I’ve been inspired by all the LettuceCrafter’s who have taken various art/craft classes this year and have decided that I am going to start taking advantage of the various class opportunities available to me. So, when a new place called Hawaii Fluid Art opened nearby, with a sign saying “Classes Available,” I quickly checked them out to see what kind of classes they were offering. One of the classes they had available was how to create a resin beach scene. Since I had recently decided that I was going to try working with resin, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take an in person class and learn as much as I could from someone who was versed on the subject! So, I booked a class for my birthday weekend, resulting in this finished product:
The first thing Sarah, the instructor, had me do was paint my beach scene on canvas with acrylics. She said that they had found that it was easier to have students paint the scene, so that they would basically have a guide to follow when adding the resin. I decided to have fun with the process and to just create without putting too much thought into it, and proceeded to paint my water and shoreline.
Once we made sure the paint was dry, Sarah mixed some alcohol inks into the resin. She then instructed me to pour the resin onto the canvas and spread the different colors so they were covering each of the painted areas. After I had completed this step, Sarah came by and told me to add the white resin anywhere that I wanted waves. So, I went to town adding the white resin.
At this point in the class, Sarah’s husband, Mike, showed up. He came by to help me with the next step, which was to take a blow dryer, find the line of the wave and gently push the white paint outward. He showed me the motion and warned me not to follow the wave, but to just kind of gently sweep the blow dryer outward. So, that’s what I attempted to do. When my waves were finished, I stood there looking at my creation with dismay. The waves looked more like clouds than waves (turns out I did exactly what he warned me not to do and followed the white paint with the blow dryer) and there was no gentle transition between the colors of the water. The colored resin was very translucent and my original painting was very clear underneath. There was no blending of the colors, just harsh transition lines. I figured, ‘oh well, it is what it is,’ but felt pretty disappointed that I’d spent so much money on something that was just going to end up stuffed in a closet.
Mike could see that I wasn’t happy with the piece and attempted to help me fix it, but at that point, it was kind of a lost cause. He asked if I wanted to just scrape it and start over. I decided that seemed like the best course of action. I figured he would have me scrape it off and I was going to take a picture, but as soon as I said yes to the scraping, he started scraping off the resin before I could get a pic. So, I have no pictures of the final version of my first failed attempt.
Once the resin had been scraped off, Mike went and mixed a new batch. Whereas Sarah had mixed alcohol inks in to color the resin, he mixed in some pigment dyes. The dyes made a HUGE difference to the final outcome. The dyed resin was much darker and more opaque and it covered up the original painting so that those transitions (or lack thereof) between colors were no longer a factor. Mike also gave me the tip that when adding the white paint for the waves, he likes to start and end the paint line off the canvas. This helped prevent larger splats of white paint, which had partially contributed to the cloud effect in the original piece.
Next came the sand. I painted the shore with a thin coating of resin and was provided with sand that had just a little bit of resin added to it (the mixture should be clay-like). I then added the sand and a few shells and starfish and voila! - a mere 4.5 hours after starting my ‘1-1.5 hours’ class, I was finished!
I am much happier with the second version and while there are some things I would change (like make sure that the waves at the shore are consistent without the little breaks of blue in between them, among other things), I feel like this is something I’d actually put on my wall instead of hiding away in a closet!
Things I learned:
- Giant push pins make good ‘feet’ to elevate resin art projects
- Bed pads are great for protecting the table when doing art projects
- If the resin starts to set up before you’re ready, an industrial heat gun can turn it back into liquid
- Pigment dye provided a darker resin color, while alcohol ink created a more translucent color (though, this may have to do with the ratio of dye/ink to resin, I will need to experiment a bit with that on my own)
- If you are going to paint the design before adding the resin, either do a great job with the paint work, or use a darker resin that will cover the original painting
- If you’re unhappy with the way a piece is turning out, scrape off the resin and start over
- Let the ‘ocean water’ resin dry before adding the sand
- Rubbing alcohol will clean sticky resin off your hands
- Use painters tape on the back of the canvas to prevent drips (they did not do this in the class and my canvas has a bunch of dried drips on the backside, which is not a good look, so I looked up how to prevent this in the future)
I’m glad I had the opportunity to take this class and am looking forward to taking more art/craft classes in the future!
Oh, my giggles! Your fantastic craft is one of this week’s Featured Projects! Thanks so much for sharing with the LettuceCraft community! 