Mediums
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(Excerpts from ART HARDWARE: The Definitive Guide to Artists’ Materials, by Steven Saitzyk © 1987) When water is added to a polymer paint it is not only thinned but swollen, and the color appears thick and rich. When the water evaporates, however, the paint shrinks to a thin, dull, and sometimes opaque appearance. A thicker, more transparent, and deeper final appearance can be achieved by thinning the paint with a polymer medium, or with a mixture of water and polymer medium. As the water evaporates, the medium remains to give some bulk to the paint film. The more medium used, however, the more the pigment particles are dispersed and the more transparent the paint film. Glazes are best produced by mixing a small amount of color in an undiluted medium. A general-purpose medium for thinning colors is a mixture of half water to half medium. Whenever polymer paints are to be thinned greatly with water, some medium should be used because if too much of the paint polymer emulsion is washed away or absorbed by the painting surface during the painting process, the paint film can develop cracks. Both gloss and matte polymer mediums are available to alter the surface reflection to the desired appearance. Matte mediums are produced by the additive silica, or calcium carbonate, and tend to give a milky appearance to a paint film if used in large amounts. A gloss medium often doubles as a gloss varnish, but this is not true of a matte medium. A hardener must be added to create a matte varnish that will approximate the durability of a gloss varnish. |
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