Acrylic gel medium combined with dried paint chips

Flexible paint skin bent into cone shape

Last week’s article explained that acrylic paint bonds well to rough or absorbent surfaces.  Knowing that it doesn’t stick well to slick surfaces can lead to some interesting opportunities.  If you pour or spread paint in a thin layer on glass, hard plastic, or freezer paper, you will be able to peel it off the film after it dries. These photos show a paint film formed by covering palette scrapings with several layers of gel medium on freezer paper.  The gel dried clear and flexible and the “skin” was peeled off the slick paper.  This skin can be cut with scissors and combined with other paint as a collage element.   It can even be formed into three-dimensional shapes.  The only limit is your imagination.

Have you tried this technique?  How do you use acrylic skins?