Wonder what I use to make my creations? I get asked at least once a day what I use to get the thick texture and bright colors in my art. Luckily, I recently teamed up with Blick Art Materials as a brand ambassador and have discovered sooo many products that have taken my art to new levels without costing a fortune. You will find some of them below. (If you want to see me in action using these products and more in some cool projects, check out my Featured Artist page on Blick's website here.)

In the spirit of transparency I do receive a small commission when you purchase from any of these links, but I want to be clear I truly do use and highly recommend these products. They do not cost any more for you to purchase from these links versus going straight to Blick's website but I wanted to be up front about this :)

Here’s a list of my favorites! If you have any questions, email me at Sharon@sharonwestfineart.com.

 

Gel Mediums

For thick texture, I mix heavy body acrylic gloss gel medium with acrylic paint. To build thick textures on rigid surfaces and add gloss to your paintings, add this super-heavy gel, which can be mixed with acrylic paint, or used underneath as a base. The thick gel holds brush strokes and peaks in paintings, and it dries rigid and completely water resistant. Gloss gel dries transparent, although the color will lighten your color when wet. Keep this in mind that when dry, your paint will be darker in your painting. With time you will get the hang of factoring this in. Try it, it's luscious!

Learn more here!

 

Matte gel is great for affixing paper or other materials to your surface. It dries slightly opaque so be careful about mixing it with paint, just factor that in. It's my favorite adhesive you can use on just about everything.

Learn more here!

 

Paint

It's important to understand how important the pigments in paint is. An inexpensive brand might make sense in the short term, but higher-quality paint will go on smoother, take longer to dry, and last longer. Most importantly, you won’t need to use as much paint to achieve the color you want. Why? Paint is made of pigments (the particles that give paint its color), resins (which bind those pigments together to create the film of the final product), and solvents (the liquid carrier that suspends pigments and resins, allowing the paint to spread evenly, and then evaporates as it dries). Less expensive paint is diluted with fillers and extenders and contains larger particles of pigment and binders, resulting in a less consistent coat. The paints below are milled using the same intense pigments and quality vehicles as Utrecht's professional acrylic line but in a medium viscosity formulation that are perfect for mixing with gel medium. If you love color like I do, check out these highly pigmented paint I love that won't break the bank:

Learn more here!

 

My secret to lettering and words, my own stencil designs, and more!

Incorporating words in my work has been an important element to what I do. Sometimes they are freehand, but sometimes I want a particular font or shape. Enter the Cricut Maker. I use this to cut out home made stencils of my own design, letters and fonts that I create myself, and just about any shape I want to incorporate in my art either by stenciling on or (in my mixed media work) by affixing the paper or cut material directly onto my canvas or wood panel. This thing cuts anything people! From tissue paper to wood - it's so versatile. I havent even scratched the surface of what I can do with this thing!

Learn more here!

 

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