Opacity with Marble Dust

 I was investigating what happens to acrylic paint when you add marble dust. I have used it cold wax and oil media, as well as printmaking inks, to stiffen the consistency of the material. So what happens if you work it into acrylic paint?

Looks like we've found a way to make transparent acrylics opaque without adding white, which changes their value. 

From right: quinacridone magenta, manganese blue hue, Indian yellow hue, and quinacridone gold, each in their straight-up form and with marble dust added.

This is what I got from Blick.

At the top, the magenta and blue are opacified quinacridone magenta and manganese blue hue

At top on the left you see Indian yellow hue straight out of the bottle; to the right you see it with marble dust added.

Studio Work

 Here are a couple of pieces I have in progress:

48"x60" unstretched canvas. This is where it is today. Below are a couple of previous stages.

Several layers in, but establishing the stripes

More layers in, establishing the bottom section of stripes

Another work in progress, on stretched canvas, 40"x54". This is where it is today. My next task is to vary the values on the bottom row of stripes.

An early stage of the above piece

A few more layers later. It is starting to look like a pinstriped suit to me, so that is why I started obscuring the top area of stripes.

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