ADDITIVE COLOR MIXTURE WITH FLUORESCENT PIGMENTS AND SPECIAL ILLUMINATION

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough the artist uses subtractive color mixture when the starting point is a white surface and color mixture is accomplished by physically intermixing paints, he can use additive color mixture if he applies his paints to the canvas in small dots, creating a mosaic structure. Conventional pigments, however, lack a high enough relative brightness to synthesize white; the artist must revert to mixing white pigment to his paints to get a full range of lights and darks, just as in subtractive color mixture painting methods. By employing fluorescent pigments with special illumination, the visual artist can now obtain additive primaries of sufficient brightness to synthesize white; thus, for the first time, he can create images in his graphic media using purely additive color mixture.