"Kat Scratching" Paint Technique

Stage Two: Prepare & Smear the Base Paint

I used to use Gesso, sort of a thick plastery artists' paste. It tends to get brittle though, and is quite expensive. I now use cheap, thick white house paint. Apart from being massively cheaper, it's also more hardy in the long-term and behaves better when you're using it. I use water-based Vinyl or Plastic interior house-paint in 4 litre tins. I prefer semi-gloss, but experiment yourself. A matt-finish paint may be better if you *want* the colours to absorb (eg, like a fresco technique). I find full gloss tends to be a bit brittle and can crack too much while you're working with it.

The thickness of the paint is important to the effect, as the later coloured layers will have no texture of their own and so rely on the textures of this base layer. The thicker the paint, the more texture you can have. Runny paint will mean a smoother effect.

You can thicken the paint by leaving the lid off for a few days and stirring it regularly, or if you're impatient you can add fine talcum to thicken it. You can also add sand or whatever, to experiment with textures. I sometimes even drop bits of broken mirror, china etc into the thick paint. Adding stuff to the paint can make it more difficult to draw in, though, as it can drag, chip and crack as you try to draw.

You can see in this picture that I've poured paint into yogurt containers so I could 'age' enough to do a couple of paintings while keep the rest of the tin fresh and runny for later use.

I smear the white paint on by hand as I like the finger-marks that leaves. You could also use a brush or roller if you preferred. Try to get the layer quite even, or else it will dry in some areas before other areas are ready to hold a line.

I usually wear disposable gloves at this stage, as it's very messy and even water-based paint can be difficult to get out from under your fingernails.

You now have to wait until the paint is 'just right' to do the next stage...

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