What are the benefits of using Flow Additive?
Flow Additive is a water-based paint additive that can be used to improve the flow and transparency of paints. The product has an oil base and is not soluble in most water systems. It is not a solvent and does not contain any volatile solvents or other harsh chemicals.
Flow Additive was created by the Swedish company Isofan, which was looking for a way to increase the flow of its pigments. The product offers many benefits, including:
- Better flow – Flow Additive reduces surface friction so the paint can flow more freely and easily through tubes or pipes. Even as you’re painting, the additives allow you to paint faster by enabling you to paint at higher speeds without worrying about brush strokes sticking together.
- Greater transparency – When using Flow Additive, it’s easy to see the color on your workpiece more clearly and make more accurate choices about how many colors you need for the job (the amount of water absorbed into the pigment). Flow Additive also ensures that all colors in your palette are fully saturated, which makes it easier to make accurate choices about your desired color from a color wheel.
- Lesser brush strokes – Using Flow Additive helps reduce brush strokes and makes painting easier with fewer strokes per line – because less paint gets on your workpiece due to reduced friction. This means you can use fewer tools and apply more pressure with each stroke, which results in smoother results.
- Lesser brush head wears – Because fewer brushes are needed when using Flow Additive it’s easier for artists working long days at work or on-site due to fewer brushes being used per line while working with multiple colors or multiple media types (airbrush or inkjet printers). However, this product may occasionally require cleaning brushes due to deposits from dried adhesives that may clog up brushes if not cleaned regularly. If this happens make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions regarding cleaning maintenance procedures when using this product; overcleaning can cause damage that cannot be repaired!
Why use Flow Additive?
Flow Additive is a unique water-based additive that increases the transparency and blend-ability of watercolor media. It eliminates brush strokes, smoothes the surface of watercolor media, and improves flow for artists who work in color or acrylic painting. This additive reacts with the surface tension of water to produce a smoother surface with fewer brush strokes. For example, Flow Additive can be applied to acrylic paint, oil paint, or watercolor paper, but does not affect dry media.
It has been observed that traditional water-based paints (such as oil paint or acrylic paint) have inefficient viscosity due to their thin solvents which cause them to be highly viscous: they have a low viscosity ratio and are viscous enough that they can’t flow effectively through your hands when wet (due to their high fluidity). While this is an inevitable cost associated with using thin solvents such as thinner, it doesn’t account for all the reasons you want your artwork to flow smoothly and progressively across the paper.
Flow Additive works by adding friction on top of smooth surfaces. It works on both wet and dry paper (so it also applies to digital images, too), however, it’s not a thinning agent; it affects only the surface tension of a medium. In other words, Flow Additive is not intended to change any medium properties other than those caused by friction. It works best with dried media when used without first applying another medium (such as oil paint); however, you can use it with oil paint on dry paper without worry if you’re careful about what medium you apply first (oil on oil).
