Blue Streak

I love to paint.
There are many areas of boat care that I enjoy,
but there's instant gratification in looking at a freshly painted surface,
and it's there again each time it comes into view.

Typically I work with two kinds of paint:
Black and varnish (which is essentially paint without pigment).
In both cases I do a good job of stirring.
I mix it, stir it, roll it on, and brush it out.

Why do we stir?
the first reason is to make sure that the thinner is evenly distributed.
The second reason is to make sure that pigment is also evenly distributed.
Varnish, of course, has no pigment.
In the case of black paint, once you've applied your second coat,
pigment distribution isn't all that important.
It's all gonna end up black.

Oh, but change out your black paint out for another color,
and pigment distribution becomes way more important.

Be sure to stir, because if you don't, you might see something like this:

 

Mhmm. See those dark blue streaks?

 

While executing a color change on the floorboards of my gondola,

The Phoenix, I knew it would require several coats. 

Floorboards get beat up; they get walked all over. 

One or two coats of paint wouldn't last long. 

 

After about four coats of Largo Blue, I realized that as I'd gotten towards the bottom of the can, I'd come upon a concentrated patch of pigment.

 

According to Murphy's Law, you never see such things while the paint is still wet (when you can brush them out), no, you always discover them the next day after the paint is dry.

 

You walk outside with a cup of coffee, the steam rising from the cup into the morning air. You smile as you survey a collection of beautiful blue floorboards, and then you wake the neighbors with language you shouldn't be using - especially not at that volume, with children possibly nearby.

 

Solution? 

Buy another can of Largo Blue,

calm yourself down,

and add two more coats to the floorboards.

 

Now I've got six coats of blue paint on the floor.

It looks beautiful, but more importantly, there are no more pigment streaks.

 

I posted some photos of the new blue floorboards shortly after relaunch,

in my post "Phoenix Again".

 

This blue may look familiar, especially if you've been reading the Gondola Blog lately (or if you're a raccoon in my neighborhood). 

Yes, I learned several lessons during this painting session - another one of them was explained in my post "Raccoon Finger Painting".