Nova Color’s fluorescent paints aren’t just vibrant bright paints, but are also capable of fluorescing under a blacklight. Now what would happen if these paints were mixed with other acrylics? Is there an ideal mixing strategy with fluorescent paints? Does the paint still fluoresce after mixing? Does it layer well? This article will seek to answer those questions.
**It is important to note that the blacklight photos don’t always create the most accurate image of what is showing in real life. For example, in the photo above, the yellow paint looks greener under the blacklight. However, this is only in the photo and the paint is very yellow under the blacklight in real life. To compensate for these inconsistencies, I’ve adjusted the photos in post to try to get the colors closer to how they look in real life. As a result, the background can fluctuate between a blue and purple hue, but this is all relative color and what should be focused on is the swatches themselves.
Layering
Here is a photo of the Nova Color fluorescent paints under normal LED lighting and again under a blacklight.
Next, swipes of both transparent and opaque yellow and purple paint are applied on top. These colors were chosen to show how the value of the paint can affect the coverage of fluorescent paints. From top to bottom the paints are: #144 Azo Yellow Medium, #102 Cadmium Yellow Medium, #147 Quinacridone Magenta, and #186 Medium Violet (Purple).
It’s clear that in terms of coverage, the opaque blocks out most of the fluorescent quality while the transparent partially blocks the color out. If you’re looking to block out certain
shapes, then a layer of opaque paint will help carve out shapes and forms. Meanwhile the transparent paint could be used to create more texture or a slow reveal of the fluorescent paint.
It’s also important to note that the value of the paint is less important than the opacity if under just a blacklight. Both the coverage of the opaque yellow and purple appears almost black in contrast to the illumination of the fluorescent paints.
Mixing
Now, let’s look at a few swatches of both unmixed and mixed paint combos under normal lighting conditions. Below is a series of oranges. One is the mix between #102 Cadmium Yellow Medium (Opaque) and #193 Fluorescent Red. The next is a mix between #144 Azo Yellow Medium (transparent) and #193 Fluorescent Red. The next swatch is the #195 Fluorescent Orange compared to a mix of the orange that can be achieved by mixing the #193 Fluorescent Red and #197 Fluorescent Yellow.
While you can achieve some nice subtle variety of oranges with these mixes, the blacklight reveals the necessity of knowing your materials. While the unmixed 195 fluoresces the brightest, the other colors still do so as well, although to a much less degree.
The mix between the #193 Fluorescent Red and #197 Fluorescent Yellow is still very bright but also loses just a touch of fluorescing quality. Which means that the same subtractive quality of paint holds true for chroma as it does for fluorescence. That is to say, when colors are mixed, they tend to be less chromatic (as well as fluorescent). This can be useful knowledge for mixing incrementally, however.
I decided to test this out with the purple hues as well to see if the value of the paint would matter in the way it behaves. Below is a swatch of the #190 Fluorescent Magenta followed by a mixture of #186 Medium Violet (Opaque) and #190 Fluorescent Magenta. Then a mixture of #147 Quinacridone Magenta and #190 Fluorescent Magenta. Above both of these mixes I provided a swatch of the non-fluorescent to see the contrast between these paints and the mixes. Lastly, on the right, is a mixture of #199 Fluorescent Blue and #193 Fluorescent Red.
Now under blacklight, we can see similar results with the purple that we saw in yellow despite the change in value and chroma.
I also decided to slowly increase the amount of #186 Medium Violet (Opaque) into the #190 Fluorescent Magenta to show the way the subtler shifts of purple can be achieved. Since there is some difference in chroma between the 186 and 190 even though they are both very purple in hue, the real difference can be seen when under blacklight.
It should be noted that all Nova Color paints are transparent paints and, when mixed, they have a tendency to be overpowered by the other competing pigments. So, since less of the 186 needed to be mixed with the 190 to push it in chroma, the mixes retain the fluorescent quality than a mixture that would require more of the non-fluorescent paint.
This is further demonstrated below with some yellow and purple mixes. These mixes push the value much farther than the purple mixes alone.
The first column is a gradation between #197 Fluorescent Yellow and #147 Quinacridone Magenta (transparent). The center column is a mixture between #144 Azo Yellow Medium (transparent) and #190 Fluorescent Magenta. The last column is a mixture between #197 Fluorescent Yellow and #190 Fluorescent Magenta.
Notice that the fluorescent paint with the relatively lighter chroma in columns 1 ends up fluorescing more because it takes less magenta paint to move the value of the yellow than vice versa. In column 2, there is simply more #144 Azo Yellow Medium (transparent) needed to change the value of the paint, but this also makes the paint fluoresce less. Meanwhile, there is a change in hue and value but not the fluorescent quality on the last column since both paints are fluorescent.
In conclusion, when mixing, the fluorescent quality of a paint will always be determined by the ratio of fluorescent to non-fluorescent pigments. And both transparent and opaque paints can block out fluorescent paints to
value and hue, is just another property of the paint to juggle, but can also add another layer of visual interest to your work as well.
