The Science of Fluid Dynamics
Dicovered by David Alfaro Siqueiros
“When a denser fluid rests atop a less dense one, the top fluid wants to move downward, causing the two fluids to mix. Different colors of paint have different densities because of the varying compounds used to make pigments.” He called his painting technique, accidental painting, in which layers of paint are poured on a horizontal surface, creating cells, blobs, spiral patterns and other shapes.
The designs Siqueiros created in his art were formed by an unstable density gradient called in physics a Rayleigh-Taylor instability, where their is a battle between densities and the lighter density fluid pushes the heavier density fluid.
Watch the full video of these
beautiful cells forming!
Three Important Factors to Achieve this Painting Technique
1. Fluidity
2. Viscosity
3. Density
Opaque colors are the most dense, they do not allow light to pass through. Translucent or Transparent colors are less dense and allow light to pass through. In order to achieve this technique you need paints with different densities. The opaque colors will move downward and the transparent colors will push upward.
Watch in this video how I combine paint densities.