous colour application.
- Take a photo before getting the impasto going – then at a pinch, you can retrieve any effects that might be lost.
- If in doubt, stop.
- Really, STOP.
Break-a-Brush!
David