With the Jo Sonja’s Acrylic paints the pigment quality and quantity is very
high and the polymer emulsion is very rich and smooth. If you use the
mediums that are made to compliment the paints (Flow medium, retarder,
texile, all purpose sealer etc) they are all made using the same Acrylic
Polymer Emulsion base, so the chemical balance of the paint remains the
same and, because of this, the pigment quality is not reduced.
If you add water to increase the liquidity of the paint (as opposed to adding
Flow medium) you would be adding a different set of chemicals which would
upset the balance and would stretch out the pigment, reducing its quality.
Now, the Acrylic Polymer Emulsion that is used for making Acrylic Paints is
not necessarily the same Acrylic Polymer Emulsion for each manufacturer. (If
two people mix up a Yorkshire pudding batter, their mixtures would not be
identical – one might add more or less flour, milk, water, beer to their mix
than the other person would – both would end up with Yorkshire Pudding, but
not necessarily of the same quality.) Each paint manufacturer would have
their own Emulsion mix. So, the effect of mixing different paint systems could
end up with a chemical reaction that affects the quality or longevity of your
work.
If you mix the paints/mediums of one manufacturer with the paints/mediums
of another manufacturer, it does not mean that it is wrong but it does mean
that you may not get the results, short term or long term, that is anticipated
by either yourself or the manufacturer.
Equally, as a general rule, if you are mixing two different qualities of a
product you tend not to raise up to the better quality, but you lower to the
poorer quality. That is not to say that one paint might be higher quality or one
might be a lower quality, but the mixing will always produce an uncertain
result.
I hope this answers the question and I hope you continue to have fun with
your paints.
I will end with a true story that often gives me cause to smile. A couple of
years ago an international artist complained that the Jo Sonja’s Titanium
White (one of our best sellers) was not drying to a satisfactory finish –
basically it was drying with a
yellow tinge. I heard about his
complaint when I received court
papers threatening to sue me
to the tune of a six-figure sum –
because of his ‘ruined’
exhibition works. We requested
further details. Eventually he
then told us that, in order to
increase the flow of the paint,
he used his own saliva! The
first question we asked was
‘what did you eat in the meal
prior to spitting in the paint?’ No
further action followed.
Surprising that! Lol!
See you all next year. Lynn xx