Reintroducing wet mediums (emulsion and acrylic paint)

After seeking out the most efficient background and foreground using dry mediums, (graphite and chalk) I turned to start considering texture. Which therefore resorted me back to using acrylic as I know from my previous experiments just how good this medium is at providing texture.

This is demonstrated on the left of this photograph:

I thought the black acrylic worked well as it provided even more contrast that the chalk alone due to the shades of black being more pigmented in the paint.

However I felt as though I may be going in circles and not relating enough to my artist, so I started using a tool that Richter also uses - a squeegee. This allowed me to create my own unique marks underneath using the dry mediums and then a layer of emulsion over the top in order to represent Richter's work. I think this first one that I created on the right went really well because I had also allowed the layers of black acrylic paint underneath to dry which meant the emulsion built up on top of the previous layer rather than just smudging and merging into one.

Not only did I create this piece, David also kindly took photographs as I was applying the paint and also videoing the squeegee process. This enables me to reflect on my work really accurately and assess specific techniques so that I can replicate them in future compositions. Such as in the video you can see that I added quite a significant amount of paint which left thick residue at the top and bottom of page, one this had dried it created lots of texture on the page and enhanced the layer. Although using this much paint made it difficult to show the transparency look that I had previously created and left the page almost completely white.

Here below you can see the similarities in tools and techniques, the only difference being that Richter's is on a much larger scale, I hope to come somewhere close to using this size surface - even if it is only half the size.

Below is the photographing process that took place which shows me gradually adding paint. This enables you to see the existing layers underneath as well as journey of creating more.

Due to the fact that I loved using this squeegee tool so much I continued to do so and created many more pieces except I changed small aspects each time to show progression.

This photograph above shows my second attempt. Here you can see that I have used much less white emulsion as you can see more areas of the page. I have also used more dry black mediums underneath such as chalk, charcoal and graphite. I have also left the black paint underneath wet so that they merge slightly. On the right is where I have switched the shades around, using heavy black chalk and charcoal on the background and then using strokes of white paint onto to lighten it. This was an effort to introduce using black paint on the squeegee rather than white

For these two pieces, I firstly applied dry mediums for a dark heavy background, then used a small paintbrush to add strokes of white paint, allowed this to partly dry and then went over the top with a mixture of black acrylic and ink on a squeegee tool. 

Once I had completed these, I wanted to continue so I placed a plastic wallet in between each wet page to ensure they didn't stick together and get ruined when I turned the page. But when I took them off some of the paint had stuck to them, although this wasn't intentional, I really like the effect if had upon my experiments. It gave them more depth and enhanced the visibility of the layers, not only this but it also created a whole new experiment on the plastic wallet itself. 

Here I went back to my first experiment because I felt like I was creating really dark pieces so I added lots of light, also the texture on this one is specifically good. But on the right I have done something completely different to the rest, I have used both black and white paint on the squeegee first them layered over the top with the dry mediums. This piece is one of my favourites so far so I want to carry on using this sort of technique to perfect it.