In my previous blog post, here, I talked a bit one of my go-to art materials when working on my 3-D mixed media paintings: acrylic soft gel medium. I typically use Golden Soft Gel Medium, since it’s readily available in several of the big art and craft supply stores and I like its working properties. It can also be purchased in larger size containers online, which is what I typically do since I go through a lot of it.
Acrylic gel mediums are used to increase the transparency of
acrylic paint without compromising its consistency or adhesive properties.
Thicker, heavy body mediums are used to provide texture and add body to paint
for impasto effects,
allowing the paint to retain brushstrokes and knife marks.
However, I generally use gel mediums as an adhesive in my mixed media pieces.
“Glacier” by Tamara Jaeger. Mixed media acrylic with textile and crushed glass
I like Golden’s Soft Gel Medium because it’s thick enough to fill in gaps and make a good, strong bond and it remains flexible once dry. Flexibility is an important consideration when working with organic materials, since they will flex, shrink and swell with changes in humidity. It’s also important with inorganic materials like stone or glass, since the canvas substrate of my pieces will flex with temperature and humidity changes while the inorganic parts will not. Having the ‘glue’ remain flexible allows the whole piece to hold together better and prevents pieces from popping off the canvas over time.
Golden’s Soft Gel Medium can be a little expensive, but it’s high quality and archival. It comes in several surface sheens but I usually just get the gloss version. I tend to paint over it anyway, so the surface sheen isn’t important to me. The gloss version doesn’t contain the extra mattifying agents that the other versions do and tends to be more transparent, which is important if I’m using it to attach materials like glass fragments that need to be seen through the gel medium.
Buying it in larger containers online tends to be more
economical, but I’ve also purchased it using coupons at Michaels when I don’t
want to wait for it to get shipped to me.
Have you tried any acrylic mediums? How do you use them in your work?
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