Acrylics

Acrylic Paints

Professional acrylic paints I use are made of the same artist quality pigments, but suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion. Fresh acrylic paints are water-soluble, but become water-resistant after fast drying.

I use acrylics in form of:

1. single pigment acrylic paints from the leading manufacturers like Golden or Liquitex, in heavy body for impasto, or in fluid form, often as transparent inks. 
2. as gesso, which I often make from an industrial grade polymer, marble dust, and pigments - to prime canvases and to introduce textures.
3. and with 100% acrylic polymer mediums of various viscosity, opacity, and drying properties.

Results of the acrylic techniques can look just like watercolor, gouache or oils (the all share almost the same range of pigments), or have its own unique characteristics, unattainable in other media.

I use only artist-rade acrylics, which are designed to resist chemical reactions from exposure to water, ultraviolet light, and oxygen. Professional-grade acrylics have the highest concentration of pigment, highest lightfastness and permanence, and can be selected in defined single pigments, which allows to maintain the color clarity in layers and subsequent mixes.

Comparing Acrylics to Oils

I switched from oils to acrylics in early 2000s.

Unlike most oils, acrylics

1. are used without toxic hydrocarbon solvents,
2. do not yellow,
3. elastic, do not crack, do not become brittle over time,
4. are more flexible and maintain flexibility,
5. can hold other materials,
6. do not require months of curing before varnishing,
7. do not damage canvases.

Working with Acrylic Paints

The major difficulties in working with acrylics in my experience are:

1. the mediums are not fully transparent while wet,
2. the glazes and even impasto dry quickly,
3. not rewettable, unlike watercolor,
4. the pigments rarely granulate.

History and Other Uses of Acrylics

Acrylic resin was invented by Otto Röhm. In 1934, the first usable acrylic resin dispersion was developed by German chemical company BASF and patented by Rohm and Haas. Artists' acrylics were first used in the 1940s and made commercially available by Liquitex in the early 1950s.

BTW, the best exterior water-based paints are 100% acrylic, unlike interior, or internal, latex paints, which also contain vinyl, pva, and fillers. The main difference to artist acrlics, however, is in pigment quality.

Watercolor Painting

Watercolor (watercolour) is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution. Terms aquarelle or watercolor refer to both the medium and the resulting artwork.


Aquarelle

Western aquarelle mediums are re-soluble after they dried. In childhood, I used a lot of opaque gouache, and disliked traditional watercolor. I have developed my own way to use transparent watercolor much later.

Traditional Eastern aquarelle paints tend to be non-resoluble after they are applied to paper - I used them only for a short period.

Watercolor Paints

Professional watercolor paints I use are made with artist grade permanent pigments and gum arabic. I avoid additives like organic dispersants, fillers, or honey, and therefore I am limited only to a few expensive brands.

In the transparent watercolor technique pigments are applied in a manner allowing light to penetrate the layers of glazes and reflect back from the white surface below, and the texture of that rag or paper can be seen through the layers of paint.

Gouache

Opaque watercolor, gouache, is a type of non-transparent water media, which I mix by just adding white pigments (titanium dioxide or zinc) to transparent watercolor paints, or just by applying them in opaque manner.

I do not use commercial gouache paints because the manufacturers use lots of additives, premix pigments, or do not provide the level of lightfastness required for fine art.

Gouache I use primarily in the top layers of watercolor paintings. In the past, I used it for studies for oils and as a stand-alone medium. I absolutely loved gouache as a child.

My primary application of collage technique is using torn or cut pieces of my own previously created and modified surfaces. Sometimes I include plant matter, fibers, and textiles. My glue is acrylic polymer.

I do not include magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs or any other unnatural or non-archival found objects created not by me.

Collage is a technique in the visual arts based on assemblage of different forms.

• Around 200 BCE, collage technique were first used in China after the invention of paper.
• I the 10th century CE in Japan, calligraphers glued paper with poetry.
• In medieval Europe in the 13th century, gold leaf and gemstone techniques developed.
• Mary Delany worked in  and botanical collage in the 18th century.
• Hans Christian Andersen and Carl Spitzweg used collage in the 19th century, and Victorian photocollage suggest collage techniques appeared by the early 1860s.
• Collage became again a part of modern Western art from 1912, after pasted paper was used by cubists Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Jean Metzinger.
• Surrealists Gherasim Luca, Marcel Mariën, and Joseph Cornell invent new collage techniques, followed by inventions of many other artists, notably, Henri Matisse.

Papier collé, or paper cut outs, is a collaging technique in which only paper is adhered to a flat mount.

Cubomania is a method of making collages in which a picture is cut into squares or  triangular shapes and the pieces are reassembled.

In canvas collage, separately painted canvas patches are attached, usually with glue, to the main canvas.

Mosaic is the art of assembling small pieces of paper, tiles, marble, stones, and other matter.