Heavy Impasto Palette Knife Acrylic Painting Demo - Gary Garrett - Castaway Island

This is an 8x10 studio experiment utilizing a heavy gloss gel medium and 2 palette knives... almost like sculpting with paint. The view is from a photo taken at our Castaway Island Park paintout (geo:lat=30.296795558855105 geo:lon=-81.43208026885986) last spring (right off the Intracoastal Waterway). This technique sacrifices fine details for a more impressionist style of applying the paint. There's a real FREEDOM in not being concerned about details. The technique would probably work better on a larger canvas, but the end result here was nice (and FUN!!) using the small palette knife on my 8x10 canvas panel. The paint on this panel was on average 1/8th inch thick.

The music is "A Special Place" by Lord & Taylor.; track 2 from their "Centering The Soul Vol. 3" CD... mixed into the voice-over track is a portion of my birdsong recordings from prior paintouts.

Thanks for watching

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Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• castaway
• Island
• Park
• impasto
• thick
• acrylic
• high
• gloss
• gel
• medium
• palette
• kife
• painting
• Nirvana
• Cafe
• palm
• trees
• marsh
• Lord
• Taylor
• Centering
• The
• Soul
• Jacksonville
• Florida
• St
• Johns
• river
• Intracoastal
• Waterway

[GaryGarrett]

Yes... the LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM gives you a "cake icing" thickness, but at the same time dilutes the pigment... so you have to work at it to achieve the stiffness/pigment level you want.... but you can achieve qualities that are difficult to distinguish from oils as well as DEEP impasto effects. It also adds gloss to the mix, which adds dimension to the thick paint by reflecting light differently over the whole painting. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching

[MsPlantBuddy]

Hi Gary, Liked it! And am trying to do the same kind of paintings. Like thick and heavy minus details. Hope you will do more soon. My problem is dark areas or shadows--everything turns out middle tones. Help!

[GaryGarrett]

@MsPlantBuddy Hi, thanks for wayching. After I paint in my sky, I usually paint in the dark areas first, then dab in middle tones trying to get as much color as possible (within reason). Then after that starts to gel, paint in the highlights. I love LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM for acrylic impasto, and WINSOR & NEWTON LIQUIN IMPASTO for oil impasto. Also, lately i use a limited palette of CadRedLite, CadYellowLight, PaynesGray, Ultramarine, Curelean & Ti-White. Hope this helps :-)

[PureSoapCleans]

I admire your artistry and ability to create such beautiful paintings. I have always wanted to be able to paint, to paint anything, but to have that experience. I skipped the earliest grades of elementary school since when I was sent to school at the age of 5, I already knew how to read and write and I was re-located in 2nd grade. So I never was taught to draw. I have always missed that. Is it too late, being in my mid 30's? Congratulations!

[GaryGarrett]

@PureSoapCleans Hi... IT'S NEVER TOO LATE... Anyone can paint, it just takes a desire to do so, and a hunger for the knowledge possessed by others on how to do so. Youtube offers many folks showing demos of how THEY paint, and there are Bob Ross certified instrutors all over the country who can get you into the basics. The biggest thing is, don't be afraid, just have fun with it, and your talent will come forth. HAPPY PAINTING and Thanks for watching

[theshizirl]

Hey there, sorry to double-comment.

I tried impasto today and decided to come back and ask a question after I ran into an irritating problem.

When I used smaller knives, I noticed the flat bottom of the blades sort of stuck to the paint and had to be forcefully lifted off, which messed with the textures I wanted to get.

This was not the case for the larger knives. Why would this happen?

[GaryGarrett]

The larger knives are relatively more flexible as the steel is the same be it a small or large knife. When I paint with the small knives, i tend to paint with the tip only and then draw the knife down and away. It takes a bit of planning, but can be very rewarding. Thanks for watching, I hope this helps you. Good luck, stay creative!

[digbycurrents]

It'd be better if you talked us through it & got rid of those bloody birds!

[msvgrasley]

Hi, Gary

thank you very much about sharing some of the secrets of this beautiful technique which is Impasto. I am a novice painter but with some native talent in understanding the colors and their interactions, but no formal training in painting. I like to use oil as medium and I would really appreciate your suggestion for what kind of knives would you suggest for an Impasto painting on 16x20 canvas. Also, do you apply a first layer with brushes then add the colors mixed with impasto medium?

[bamamaria]

respond to thank you..im trying to learn by atc

[lchristoffer]

Very very nice. My first painting was with a palette knife and it was destroyed in a flood. I miss that painting. I think, because of your painting giving me the inspiration, I'll try it again. Thanks.

[benwitt1]

@hechacaldo Nice job Gary, been painting all my life, and please tell people that there is NO SUCH THING AS A 'PERFECT PAINTING' Chuck

[foolsreflection]

Great

[ELPaso1990TX]

Wow, this is really good. I like using the heavy impasto technique, but don't often do it, as it uses up so much paint and is a rather expensive technique. But this is awesome. Thanks for posting it!

[hechacaldo]

@PureSoapCleans He is right, I am 43 and I just started. I always wanted to paint but never applied myself or put in the time to learn the techniques. Now I am and it feels great. I just painted a couple of starter small projects and even though they are not perfect, I feel proud of them and they look pretty on my wall. If you have a desire, with some practice you will get some amazing results.

[stephenigwe2009]

does the LIQUITEX HEAVY GLOSS GEL MEDIUM make the paint really thick?