JULY 2012 PROGRAM - DEB WARD

This month our program was divided into two sections - the first an informational talk about our blog to help our members understand and navigate the blog - the second a program about the possibilities of fluid acrylics.

Blog:

Blog stands for website log.  It’s basically a website that you can interact on. Our blog address is http://grtrcincyws.blogspot.com/,  The easiest way to have this address handy is to put it on your favorites list on your computer. You can also find our blog address in the membership book.

Our blog starts of with a header and our logo, then a short paragraph about our club. Information on a blog is called a Post. You can see new information on the blog as well as any old minutes and other information. At the end of each page there are 2 boxes to chose from - Home or Continue on to an old post.

On our blog we have a side bar to the left where you can find information about up coming programs, shows, a blog list of other members and links to other websites.  There are also labels which list members in alphabetical order according to their first name. You can just click on a name and it will bring up additional  information about that person.

“Comments” is where you can type something to respond to something you read on the blogspot. This does require you to log in and give some verification of yourself.

Deb was hoping that maybe this would help everyone to understand more about the blogspot and how to use it.

Using Fluid Acrylics like watercolors:

Deb ward started teaching in 2004 and started painting with fluid acrylics about 6 years ago.  She mostly uses Da Vinci fluid acrylics.  About 50% of her paintings are with fluid acrylics the other 50% is watercolors. She likes them because they dry with the same intensity as when you put them on your paper. Also you can thin them down to 100 to 1 ratio. You can successfully use them on a variety of papers including yupo, canvas,  hot press and 300 lb. papers.

Deb starts her painting process by sketching out her design in a small format on tracing paper. She then goes over it with a sharpie pen. After that she has it enlarged to the size she wants to paint. After it is enlarged, she traces it on her paper of choice using saral paper , a graphite copy paper. She then goes over the tracing with a graphite pencil so the water doesn’t erase it. A lot of her painting involves putting the paint on and then spraying it off. Timing is very important since  it can’t be to dry or to wet. Even though some of the paint she sprays off stains other parts of the design it doesn’t bother her. She feels that after painting over these, even if the color shows through, it helps bring unity to the painting.