Pan Pastel Mixing and Shading
Here is a Video featuring KC's own Donna Aldridge teaching us how to use Pan Pastels like a pro!
Molding a Smooth Painting Surface
Categories: Acrylic Ground, Acrylic Mediums, Surface Preparation, Uncategorized
Create a smooth solid texture for painting using artist canvas! Molding Paste is flexible and won't crack, creating a perfect smooth surface to paint on for artists that prefer smooth plate surfaces. Covering your canvas with molding paste fills the gaps from the cotton canvas texture. Sealing the molding paste with acrylic paint settles the paint in the remaining texture making it even smoother. Finally one last coating of molding paste with a background color will create a beautiful surface smooth enough for artist paint to glide on.
Firing Kiln Clays
Clays like Porcelain fire to a soft white with very little texture. These clays are what's called a plastic clay with better flexibility and no grog. This type of clay is more commonly used for tiny details, and fragile china. The white color of the clays when fired are great for applying glazes of all types. preferred by pottery and sculpture artists. Some clays lighter clays are preferred for easy shaping while other clays with additives like grog are better for throwing techniques and working up textures. Some clays fire to different colors or shades at different temperatures.
Clays like Stoneware are more commonly used, versitile clays for things like vases, dishes, potters for plants, and many other things. Earthenware and Stoneware are well known for their use in the classroom and in workshops for their wide range of working properties. Clay like Stoneware can have a wide firing range depending on the blended clays used. Kiln firing is measured in cone oxidation from 01-10 in correspondence with the heat of the firing kiln.
Creative Coldsnow offers many different firing clay types at low flat rate shipping costs. Considering these bricks of clay are, at times, 50 lbs a piece, they've made it quite affordable. They offer a wide array of clay products with high quality texture image close-ups of the non fired clay.

