One of the truly innovative and useful features of Atelier Free Flow is its ability to accept other media, such as soft pastel, charcoal, ink or marker. Of course, its consistency, ease of use and brilliant matte finish make Free Flow a wonderful paint, but for artists who like to include other media into their art, Free Flow will be a welcome addition to the studio.

Free Flow dries with a bit of tooth – not in a chalky way, but in such a fashion that it holds other media very well. Unlike other fluid paints, it does not dry with a slick surface. Its matte finish makes it excellent for gouache techniques, where you have areas of large, flat color. In these comparison pieces, large swatches of sold color were laid on readily available canvas paper.

.Next, soft pastel, oil pastel and permanent marker were applied to build up marks.  When blending the soft pastel, the soft pastel came right off the other brand, but Free Flow readily took these marks.  Additionally, unlike gouache, it didn’t flake or break, but kept its acrylic toughness.

When a permanent marker was applied – as is frequently used in art journaling – it became transparent and wouldn’t stick to the other brand.  On Free Flow, the marker was opaque and permanent. You can easily see the glare left by the surface sheen in the other brand, too.

If you are an artist who mixes media or art journals, you will love how easily Free Flow accepts ink, pastels, other paints and more. The ability to layer in unconventional ways will open up new avenues of artistic inspiration.

For an overview on a number of mixed media techniques, check out Tricia Reust’s Free Flow Technique video.