Tuesday 29 November 2011

Creative Inspiration: using Clear Tar Gel

Here's a small easy little project you which will give you a super cool little final product that
looks like encaustic art ( wax painting) and will give you experience using clear tar gel and self leveling clear tar gel. You can do one step at a time in less than five minutes, then put the project aside and go to work/school/ live your life....come back and after 5 steps and lots of in between drying time, you'll be there!


Here's what you'll need to set up:
  1. clear tar gel in a squeeze bottle
  2. self leveling clear tag gel ( and a spoon to scoop it out)

  3. a small canvas or wood board (3" x 3" or so)
  4. A heavy body acrylic paint - colour of your choice (brush to put it on)
  5. Rubbing alcohol and a small piece of sand paper
  6. water bucket and paper towels

step 1. Start by painting your little canvas/board the colour of your choice. If you are using heavy body acrylic paints, put this layer on thick so the colour is opaque. let it dry.


step 2. Once the under layer of acrylic is dry, using your squeeze bottle, put down some drops or lines or shapes of clear tar gel. Keep in mind that wherever you choose to put the clear tar gel the colour under neath is will be preserved in the process of this project. Let it dry overnight.


step 3. Once the paint and clear tar gel layer is dry, go at it with your rubbing alcohol and sand paper. Some of the paint from your first layer will come off and you will create a warn out mottled effects. Notice that you can't remove the clear tar gel so the colour under neath that will stay in tact.

step 4. (Optional step.) If you want to you could add a found object or collage to your little

painting at this point. Adhere paper with soft gel gloss. Adhere heavier found objects with regular or heavy gel. Let it dry.


step 5. Your final step. Now smother the entire little painting with self leveling clear tar gel. This is a beautiful way to integrate all your layers as well if you chose to add an object or paper it will make them look like they are embed in wax - looks super cool. Let it dry overnight.


Have fun and enjoy the process!



If you enjoyed this process and would love to learn more things like this, you might enjoy:Thick,

Layered & Encaustic-like Abstract Paintings: How to Build Thick layers with Acrylic Mediums. (2 DAY WORKSHOP) More details here: http://www.debchaney.com/debchaney/Workshops.html

2 comments:

TommyJ said...

Last jar of self-leveling get I got seems to have been on the shelf too long. It was heavier and starting to set up. It didn't spread well or roll out to level. Do you think I should try to dilute it with water?

Deb Chaney said...

Tommy -

this is the thing with acrylic based paint and mediums ( such as clear tar gel) is that over time they do tend to 'go bad'ovrer time.

The reason is that chemicals added in them that help to stabilize them, prevent foaming, and give them the neat characteristics that we like, do evaporate over time.

You can try adding water to your old clear tar gel. If you add water add distilled water that would be free of bacteria.

The trouble with adding too much water to polymer mediums is that as the mixture dries, the water evaporates and sometimes there will be cracking that remains.

Hope this helps. Tx for writing, deb