You can paint a lot of paints: leather furniture, shoes, bags and wallets; do easel work on the skin instead of canvas; to make a mosaic from acrylic-painted pieces of material and so on. This article will tell about painting techniques, about the features of working with acrylic paints for different types of leather, about spot and other types of painting.
What you need to have when working with acrylic paints
Working with acrylic resembles working with watercolors and oil at the same time. Like watercolors, acrylic, until it dries, can be mixed with other paints, better than the same series. Like oil, it lays very well on the skin and evenly covers it, penetrating into the cracks. This coating is very durable.
When painting on leather for work, in addition to acrylic paints of different colors, if you have a multi-color pattern, you must have the following:
- a surface that you can stain and immediately wipe clean with a wet rag; it should be convenient to work on;
- dry and wet rags of medium size, better cotton to wipe acrylic;
- a palette where you will mix paints with each other;
- several brushes of different sizes depending on the size of the subject, which will be painted on the skin;
- a jar of water for diluting drying paints on the palette, for rinsing brushes or soaking them after use;
- prepared stretched skin or a prepared leather item that you are about to paint;
- good light so that your eyes do not get tired.
Features of acrylic as an artistic paint on the skin
The first feature of acrylic is its quick drying. This is emphasized in any skin painting workshop when working with acrylic. This property of it is not very convenient, because acrylic, and especially multi-colored mixtures of it, dries too quickly, not giving the working time to examine and correct what happened. Therefore, when working with acrylic, it is necessary to think in advance in stages the whole process of work. In this case, applying layers of paint on top of one another, one does not need to wait long for them to completely dry. Most acrylic painters recommend applying thin layers to prevent cracking, which is another unpleasant moment when working with acrylic. If the layer is not pleasant and has not yet dried, it can immediately be removed with a wet rag.
If the item to be painted is large, the painting masters recommend applying a foam sponge, and sometimes even a foam roller, for application.
Strengthening Acrylic Layer
The work done by acrylic is best secured. For this, there are topcoats and other coatings. You can check with the sellers or look in the annotations for acrylic paints, how to fix the work. The design of the topcoat is also selected depending on the type of paint used. On sale there are finishes in the form of sprays or in jars for drawing with a brush. There is another way to fix the paint on the skin - ironing with a hot iron through a dense, dry cotton rag.
Different types of skin and their coloring
The most varied types of surface for painting on skin are: pork, veal, goat, horse and others. Dressing the skin, its thickness, its processing also play a huge role. If there is a choice, it is better to try several options in order to understand which one suits you best. Usually, each artist eventually understands how and with what he needs to work. Therefore, when painting on skin, it is necessary to consider:
- Smoothness. Less smooth paint is left on the smooth skin and the pattern lays down evenly; the staining effect is more interesting with a rough texture, but with it more trouble.
- Softness. The softer it is, the thinner the paint layer should be for coating strength.
- Type of skin treatment. It is imperative to check in advance whether a sample of the material will be deformed by paint, since the quality of processing can be very different with the same appearance.
- The thickness. The thicker the skin, the more layers of paint can be applied, but it’s more difficult to work.
- The color of the top layer, because it can shine through the surface of the paint, especially if the material is rough.
The finest (smoother) and thin skin is best dyed. Tolstoy with a large texture is difficult to paint, because it is able to shrink. Material can “lead” (layers will shift relative to each other). As a result, bending the surface will disturb the details of the image, completely spoiling the beauty of the picture. Skin painting masters recommend sticking it on a solid foundation before painting or pulling it on. In a word, before you start drawing, try whether you will like how the paint will lay on the skin.
The first stage is preparation
To prepare the skin for application of paint, it is advisable to degrease and remove contamination. A master class in acrylic painting on the skin recommends degreasing with alcohol (sometimes other organic solvents are also recommended) or a solution of potash in water (1 teaspoon of powder in a glass of water). Processing should be carried out quickly, easily and evenly wiping the material with a small amount of solvent, so as not to damage the top layer processed. After degreasing, allow the skin to dry before painting.
