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When creating my art for this personal investigation, I drew inspiration from Danny Clark. A mixed media artist from Texas. Specifically, a collection titles COSMOS. Below are some of his paintings and why I found them inspiring and how they link to my personal investigation. To the left is the first piece I found interesting as I find this piece contains a lot of movement, whilst at the same time remaining stationary. The fluidity of the marks and contrasts of the light and dark tones from the top to the bottom of the piece give it lots of depth. I find the longer one looks at this piece, the more layers and details are discovered. I find this relates to science because as research gets stronger, and microscopes get more powerful, humans have been able to see and learn more than ever before. The earthy colour palette gives a natural and organic feel. The tones mimic mountains but also could relate to cells and biology. This circular piece from the same cosmos collectio...

I wanted to experiment with different ways to incoporate the chemical symbols into the abstract acrylic pours, after printing the symbols onto acetate, I wanted to project them onto my work to cast shadows. Using the large acrylic pour experiemnt as the background, and using a projectorphotographed the outcome. Above is the same projection but theres more contrast between the shadows and it gives it more depth. I found the light is quite warm toned, and so it brings out the warm, orange tones in the painting. I found the lines created by the shadows were quite sharp and angular, which contrast the abstract, fluidity of the acylic painting in the background. I then experimented with more organic layouts, rotating the canvas to warp the projections. I find the composition of this piece is more raw and comes across less planned. I find the above layout hid too much of the chemical symbol, whereas the photo below contains almost the full symbol. Although to most people, they won...

As the scale I've been working on hasn't gone above A4 sized, I decided to try a pour on a larger scale. Above is the final outcome and this post is about how I managed to get this outcome. I first needed to prime the canvas, which I did first with a layer of PVA glue, as the canvas I was using already had some ink on it. I hoped the PVA would seal in the ink, as to not bleed through into my piece. I then added 4 thin coats of white emulsion paint, to create a blank canvas. I needed to mix a lot of paint, I wasn't sure how much to do so I thought I'd better make too much than too little. For this pour, I used the main colours which I felt complemented each other in my experiments and represented the theme of rust and decay, which links back to my original concept for my personal investigation which is chemical dependency and addiction. I began by mixing the above colours. I used black and white to form a light grey, which symbolizes ash but also the pure ...

I wanted to incoporate the chemical symbols into my work, but I found that hand writing them made them look messy and not as structures as I'd like. As the symbols should be angled and lines should be harsh, I find that this will contrast the fluidness of the marks made by the acrylic. I began by taking a sheet of A4 acetate, and using black acrylic to paint on the skeletal structure of nicotine. I found even though I took care hand painting it, it still looks a bit irregular and rough. So I decided to use some acetate that works with inkjet printers, and printed off some symbols on that. By printing I hoped the lines and angles would be sharper and give more contrast between the abstract acrylic and the chemical symbols.  On this piece, to strart I printed off a few symbols, dopamine, nicotine and THC. I printed these as weed and nicotine were the two most addictive substances in the survay I did. I feel the lines look harsher, but they were thinner, so I wasnt sure if they...

During my research, I decided I'd do some experiments involving chemical symbols and incoporate them into my acrylic pouring and watermarbling experiments. I started by using black and white pens to draw the symbols on top of the acrylic pours. I found that outlining the symbols in white made it stand out against the colours of the background. The first experiment I did was using the below piece as a background. This was on wood which I'd painted red, before doing an acrylic pour using yellow grey and red acrylic. I used black and white pens to draw differnt chemical symbols. On this piece, is THC, Meth, Nicotine, Domapine and an Alcohol. After just drawing them in white I found they were lost in the chasoitc background so I decided to highlight sections and go over some with white, which I felt helped the symbols stand out more effectivley. This was the final outcome after I did another layer of acrylic pour over the top. I used PVA glue on its own in the pour as I kn...

During a lesson, I learnt how to watermarble onto paper which creates a psychedelic effect which goes along with my theme of addiction and drugs. To watermarble, I used turpentine, water and oilpaints. The colours of oil paints I used were: crimson, burnt umber, yellow and mars black. In the tray, I added water which is used to suspend the oil paints on the surface. The turps is an oil, and oils float on water, so by mixing the oil paint in, it flows on the surface. I then swirl the paints round with a brush to create a psychedelic pattern, before dipping in paper to capture the marks made in the water. Below is a video showing the process of pouring on the paints and creating the marks on the water. I begin by getting a small amount of the oil paint and thinning it down with some turps. I then pour it directly onto the surface of the water and mix it with a paintbrush to create the psychedelic patterns on the surface of the water. I learnt very quickly that you don't have...

A technique I find intriguing is acrylic pouring, specifically where cells are created in the pour. An example of an acrylic pour with cells is below: Pour on a wooden board, using red, grey, pink and brown acrylics, glue and water. The cells are the 'bubbles' of paint which bring up paint from underneath. These are achieved by adding a small amount of oil to the paint (I use hair serum as its cheap and only 1 drop is needed). The oil causes the paint surrounded by droplets to go to the surface, this can be emphasized more using a heat source such as a heat gun. To create this technique, I've developed an approximate recipe which I find gives the best technique for me. I like the pours to be matt, but I use PVA glue to bulk the medium so I get more out of the acrylic, so I include a flow enhancer, which I find gives the finish a matt appearance and ensures it flows evenly when being poured. An example of an acrylic pour with more flow enhancer in is below: Pour on ...