Interference Acrylic Paints Add Iridescence

Interference Acrylics

 

 

Interference paints are paints based on mica pigments where the mica platelets are coated with titanium dioxide of various thickness.  The  colors produced depend on the thickness of this coating.  The paint appears white with a pearlescence of the hue as seen below.  For this reason, the iridescent colors show up best against a black or dark base coat.

 

 

The iridescence is very hard to photograph.  Trust me it is there though.  I was originally only aware of interference acrylic paints being offered by Golden paints.  A little pricey for a beginner trying to learn.  So I resorted to using cosmetic grade interference pigments mixed with mediums and metallic paints.  Recently though, I have discovered two vendors online that sell mural paints,   Nova Color Paints and Innovative Acrylics.  As far as I can tell, these are durable paints with substantial pigment loads at a price thats only a little higher than student grade acrylics.  More importantly, both vendors have a line of interference colors.

 



 



Mixing Interference Acrylics With Metallic Acrylics

 

One activity I like to engage in with interence paints is to mix them with metallic acrylics.  This seems to add more of a pearlescent sheen to metallics.  Whats more is that ,especially if a dark color, the interference paint can significantly alter the shade or even the hue of the metallic paint.  So, If you are making blue-violet metallic and add to much blue then adding interference violet can reverse this somewhat while dramatically adding depth to the paint mix in question.  Below is an example of a sculpture that I used this technique on.  I like to refer to it as Cosmic Perspective.

 



Martha Stewart Metallic Paint

 

Martha Stewart Living-Metallic Paint

 

I was at Home Depot the other day looking at flooring when I remembered I needed somespray paint.  I happened to notice a new display in the paint section.  There, they had all these latex specialty paints.  The ones that caught my eye the most was the metallics.  I already have been using the Folk art Metallics on many of my projects.  Although water based, I always apply a solvent based lacquer for protection. 

 

The Martha Stewart Metallics are like $5 to $8 for a 10 ounce jar so I figured I at least should try.  I picked the polished silver since I need a light colored silver undercoat for my X-metal paints.  With a silver reflective base and a transparent paint,  you get something resembling a candy paint as in my most recent artwork Pisces. 

 

 

Here is a garden stake I am working on.  I applied two coats of the Martha Stewart Polished silver

and it turned out pretty decent.  The real test will be when some transparent paint is applied over this.