That BIG gouache experiment

Remember I had painted up three copies of test strips back in Feb so that I can coat two of them with two different acrylic mixtures to see which one was better? Then about a week ago, I fired up that airbrush in preparation for spraying the mixtures, and today, I got to do some sprayin'.

Here's one of the original 3 test strips, cut up into individual strips so I can hold each one up to the other 2 blocks and compare.



Here I'm comparing photo to photo (taken under similar but not exactly the same studio conditions and lights):



Again, comparing photo to photo taken under similar but not exact conditions:



Yes, both of the 'after' shots are shot at a slight angle because the acrylic coating makes the test block shiny, and I don't have a way of taking out the shine.

Before I sprayed my test blocks, I also sprayed some scrapes I had. These are trimmings from pieces or just scraps I had scribbled on. Again, two different formulas on the left & right.



The two formulas produce very similar results—both darkened the image just slightly. It's hard to see in the photos but in real life, I can tell that there's a very slight difference, with the GAC 500 darkening the image just a little more than the Liquitex (I just noticed I spelled Liquitex wrong in the caption...well, I'm not going to re-do that, so that's that).

However, I don't know if it's my newbie airbrush technique or what, but the GAC 500 seemed to produce a more even coating. I noticed this in both my scrap tests and my actual test blocks. Also, I'm not sure that I like having the varnish built into the acrylic coat, given that that's not removable, and the varnish is there to absorb the UV, so I think it will tend to darken over time (even if the manufacturer says it won't). So it being not removable would be problematic. With the GAC 500, I always have the option of putting varnish on top.

I also played around with painting/inking the edges of the board black so that they look a bit more finished. And I'll have the option of painting the edges as well. Either case, having the edges black did make the image stand out more.

That, was pretty much the whole day. Plus I mounted paper on two boards. Hope to start on my next exchange painting with Artist X tomorrow or Sunday.