Trying to create a suspension with paint.

[mattmccade]

Hello friends! Hoping someone here can help me out. I'm a digital artist by trade, so forgive me if I'm using incorrect terms.

I'm interested in using paint to recreate a suspension similar to the attached picture.

From what I gathered from the picture comments, it was a bucket of blue paint that sat for a year, separated from the oil(?), and the guy added a bit of yellow paint and stirred it around.

Obviously I don't want to wait a year for paint to settle.. So at first I thought about using a centrifuge.. Then figured it would be easier to just buy the ingredients for paint separate (mixing pigment and binder, then adding oil(?) later on top).

I don't have to use the exact ingredients in paint since this won't be applied to anything.. So if something works better, I'm all ears. I just need a timely method of congealing the pigment and suspending it in a clear liquid to recreate the layered/3D look. Then be able to have a bit of control to stir it around and experiment with visual compositions.

It doesn't have to be suspended permanently, as I'll be happy with simply taking pictures like this, but if there was a way to "freeze it" in place permanently for wall/table art, I'd definitely be interested in trying it! (Maybe some sort of clear lacquer that hardens?)

Any ideas?

Edited April 10, 2017 by mattmccade

[Endy0816]

Yeah, I'm thinking a variation on marbling would work.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_marbling

 

Paper is traditional, but it works just as well with other surfaces.

[DrP]

How about some coloured oil paints on water? They make some impressive patterns on guitars by dipping the whole guitar into a bath of water which has oil based paints swirled round on the top.

 

For 'depth' in the media, I suppose you could add the oils/surfactants that leach out of the paints to the top of the paint in the bucket rather than waiting a year or so for it to leach/separate out.? e.g. - take your bucket of blue paint.... squirt some oil and washing up liquid onto the top of the paint surface (play with amounts to get the effect you need) - add some white and yellow paint on the top and swirl with a stick.... you might end up getting the same effect.

 

I once had a sample of paint that I was trying to make which kept separating out with in a day or two... I used to swirl it slightly and then paint with it claiming I had made stripy paint. lol.

[Nature Geek]

 

I just need a timely method of congealing the pigment and suspending it in a clear liquid to recreate the layered/3D look. Then be able to have a bit of control to stir it around and experiment with visual compositions.

It doesn't have to be suspended permanently, as I'll be happy with simply taking pictures like this, but if there was a way to "freeze it" in place permanently for wall/table art, I'd definitely be interested in trying it! (Maybe some sort of clear lacquer that hardens?)

Hi mattmccade

 

I'm a little confused as to what you want, since it sounds contradictory to me, but maybe it is my lack of understanding. You say you want to congeal the pigment, and then suspend it. In normal paint, the pigment is usually already suspended, it is very tiny particles of material (often a mineral) that is suspended in the liquid. If you congeal it, or let it settle for a year, it no longer is suspended.

 

Now, there are some colorants that are not tiny particles, but are dissolved molecules, like in a dye. I suppose one could get those to clump together but stay suspended, but I'm not sure that's what you want.

 

​I suspect you want the pigment to not be uniformly dispersed in the liquid, or maybe only partially dispersed, but I'm not sure.