Technique & Tool: Chapter 5

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File was the first project posted and links to all 12 posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The second project, Techniques & Tools, the second project, continues now...

Participants were asked: 'The one technique or tool that you cannot live without is... ' I have added links of my own choosing to each contribution below, sometimes to products, sometimes to videos, sometimes to the artist's own work, and sometimes to something unexpected. Even the contributors do not know what I will be linking to!
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Anne M. Huskey-Lockard

Good quality chalky gesso!
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Crystal Neubauer


I am and always will be a collage artist above all else. No matter what my artistic interests lead me to experiment with, I always come back to collage, or find a way to incorporate collage into other mediums, so the one thing I cannot live without is simply a jar of glue.
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Tari Goerlitz


Paper and pencil. Living in Germany, I estimate that I have access to less than 30% of the mixed media products that are all over the US and UK markets. At first I was really angry and jealous about this. Years later I think this has benefited me more than I realize.
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Darlene AkA HugGeR Wilkinson


I would say a credit card. I use them to create marks by cutting designs, scrape paint, and spread gesso and gel mediums. They are also great for making marks by using the edges of the card.
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Amy Duncan


I love using Elmer's glue for my paper decoupage work. I use a mixture of glue diluted with a little bit of water. I like how the drying time is very long so I'm able to place pieces exactly where I want them and also have plenty of time to smooth out the paper pieces so there are no trapped air bubbles. A close second is wax crayons - the kind children use. I like the uneven texture of color you can create with rubbing the crayon across an image.
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Adrienne "Dree" Berry


Gesso. Whenever I screw up I can just cover it up and start over again.
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Mary Beth Shaw


Techniques and tools come and go for me and I will often be completely obsessed with a tool until I get bored and then suddenly switch to something else. So it is more a situation of the "Tool du jour." Right now I am stuck on Wood Icing, a texture medium that I use in nearly all my pieces. I haven't found any other medium that will do all the things that it does, especially the way it holds such a crisp line so that you can draw into it while it is damp or incise after it has dried. I use it throughout my painting process, in numerous layers, and also in my encaustic pieces.
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Jude


A pencil. For many years that was all I used. Anything else seemed like more than enough. Now I use watercolor and acrylic and ink and other stuff. Although you might not notice it, pencil is usually still in there. Wouldn't want to live without it.
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Loryn Spangler-Jones


Paint. Just the primary colors would be fine.
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Tracie Lyn Huskamp


The one technique I could not live without is using acrylic paints on bleached muslin fabric. Fabric is a perfect canvas, as it is much more flexible and strong than any paper and is an excellent material to use in collage art.
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Shayla Perreault Newcomb


Impasto. It's said that once an artist is successful they hire a team to do prep work and most of the painting for them. While I'd love a team to do prep work like stretching canvases and cleaning up after me, I wouldn't give up spreading that first, thick layer of white paint. While someone could do that step for me, the feel of spreading the paint on with my knife is meditative and relaxing. It prepares me mentally for the layers to follow and is a favorite ritual.
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Next 'Techniques & Tools' will be posted on Sunday, October 23rd.