Painting with blood is not a new thing. Probably people have been doing it for millennia. A problem is that it turns out monochromiatic. Depth of tone can be modified by the thickness of the application and how much the substrate shows through. But ultimately blood oxidizes to a maroon tone.

How to prevent oxidation to maroon? Carbon monoxide is poisonous by virtue of its irreversible bond to hemoglobin, which then excludes oxygen. The blood of a person with CO poisoning is preternaturally bright. Cheeks are pink. Venous blood looks arterial.

I propose that the artist could lock in various degrees of redness by pretreating the blood (ex vivo! ) with CO and so prohibiting oxidation. One could extend the spectrum of blood colors and so the range of artistic expression available to the artist who works solely in blood.
-- bungston, Aug 12 2016

You could also consider using non-vertebrate bloods. Horseshoe crabs, for example, have blue blood.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 12 2016


<maniacal giggling>

<proffers mask>

Here, [bungs], just put this over your mouth and nose and breathe slowly and deeply ... just think of it as "proof of concept".
-- 8th of 7, Aug 12 2016


It's not an irreversable reaction. CO poisoning is treated with 100% oxygen to move the equilibrium.

Nice idea, though. Maybe you could keep the colour by excluding oxygen - IIRC there's an artist who makes sculptures of their own blood in glass bottles, and similar.
-- Loris, Aug 12 2016



random, halfbakery