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Atelier Unlocking Formula.
You Need This Stuff.  Find Out Why. 
Right Here, Right Now.

Unlock Your Painting Potential with Atelier Unlocking Formula.

Atelier Unlocking Formula has lots of awesome science behind it which allows us to blend our paints for longer; and even re-open dried paint for days afterwards*. 

Imagine you could use artists quality acrylic paints and keep them workable almost indefinitely; or even better, re-open your paints when they are touch dry.  All your stress about paint drying too quickly would be diminished.  You get to play, baby!!

We’ve all done it, painted a large gradation and time has beaten us, a distraction has pulled us away.  Bam.  Dry.  Complete repaint.  Ack.  Big Sad Face :( 

Enter Atelier Unlocking Formula.  Big Smiley Face :)  Mist some Unlocking Formula over the top, grab your brush, and away you go again.

Fine mist spray bottle - use with your Unlocking Formula

Atelier Unlocking Formula.  Use straight outta the bottle if you like!

Want to soften the edges of clouds?  You don’t have to work wet-in-wet.  You can, at your leisure, paint your clouds over your background.  Then mist a coat of Unlocking Formula over the top, and with a very soft dry brush, blend the edges.  So many opportunities present themselves once you start playing with the stuff.

One of the best things about Atelier Unlocking Formula is being able to re-open paint that has dried on the palette.  Need to match a colour?  Spray a bit onto your dried colour, wait a few moments, move your brush around in it, and then paint with it.

If you’re about to paint something over the top of a layer you are happy with, you can first use a product called Universal Medium to “lock” that layer in.  Unlocking Formula will not be able to re-open this.  Paint away, safe in the knowledge that if it looks like a dog’s breakfast, you can use Unlocking Formula to get rid of it.  A little bit like a rock climber who uses spikes to drive into the rock, to stop her falling the full 300m to the bottom.

I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but here at explore HQ if we love something, we’re going to share it.  We’re interested in YOU having as much fun with acrylics as possible.  And simplifying processes for you means more fun with paint.  The last thing we need is more angry artists on the road.

As artists, we want our process to flow as much as possible, and one of the best ways is to either:

  • design a process around some products or
  • find products to suit your process

Atelier Unlocking Formula is a product and a tool which allows you to do both.

Unlocking Formula has been around for a good while, but you may be a little confused about how, when and where to use it.  Check out the clip below for a live demo I did for Chroma last year.  This will explain it better than I can with words.

I’m all about solving problems, and consider Unlocking Formula to be vital to solving many problems.  There is so much confusion out there about what mediums to get and when to use them.  

With Atelier Interactive however, there really are only a few you need to worry about (don’t tell them I said that though, they’ll take away my Lear jet).  Unlocking Formula is a must.  Universal Medium (whole new page I’ve yet to write) is another must.  Universal Medium is the “lock”.  Unlocking Formula is the “key”.  By this I mean Unlocking Formula will “re-open” your paint and Universal Medium will “lock” it so it cannot be re-opened. By anything.  Ever. That’s a big call, I know.  It’s also quite unsubstantiated.  But as far as we know……

*Only re-opens Atelier Interactive Artists Quality paints.





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