Thanks Uncle D for keeping this idea going. I blew a foam stain job a while back and I just can’t let it go. Your ideas and the advice given me about liquitex pinlines a few weeks ago got me thinking of how to color a board.
Who says Sways is turning into a CompSand forum? (Oneula?) (Of course, I have my vac bag going right now on my first compsand.)
So here is what I did. Grabbed an old piece of foam and some tape and set up a little experiment. I taped several test strips over a spackled surface (sorry, Doug. it just crept up on me). Then applied several types of color.:
- Tempera paint
- epoxy with pigment
- epoxy with pigment and micro balloons
- acrylic paint from Michaels Art store
here is the tempera spread with a squeegee and some acrylic drops ready to be spread. I like the droplet idea for the splash effect. I used a squeegee and pulled lightly across the tape.
Acrylic spread, and so on. The tempera didn’t behave like the acrylic and kind of smeared. Maybe my pressure was not consistent. Nice clean lines with the acrylic, good color separation.
OK, here are some labeled results. Hope you can read the labels. The tempera is on the upper left. Kinda smugey, but ok. Next down on the left is the acrylic. Very nice definition of colors. Sharpe lines between the colors.
Next down is the epoxy. Two colors, no micro balloons, just pigment. Not bad. The yellow, as everyone predicts, is better, but I could live with the darker blue, too.
Next is a pin line with tempera on the right and acrylic on the left. Just testing for future pin line use. I thought the acrylic was better.
Next down is the color with micro balloons. Much better. The pastey consistency seemed to help make a more even color. I wish I had down a two color droplet pattern with epoxy.
Here are two close ups
Bottom line for me is the acrylic seems best for a simple color job. Maybe even a cool color splash. The resin with micro balloons also worked well for me and when coloring a whole board, would probably be best. But be aware that darker colors will show scratches and rough areas as a darker color even with a spackeled surface. Acrylic seemed not to show scratches.
I should have also tried an epoxy pinline on foam. Next time.