Can I use charcoal on my acrylic painting to shade? Do I have to spray a fixative on it before I apply finish?

Will my finish (matte spray varnish) effect the charcoal in any way; such as wash it out, spread it around, render it translucent?Can I use charcoal on my acrylic painting to shade? Do I have to spray a fixative on it before I apply finish?
Yes, you can do it, but the charcoal will indeed behave differently on a varnished paint surface than it does on paper. I'd varnish a little scrap of paper or canvas and test out some charcoal on that to get a feel for how the charcoal will behave.





After you've finished applying the charcoal, you'll need to use a tough spray-on varnish to seal it (a brush-on one will smear). I've had good luck with spray-on polyurethane, though this can cause a little yellowing if applied to thickly. Again, try out whatever you're going to use as a varnish on your test piece to make sure you like the way it works





Good Luck!


Rose


http://www.rosebriccetti.com


http://effartblog.blogspot.comCan I use charcoal on my acrylic painting to shade? Do I have to spray a fixative on it before I apply finish?
I think you should be able to do it, people make multimedia artwork all the time, but I'm not sure if the charcoal will adhere to the paint like it would to paper, wood, or a canvas directly.





I would suggest that you get like a scrap piece of cardboard, paint a swatch of it with your acrylic paint, wait for it to dry, then try your shading on that with the charcoal. I would then see how it looks, if you get the effect you're going for, then spray your fixative on that cardboard and after it dries, see if the charcoal is fixed in place and if it affected the translucency of it.
Charcoal is meant to be used on paper. It needs teeth to hold it on the paper. Varnish will effect it, washing it out. It just isn't meant to be used this way. If it were mixed with an oil based binder like oil pastels, it might work. Otherwise it is just like chalk.
You can use oil based paints over acrylic as well as oil based pastels. Charcoal is not suitable to go over acrylic because it can not be fixed.
You would be better off mixing it into paint. Note that some shades of black are made from blackened bones.
try it see what happens