Sijun Forums :: View topic - traditional media: what fixative can I use beneath acrylics?

balistic · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 6:45 am

I've got a project coming up where I'll need to do some acylic washes over the top of a drawing on a gessoed panel. What can I use to the fix the drawing that won't eventually munch through the paint on top of it? I've had bad luck with fixatives before, so any advice would be appreciated.
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Inspector Lee · Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 11:18 pm

Any spray on acrylic fixative should work. (Crystal Clear, Krylon even a workable fixatif should work fine) I've never had any problems using sprayed on fixatives like this to fix a drawing and paint acrylics over it. I've worked mainly on illustration board, but I think it'll still be fine over gesso.
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balistic · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 7:26 am

Thanks for the tip. I've been afraid of fixative ever since I had it eat one of my old oil pastel pieces that I did in college. I guess acrylics are probably more resilient though.
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Inspector Lee · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 7:38 am

yeah,
most spray fixatives are acrylic based now, and acrylics and oils usually don't play well together.
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spooge demon · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 4:07 pm

probably the best thing to do is not fix it at all. Is the drawing really important to have it show through or are you going to cover it up?

It might be a problem drawing on gesso, as different brands of gesso are very different in their characteristics. I have a gallon tub of Utrecht and it is very soft and smooth and doughy. Applied thickly, it has no tooth at all. I know Drew Struzan uses the drawing/gesso approach, but for an interesting reason. When he has to change something, he can re-gesso an area and have a fresh surface that matches perfectly. If you work on the board, this is a lot tougher (you can cut into illo board and peel back the paper and cut a new piece...ugh)

If you do run into a lack of tooth problem, you can do this, and this will also fix the drawing as well. Get some matte medium, which is just the binder of acrylics without the pigment, and run it through an airbrush as thick and dry as you can. This will make an extremely fine and pebbly surface that you can draw on and is great to paint on. It is transparent so it can go over a drawing as well. It is also a solid construction.

Stick with liquitex gesso, I think it's better than the Utecht stuff.

They sell stuff called flow releaser that acts as a wetting agent and makes water based flow better on oily or otherwise water resistant surfaces (even acetate. If you paint on large areas of graphite this can be a problem. Little bottles are expensive, but I have had good results using a drop or two of dish soap. Does the same thing, lots cheaper.

jr · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 5:03 pm

hey spooge, i was at the struzan show at the society of illustrators a few years ago, it was really amazing seeing his work in person, he does the illustrations at a 1:1 ratio, the size of the prints is the size he works at (looked really cool). in a few of the peices i did notice him gluing sections onto the illustration. one of the back to the future pieces i think. something was up with marty's head. i thought he used modling paste or something for those textures.
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Pat · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:14 am

I wouldn't fix either. Acrylics can have adhesion problems. If your fixative has any chemical additives which will leave a residue you could find the surface unworkable. Avoid any and all oils, including silicone or chemicals ending in "glycol". Polymer based paints can be goofy cause their chemical makeups vary by color. Pigments alter the workability of the paint, so different acrylic polymers are often mixed, as well as different binders and emulsifiers. The end result is it's difficult to tell what's in your paint.

Spooge is right about the matte medium --I think it's your best bet. I was always taught that if you wanted to use it as a fixative, you should cut the medium in half with distilled water. I guess it just depends on how thin you need the fix to be.

Lastly, don't forget, you can also sand your gessoed surface to introduce a little tooth.

-Pat

balistic · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:29 am

Thanks for all the tips. I've been ignorant about traditional materials for too long . . . time to catch up, I guess.
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MadSamoan · Posted: Mon May 05, 2003 12:18 am

I'm not sure why you would need to use fixative either. If you were using oils, I could understand because the solvent might wreak havoc on the drawing, but with acrylics you should be fine. If you're looking for tooth, Prima's brand of acrylic gesso is very toothy while Liquitex is very smooth. Utrecht's is a nice inbetween.

However, your bad experience may have been in using a fixative not made for the medium. Either that or it wasn't the fixative that was chewing on your work, but the oil pastels deteriorating a surface that had inadequate ground, meaning the support did not have glue sizing or wasn't gessoed thoroughly.