Part 6: Mop-up, notes.
Clean-up:
Acrylic paint is easy to remove while wet, but almost impossible
after it dries. Take the hint; promptly wash and clean with water
anything you do not want to covered with paint, especially your
atomizer.
Storage:
The thinned paints that are left over from your spraying have a
limited life unless shaken every day; bacteriological cultures
start to grow in them, causing the paint to 'glob' thus rendering
the paint useless, until you filter the paint through your
strainer.
Become a pantyhose straining fanatic! If you have left your
watered down colors for more than two days, strain them.
If you found this medium exciting and intend to do another set of
Micropoint pictures, you might try reversing the red and blue
stage, that is, do yellow, blue and then red. This results in a
warmer image.
I have made various experiments in which I have attempted to
place the yellow after the blue or red, but these invariably end
in a color disaster because the yellow paint is by nature more
opaque and does not let light through. The result is a battery of
sickly and undesirable colors.
However, do not take my word as gospel, go ahead! Perhaps you
will find new avenues through which to wander - this is a new
medium and subject to new discoveries.
How many colors can be produced through this process? Well, if
you happened to create five tonations of yellow and six tonations
of red, then there are: 5 X 6 = 30 Now, if you then did six
tonations of blue, then: 30 X 6 = 180 As you can see, you have a
palette of 180 colors available to you; and all from three
colors!
Now is the time to sit back and look at your paintings. See and
learn from your lucky accidents and mistakes. Reflect and repeat
the exercise. As you try, so will you learn - good luck!
If you have any comments, please address them
to me:
Stephen Goodfellow,
146 Farrand Park,
Highland Park,
MI 48203,
(313) 883 4827
stephen@REMOVEgoodfelloweb.com
I hope this paper has shed a little light on
the process of Primary Micropointillism, and that you have found
it instructive.
A special thanks to Professor Carl Kumulski for
inviting me to perform workshops at Wayne County Community
College, and a very special thanks to the students who made this
a particularly enjoyable event.
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