PAINT SHOP

COLOR
When discussing color, we need to define some terms.

Any color can be described according to three attributes:
     *Hue: Color name
     *Value/Brightness: How much black or white
     *Saturation/Chroma: How pure the color, how much of compliment

These terms can be combined to help understand how we perceive color.

Combining Colors:

Additive Colors:
     Colors mixed IN THE EYE to create a new color.
Subtractive Colors:
     Colors REMOVED from REFLECTED light before they reach the eye.

Pigments or colorants REMOVE colors from light, reflecting what's left. 
Colorant is basically a light "sucker". The more colors get "sucked out" 
the closer to black the result.

Additive Colors: Lighting color system	
Subtractive Colors: Pigment color

Note that the three primaries of light are the secondaries of pigment, 
and the secondaries of lights are the primaries of pigment.

Types of paint:
Paints of all types can be defined according to three variables;
	* Pigment
	* Binder
	* Vehicle

Pigment: is the part of paint that gives it its color.
     In a sense, pigments are colored "dirt".

Natural pigments: colored rock, minerals, or plant extracts,  then 
ground to a powder.

Synthetic pigments: first were synthesized from coal tar; 
provide many more and more brilliant colors.

Binders: the glue that holds pigment to the surface.

Paint is usually defined by its binder; 
same pigments may be used with variety of binders.

Vehicles: the liquids in which the binders are dissolved.

Most theatre paints use water as a vehicle.

Other paints may use:
   • Spirit solvents, usually mineral spirits, or turpentine, as the vehicle.
   • Alcohol, (shellac, FEV).

Usually a paint dries by having its Vehicle evaporate.
Sometimes and additional element, a filler is added to a paint.

Whiting: plain chalk, lightens a color slightly, but purpose is to add body 
and opacity to expensive pigments.

Types of Paint:

Scene Paint:
Oldest type of scene paint, is dried paint pigment ground to powder.
	* Cheapest pigments are the Earth Colors, Browns, Ochres, 
        some Blacks and Whites, are traditional pigments.
	* Bright Blues, Reds, and Yellows were and still are more expensive.
Scene paint uses ground animal glue as the binder.
	* Made from hooves, horns, and hide; comes as coarse-ground granules.
	* Granules dampened, then melted in double boiler or gluepot.
	* Melted glue mixed about 16-to-1 with water to make size water.
		+ Tends to rot quickly, but this could be reduced by adding 
              formaldahyde (not used anymore), carbolic acid, 
              or most commonly Lysol disinfectant.

The water in the size water is the vehicle. 
When it evaporates, the glue holds the color on.

Other glues used with dried pigments: rubber and gelatine glues. 
Prepared much like hide glue, more flexible when dry.  They also dry slower.

WARNING: Not all glues will. 
You can make a size water of Elmer's glue for sizing flats, but if you add 
pigment it makes a gloppy mess.

In many ways scene paint still among the best scene paints.
	* More colors available than any other system.
	* Can be mixed with a little pigment to make a transparent wash 
        or thicker for opaque paint.
Don't thin mixed paint with more water, or the pigment will dust off.  
Thin with more size water.

For traditional painterly approaches, can't be beat, and is 
still the standard against which other paints are judged.
Drawbacks:
	* Very messy to make and to use, and it doesn't keep once mixed.
	* Dries about two values lighter than when wet, color matching difficult.
	* Will dust off if there is not enough glue in the mix.


Most scene paints now ready-mixed paints of various sorts. 

Latex paints really house paints using latex glues as binder, water as vehicle.
	* Readily available and relatively cheap.
	* Spread quite well and dry fairly quickly, waterproof when dry.
	* Can be thinned without dusting off, but you lose some opacity.
Drawbacks:
	* Tend to be thicker than scene paint.
	* Dry too quickly for many wet blend techniques to work well.
	* Tend to overload or fill in tooth of the surface more quickly 
        than thinner paints; flats must be recovered sooner 
        than with other paints.

Figure on coverage at about 400 sq. ft.

Casein paint another traditional scene paint.  
Originally used casein, or milk glue, as the binder, but casein rots quickly 
once mixed; today synthetic caseins made from soybeans are used instead. 

Casein comes as a thick paste, mixed about two parts paste to one part water.
	* May be thinned a little for more transparent washes, 
        although may dust off if thinned too much.
	* Water soluble, so not water proof. 
        Lends itself better to wet blend techniques than latex.
	* Compatible with latex, so they can be used together.
	* Dries lighter then when wet (but less than scene paint).

Acrylics: plastic based binders.
	* Come as concentrate, usually mixed one-to-one with water for use.
	* Can be thinned far more than most other water based paints and 
        still keep brilliant colors.
	* Don't change color much when dry.
	* Compatible with other paints.

PROCEEDURE:

No matter which paint you use, the basic techniques are similar.
	* Size coat:
		+ First coat prepares surface of new canvas and shrinks the canvas 
              and glaze the canvas without filling it.  
              Less paint is thus needed for succeeding coats.
		+ Sizing traditionally made of size water or thin glue water, 
              may also be made by mixing corn starch and water about 20-to-1.
              Often done with plain water.
	* Prime coat:
		+ Coat of thin paint, or perhaps a cheap generic paint. 
              Traditionally made of size and whiting with just enough color 
              to see where you've painted.
		+ Fills the pores in canvas and tighten surface without overloading 
              the tooth.
		+ Gives surface a consistant texture and finish for next step.

Sometimes the size coat and base coat are combined into one coat.

All cartooning and layout drawing for the scenery is generally done on 
the prime coat prepatory to the next step.
	* Base coat:
		+ First coat audience will see; primary color the set will be based on.  
              It is the undercoat for the decorative techniques that will follow.
		+ If you were painting a house, this would be top coat
		+ In scene painting, usually a finishing technique is added on top.

Base coat is the color of the set.

Other Color media:

Dyes, such as Aniline Dyes, may be used instead of paint.
   Especially true if the effect is a traslucency, like a stained glass window, 
   or for a scrim.

Dyes come as a powder or crystals, are really the pigment.
   Can be disolved in solvent only, as in water or alcohol, and painted on 
   that way, or mixed with a binder for different effects.

Dyes mixed with startch: make a good translucent paint for canvas.

WARNING! WARNING!

Most Dyes, ESPECIALLY ANALYNES, are VERY TOXIC and carcinogenic! 
USE ALL PROPER PRECAUTIONS!


FEV (French Enamel Varnish): shellac thinned with alcohol, with dyes added.

FEV can be used as transparent colored glaze as well as a finish on wood.
PAINTING TECHNIQUES: Spatter, drybrush, ragroll, feather dusting, 
wet and dry scumbles, marbling.