Fluid art tips and tricks* #1

Why do my pictures always turn dark after drying?

Making fluid art paintings is fun, and at the end of the day, you have a piece of art that is very personal and reveals a lot about who you really are. Th e colours that you pick for casting can reflect your state of mind, your own emotions, or your actual mood at the time, so you might go for different shades when you're happy and different ones when you're down. However, it may also happen that, despite carefully chosen shades and the fact that everything seems to be going well during the process, the resulting picture doesn't always reflect the colours our imagination had envisioned.

First, let’s make clear that there are topcoat, semi-covering, and translucent grades of acrylic paints. In our case, topcoat, and semi-covering paints "behave well", i.e., they do not change during drying process. However, in the case of translucent paints, i.e., paints that dry to opaque, if dark shades are placed next to each other (e.g., purple, dark blue, dark lilac, turquoise, black), the colours of our gorgeous paintings, which are beautiful when they are wet, will become darker and darker as they dry.

This is because, as mentioned above, they dry to an opaque colour. So, for example, a shade of purple on top of black will unfortunately dry to almost black. If this is the case, why are liquid art paints translucent? The answer is very simple: because they work magic and look fantastic with lighter colours or over light undertones. Before providing you with some specific tricks, it is worth explaining which colours belong to the category of translucent shades and which ones are used as topcoats paints:

Our translucent and topcoat acrylic paints:

Translucent colours: Printex Fluid Art Yellow, Golden Yellow, Bright Red, Purple, Light Green, Dark Green, Turquoise Blue, Blue, Dark Blue, Purple.

Topcoat colours: Printex Fluid Art white, black, gold, old gold, silver, Reflex silver, copper, Pearl rose, Pearl purple, Pearl blue, Pearl green, Fluo yellow, Fluo orange, Fluo rose, Fluo green, Fluo blue, Fluo purple, Pastel yellow, Pear yellow, Salmon, Cocoa brown, Bamboo green, Aniline blue, Golden ochre, Coffee brown, Van Dyck brown, Angry green, Berlin blue, English red, Crystal base.

Tips and tricks for using translucent paints:

The good news is that there are ways to keep the dark colours in your paintings bright and colour-rich even after drying.

1) Use Printex Fluid Art white (which is a topcoat colour) between dark shades
For example, when casting a flip cup, add a little white (or if you prefer special effects, use our crystal base) between two dark colours (I'm going to use purple and black for the sake of the example). Think about what happens if you don't pour white between them. The crimson will be on top of the black, and as the crimson dries to translucent the black underneath will be more intense, so the crimson will almost disappear from the painting. And what happens if you pour white colour between the two? The white is a topcoat paint, that is, when a translucent purple is overlaid on white, it will dry to purple. Even though there is black underneath, the white on top of the black provides a perfect overlay on which the crimson will have a wonderful effect.

Always make sure that at the end the white is under the desired colour. So, for example, with an open cup, you pour the white first and then the crimson on top, while with a flip cup you pour the white on top of the crimson, as with one skilful movement you will have the whole thing upside down.

2) Tone-in-tone solution
This method is based on the logic of the previously discussed solution. It is often argued that the use of white is "too harsh” that it does not match the concept of the designer. In such cases, it is worth blending the chosen colours with a lighter but covering shade. We suggest the following mixing ratios to begin with, but you can of course deviate from them: 80% Printex pouring medium, 10% Printex Fluid Art white, 10% Printex Fluid Art magenta (to stay with the example). Then use the mixed covering colours in the same way as described in the previous point for white, i.e., just pour them between the colours.

3) Use our covering acrylic paints, the Printex Acrylic Art AF colour palette (pay close attention, because AT stands for our translucent paint palette, it won't work with that)
When working on a dark base, mix the dark colours with Printex Pouring medium and Printex Acrylic Art topcoat acrylic paints. Our topcoat acrylic paints are incredibly pigmented, take as little as needed, they provide perfect coverage, and they dry to a silky shine. Our Acrylic Art and Fluid Art product ranges complement each other very well, and the colours can be mixed and matched with each other in an unlimited number of ways.

+1) Plus one more tip
Plus, one because this time we're not talking about the dark underlay, but the light one. When using the blowing technique on a white primer, next time try undercoating the MDF with a white primer first. Wait until it becomes completely dry. Then apply a thin layer of Printex Pouring medium and start working on this wet surface. This way you will get far more intense colours.

Try our tips and share your experiences with us!
If you have other ideas on how to solve the problem, let us know, we'll try it and we'll share the experiences!

* Please note that the tips presented here were written specifically for our custom fluid art paints, Printex Fluid Art products. They may also work with other paint brands, but it is always advisable to follow the manufacturer's instructions and recommendations. 

• Why do my pictures always turn dark after drying?

• Our translucent and topcoat acrylic paints

• Tips and tricks for using translucent paints

• Use Printex Fluid Art white (which is a topcoat colour) between dark shades

• Tone-in-tone solution

• Use our covering acrylic paints, the Printex Acrylic Art AF colour palette

• +1) Plus one more tip