© Copyright 2023 Printex Fluid Art - All Rights
Chameleon cells is a very spectacular technique. You get a real „wow” feeling when you drop tiny dots of silicone into the paint, and then the canvas magically transforms into a multitude of cells in fabulous colours. You don't really need manual skills to make the cells pop out, but if you're just learning how to get comfortable with silicone oil, it's a very exciting experience to create cells with this technique. This is one of the reasons why chameleon cells are so popular and one of my personal favourites.
On the internet, on YouTube, you can find many different implementations, I'll show you one, but if you like this fluid art technique, it's worth looking around and experimenting further - you'll find some more tips below. It's important to know that the chameleon cells technique works very well with rainbow colours, fluo colours and bright harmonising colours. And at the heart of the method is a strong dark colour, THE CONTRAST, with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, against which other shades perform amazingly.
I have now started working on a smaller medium density fibre board (15 x 15 cm MDF) and I applied white and bluish (fluo blue, turquoise, dark blue) and greenish (Ana Hata green, green, dark green) colours randomly distributed on the surface, as you can see in the picture, they were also on top of each other. Then I took a heat gun and removed the air bubbles and poured black paint on the opposite side of the MDF from me, i.e., "on the top", in a fine strip over the previous coat of paint. With the aid of a paper towel, I gently peeled the black paint all over the surface - pretty much as usual with the swipe technique.
I dripped silicone oil into a small container, dipped a toothpick in it and, starting from the centre of the picture, moving in a spiral line, started making dots on the picture. It is not necessary to repeatedly dip the toothpick in the silicone oil for each dot, 4-5 dots are more than enough. And that is basically it... just dot the surface and let it dry.
The chameleon cells technique is very simple and quick, yet it can create images that no other method can and that will simply amaze anyone - something I think is worth trying.
Tips and advice for the preparation of chameleon cells
+ 1 TIP: more experienced artists may try to spread the paint in a spiral line, in stripes or with other swipe techniques.
+ 2 TIPS: it's worth trying to dot only part of the surface, maybe starting from one corner of the MDF rather than the centre, but you can also move from the top of the surface in nice even rows or columns.
+ 3 TIPS: instead of a toothpick, you can work with a needle, fork, comb, and I've seen videos where cells were produced with a spiked ball.
© Copyright 2023 Printex Fluid Art - All Rights