The surface to be painted should be stretched so that the acrylic is laid in an even thin layer and evenly dried.
Drawing
Drawing on the skin is well applied with a simple soft pencil, wiped with an eraser. If you do not have a great talent for drawing, you can use the technique of working through stencils - find ready-made ones or use any drawing you like from magazines, posters, etc. The pattern is glued onto cardboard and cut along the contour.
If there are any other lines inside, you can cut the outline again and so several times.
You can glue the leaves of living plants on cardboard, making them a contour, then dry them, gently remove the jumpers between the veins with a brush and re-outline the picture already inside the leaf.
Hot Batik Technique
This technique is good not only for painting fabrics, but also for skin. The essence of the technique is to apply liquid paraffin to the surface of the drawing (wax is expensive, but less toxic). Then the skin is completely painted over with any acrylic paint, you can use a sponge, not a brush, this is the main tone. A frozen paraffin is easily cleaned (that is, it crashes), leaving the drawing unpainted. This technique is now gaining popularity, as it is quite simple and convenient to use.
Dry brush technique
No less interesting is the “dry brush” painting on the skin. As in the case of the “hot batik” technique, the work is carried out with liquid paraffin (wax), but it provides for the collection of only a small amount of liquid paraffin on a fairly stiff brush so that traces of the bristles of the brush remain on the skin and an uneven edge is created. After that, you can fill the background with paints. This technique allows you to get the original line of non-painted skin, remaining in place of paraffin after its removal.
Spot painting technique
Dot painting on the skin (point to point) differs from other techniques in that the drawing is not entirely applied, but with the help of dots that should be the same in size and spaced at the same distance from each other along the line of the drawing or when filling the painted surface. This is a rather painstaking job, requiring accuracy and patience. To simplify the task, it is better to use tubes of paint with a special spout. It is better to start applying from above and go down so as not to smear the work. When performing spot painting, it is necessary to carefully monitor what is obtained, since sometimes a picture requires a change in the distance between points or a change in the color of the paint for greater expressiveness.
Acrylic paints selection
Today, there are no problems with paints for painting leather. The choice of acrylic paints is very wide - from those that are used for painting building facades, to miniatures on expensive materials. We study the annotation for the paint we like and buy. It should be designed specifically for painting the skin. Prices may also vary depending on the manufacturer and the quality of the product. But any painter or artist working with paints will advise working with acrylics of the same series and one manufacturer for one painting. This condition allows you to mix multi-colored acrylic paints, achieving the desired color effect without problems and sorrows.
Types of acrylic paints for painting
There are pearlescent acrylic and metallic paints, that is, with a metallic sheen. Gold, silver, bronze shades are on sale. These differences must also be considered when working. Also, acrylic paints can be matte and glossy. When mixing matte and glossy gloss of the mixture often disappears.
Can acrylic work on skin substitutes?
As in painting on leather, the technology for painting substitutes is based on the same rules, it requires taking into account the characteristics of paints and the characteristics of the material being painted. A preliminary application of the sample to the surface of the leatherette is necessary. Phased and thoughtful work with a substitute, as well as with genuine leather, no one has also canceled.
The most unpleasant thing when painting on artificial leather is the fragility of the work done, the possibility of negative changes to the material already painted. But if you want, by selecting even different tension of one material, you can achieve quite good results. Also, this method will help you gain the experience necessary to work with more serious and expensive materials.
Parting words for beginners
This video will help you get started with your skin.
Any work done by your own hands brings coziness and originality to the house. And a person who has done manually not the simplest work, for example, painting with acrylic paints, not only becomes a creator, but also reveals to the audience the wonderful world of his soul by selecting a picture and color scheme.
It is no coincidence that children are more fond of old or do-it-yourself toys, things of brothers and sisters, than a standard, soullessly executed factory consumer goods. The aura of heat emanating from needlework is felt much more strongly by children than by adults. Therefore, dare, give vent to the desire to create. Do not be upset if not everything works out right away. Try again and again. Let your hands paired with your head help to do, if not a masterpiece, then quite an interesting and useful thing.