Developing chemical symbols on acetate

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'd get lost in the background as the acrylic pours are rather busy in the marks. I found this acetate had a slight haze, which dulled the colours behind it.

I wanted to see what the shadows would look like against the paintings. I found they cast a shadow in front but it was only visible with a strong flash, and the haze from the acetate lost a lot of the saturation and vibrancy of the colours. I decided to try and bring the layers closer together to try and I wanted to paint the symbols onto the acetate, then cover the back of the acetate in acrylic.

To try and solve this, I painted the symbol backwards on the acetate then splattered some grey acrylic down to symbolise ash given off by cigarettes. I then poured more colours on top and let them swirl and this was the outcome. I found by mixing the PVA glue into the paint helps it become more flexable, as I was worried the acrylic cracking or peeling off the acetate, but I havent experienced that yet. I also feel that the colours look quite dull, this might be because its against the acetate and the fact its shiny and I prefer a matt finish.

This is the back of the above piece. The colours are slightly more washed out but also lighter. I find that the marks made on this side look more psychedelic and more fluid. More layers and lines of the acrylic give the piece more depth and movement. I find the other side is too heavy and thick, as I found it also doesn't have any transparency so when placed above a light box, no light was able to get through the thick layer of acrylic. Moving on from this I plan to work with shadows and layering paper and acetate.

In a previous post, I mentioned I experimented with water marbling. I tried layering the acetate sheets over the paper which I water marbled, I found the symbol washed out the colour of the oil paints, and made them look faded and not as vibrant as I'd hoped. So I decided it might be better to try and project the symbols or even layer them behind and shine light through behind them to cast shadows on the back of the piece.

After doing some experiments, I found that only one piece of paper which I did water marbling on actually was thin enough to cast shadows. This above piece is using the acetate which I hand painted the skeletal structure for nicotine on. I placed it on a light box befire placing the paper on top, the lines become quite blurred unless the paper is compleatly pressed against the lightbox. Due to the paper getting wet when it was water marbled, its slightly wrinkled, so its diffecult to get it to sit flat against the light box unless its being pushed down.

This piece above I find particularly effective. The irregular edges of the paper and the strong white from the light box gives a very clinical feel to this piece. The fluid likes created from the marbling, contrasy the sharp lines of the chemical which are blurred by the shadows its created. I find this piece fluid and has a lot of movement, and the white edge from the light box reminds me of practical experiement which I carry out in biology. Where I've examines kidney cells and water fleas. On the right is a photo taken by myself through a light microscope examining kidney cells from a rat. Although not directly linked to my concept, the kidneys are vital body organs which are very delicate, and once destroyed, are hard to build back up. One can survive on one kidney, but with none, one must compleate dialysis in hospital to prevent toxins from building up in the blood stream. I find the contrast between the light which is from the microscope and the actual cells to mimic the marks made in the piece above. I've always tried to make the marks look psychedelic but this has inspired me as the marks also mimic cells. In this case those cells could be kidney, liver or lung cells, any part of the human body which can be damaged by addiction.

This above piece also seems quite clincal to me, as the light shining through mimics a light microscope. The bubbles created by the oil remind me of metabolic cells, in responce to this, if possible, I'll use a light microscope from my biology lab and examine and photograph some cells to give more inspiration to reference to when pouring the acrylic, or give me some ideas on different colour schemes, as I'm still using the rust inspired tones from the palette knife experiements. I find the colours I've been using link well to my concept and symbolise rust and decay, although they seem dull it matches the tone of my work, as addiction is a topic which is dark and personal and usually links to the negative effects chemical dependancy has ones mind and body.