A THICK SKIN is sometimes necessary. Especially if one wants to be comfortable in one’s own skin. That being said, beauty is only skin deep but it’s no skin off your nose when you get under someone’s skin if you only remember that there’s more than one way to skin a cat…and a bird…and a flower.

This week we continue our exploration into making acrylic ‘skins’. If you missed Part One in last week’s blog, here’s a link: http://www.kathiegeorge.com/by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-skin/

GIMME SOME SKIN

There are so many ways to make a skin (refer to last week’s blog, too) but most all skins have two things in common:

• Acrylic paint in some form
• Plastic surface on which to build them (the heavier the plastic the better)

Other than that, allow your imagination to run wild! From last week’s blog, you already know how to use the old paint from your palette, or make your own cool skin just from acrylic paint. But here are a couple of other ideas to get you rolling.

You can load up a liner bottle (I use Gaunt Industries Hypo-650, but there are a lot of different ones out there) with acrylic paint and scribble out onto the plastic sheet…or even write words on it!

LET IT DRY totally. Then put a layer of Golden Acrylic Gloss Medium on top of it and Let that dry totally.

BELOW IN THE LEFT PHOTO I’ve cut a hole in a tea bag and sprinkled the tea out onto the plastic sheet where I’ll cover it with Gloss Medium and let it dry.

IN THE RIGHT PHOTO I’m covering a few dried leaves with the Gloss Medium.

NO SKIN OFF MY BACK – HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT’S DRY?

You know the Gloss Medium has dried when it’s totally clear.

Once they’re dry, you can peel them off and even cut them into pieces.

SKIN FLICK – APPLYING YOUR SKINS TO A PAINTING

It’s just as much fun to use them as it is to make them. To apply them, simply use the same medium -Acrylic Gloss Medium – to stick them down to your painting. You are actually collaging the skins onto the surface of your painting.

NOTE: Just when you think you’re remembering all of this by the skin of your teeth, here is something else you might want to know – You can use other ACRYLIC mediums to make your skins and to collage your skins, such as Heavy Gels, Extra Heavy Gels, Soft Gel, Matte Medium and Pouring Medium to name a few.

THEY’LL GET UNDER YOUR SKIN – And now here are a few inspirational pieces that I’ve dug up to inspire you. There’s a ton of info out there on the web about skins, so have a look for yourself. These will get you started and don’t forget…I’m here to save your skin anytime you get into trouble.

My dear friend, travel companion and excellent artist Delaine Walters who whipped this up after last week’s blog. Love it.

Carol Nelson	DANGREENART.COM
The unsinkable Robert Burridge	Beth Betker
Andrea Pitta	Make jewelry, too! By onecanvasatatime.com

YOU CAN ALSO GET THE SKINNY on skins by searching the Golden Paints website. Patti Brady is your go-to girl for anything acrylic. You can also check out this excellent YouTube video by Jane Davies. (Jane if you’re reading this, I put your link at the bottom of my blog because once people reach your site, they’ll never come back, you whirlwind of info, you)!

[vsw id=”fhn4sBJBpEA” source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhn4sBJBpEA&list=UUyltUud7rPuoVbPr0z4Vz7g&feature=c4-overview

Thanks so much for reading and also for your pithy comments that keep me laughing. You are the best!

Kathie