I’m posting this for those of you who have expressed interest to me in the past in doing an online art class because in my opinion, if you’re going to do one, especially for the first time, this is probably the one you want because it’s 2 classes in 1 and Tam is a great teacher who goes the extra mile for her students:

Pending funds become available to me before the class begins on July 19th, I’m probably going to take this class myself because I think a fresh perspective on things could help me do what I do better.

The class is 6 weeks long and the cost in $57 GBP (I don’t have a lb button!), which converts to $85.68 USD. I realize that that probably seems pretty steep, and it is, but as I said, you get 2 classes in 1, meaning you get all of the files for Tam’s World of Whimsy 2 (along with personal instruction), along with all of the files for World of Whimsy 1, which I wanted to do back when she was offering it but I did another class instead.

As I said, the class begins July 19th and the link for Tam’s classes is right here! Maybe I’ll see you in class!

So I got Liquitex varnish this week, because that kind of varnish doesn’t turn my pink papers orange and the idea was to use the Liquitex on the paper to protect it, then do a coat of my Triple Thick and theoretically my paper would not turn orange that way.

Well I tested it tonight. Two coats of Liquitex, 1 coat of Triple Thick annnnd I still have orange paper. Using *just* the Liquitex is not an option because it’s very thin and not glossy enough for what I do.  I would literally need about 40 or 50 coats of the Liquitex to even get close to making it do what the Triple Thick does.

So I guess I’m just not using pink papers. *shrug*

I’ve been having varnish woes for a while now, which escalated a couple of weeks ago. My issue is that the varnish I LOVE and ALWAYS USE a) turns any kind of pink paper orange and b) once a painting ages about a year, the varnish gets harder, which would be a good thing if I were using it on wood, but I’m using it on canvas and that means that if you took one of my paintings of that age and pressed on the back of the canvas, the varnish would get hairline cracks.

When I found out about the cracking (on my own, on a piece that was in the house – thank god) I was really upset because the varnish I use is awesome and is the only thing I could use to achieve the effect I do. So now all paintings come with care instructions and as Blake pointed out, putting pressure on the back of a $220-$300 painting is idiotic and NOT normal wear & tear so I shouldn’t worry about it. Mostly I agree with that, but still, if I can figure out a way to make that not happen, I’d feel a lot better about it.

So I went out and bought Krylon. Krylon’s been around for roughly a hundred billion years and is a spray varnish. It comes in a bunch of variations but what I got was their Crystal Clear in gloss. I got 10 friggin’ cans of the stuff, which in hindsight was probably unwise. The reason I haven’t been using Krylon this whole time is because it IS a spray and in the winter, I have nowhere I can use a spray. The varnish I normally use, called Triple Thick, is by DecoArt and is a brush-on.

The reason I was considering the switch to Krylon is because of the cracking issue of course, but also because of the orange issue. It actually kinda sucks not being able to give my girls pink dresses, especially when I do so many pink paintings.

I’ve used Krylon before, Crystal Clear even, but not in a long time and not since I began doing the glitter paintings. Rather than test it on a finished painting, I figured it would be a wise decision to do a test first, to make sure it would do what I wanted it to do. You can stop reading right here, if you want, because I’ll tell you right now that it did not.

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So I was all excited that DeSerres sold these Poster Paint Markers by Sharpie because they were recommended by Julie Pritchard in a post about markers and pens I read of hers a while back and since Curry’s didn’t sell them, I didn’t think they were available in Canada. When I saw them on DeSerres’ website, I squealed with glee and proceeded to order black ones in every size, plus white, silver and gold.

When they came, I tested them out in my sketchbook and was happy with the results. I mean, it’s PAINT that comes out of a Sharpie, they’re totally cool and I figured they’d work for what I needed them for. (I think I’ve said this before, but finding pens and markers that are archival and lightfast that write over acrylic paint are hard to come by.)

Yesterday I was bored and decided to paint the cover of my current journal since it was just plain black and boring. So I painted it and it looked pretty and I decided to find a good word to write on the cover with my new Sharpie Poster Paint Markers and I chose “transcend” because that’s something I think I need to learn how to do.

I let the Poster Paint dry for a good hour and then it was time to varnish. At first I was just going to do a light coat of varnish, so I used Delta’s interior gloss varnish with the intent of doing 2 or 3 coats and when I went to brush the varnish on over the word, the Poster Paint totally streaked:

Dismayed and thinking it was maybe just THAT kind of varnish, I wrote on the cover of a notebook, let the Poster Paint dry for another hour and then I tried a different varnish on it (Triple Thick Gloss Glaze by DecoArt, which is the varnish I mostly use) and the Poster Paint actually streaked WORSE:

Soooooooooo Sharpie Poster Paint Markers, while fine to use in an art journal or something like that, are not gonna work for me as far as my paintings or pretty much anything else I do because I varnish just about everything I do. This bums me out greatly because I really thought they’d be the answer to my problems. At least I tested them, by fluke, on things that don’t really matter before trying them on a finished painting though!

Anyway, I thought I’d write this post and show the examples to save everyone else the headache of finding out the hard way if you’re like me and use varnish a lot.

As I said though, they’d be fantastic for art journaling or use on paper, just don’t use them on anything you plan on varnishing.