MIXING YOUR OWN OIL PAINTS
just....@gmail.com
paints? I used the same ones i bought for experimenting with egg yolks.
Are these ok or made specifically for the egg? its just pure powder
pigment that clumps over time, if that gives any indication.
I mixed them with lindseed oil, i read about the bees wax on the net
but im afraid ill ruin my buttery texture i got and make it into
toothpaste.
what about mixing pigment with stand oil? or adding it into the
lindseed pigment mix.
the label reads: ultramarine #506 - Demco artist series, all mediums,
pure artist pigment.
Paul Mesken
>Are there different kinds of pigments to use when mixing your own
>paints? I used the same ones i bought for experimenting with egg yolks.
>Are these ok or made specifically for the egg? its just pure powder
>pigment that clumps over time, if that gives any indication.
The pigments for egg tempera paints can practically all be used for
oil as well. There are a few exceptions but these are mostly antique
pigments (has to do with the "refractive index" of the pigments, if
it's too close to that of the oil then the oil practically hides the
pigment).
>I mixed them with lindseed oil, i read about the bees wax on the net
>but im afraid ill ruin my buttery texture i got and make it into
>toothpaste.
Adding bees wax is mostly done for being able to store the paint for a
long time (tubes on a shelf, for example). So, it's mostly used as
some "conservative". Most pigments don't need the addition of bees
wax. I've never added bees wax to my home made paints and it didn't
hurt them at all.
>what about mixing pigment with stand oil? or adding it into the
>lindseed pigment mix.
I've experimented with different vehicles. Making paint with only
pigment and stand oil gives a very glossy surface which is perfectly
smooth and reflects like a mirror. However : below the surface it
practically never dries (it takes a long time to get the surface dry
as well). It also paints as if you're painting with honey. I did this
experiment with (Cyprus) Burnt Umber which is about the quickest drier
of all pigments (because of the traces of Manganese in it, Manganese,
Lead and Cobalt are siccatives, they accelerate drying). I think that
if I'd used a slow drying pigment it would probably still be wet :-)
Of course, you can make some mix with Stand Oil and Linseed Oil to
make your paints with. This has the added bonus that your paint will
be leaner. If you would have used tubed paint then you would have
added Stand Oil to paint (making it fatter). But if it already is an
ingredient then the paint is still as lean as the pigment (and your
grinding abilities) permit. This is a clear advantage because
practically all defects come from the oil, hardly ever from the
pigment (the fatter the paint is, the more likely it is to show
defects like excessive yellowing, wrinkling, cracking, etc.).
>the label reads: ultramarine #506 - Demco artist series, all mediums,
>pure artist pigment.
Ultramarine is one of those pigments that must be mulled quite quickly
into paint else it will get "stringy" (it musn't get "overworked").
Luckily, it is easy to make into paint. You won't even need the
muller, the palette knife is good enough.
Note that different pigments take different amounts of oil to make
them into lean paint. You'll find out quick enough about that. The
easiest way to mull paints is to add the oil to the paint in such an
amount that it quickly is made into paint. Then add more pigment to it
to make it leaner (the leaner, the better, as long as it remains
workable for painting). This is easier than getting the proportion
correct from the beginning because in such a case you're working a dry
mass for quite some time to make it into workable paint. Some pigments
are quite sensitive to the amount of oil. One drop can make the
difference between an oil slick and a dry mass.
Also, there is a lot of difference between pigments of the same name
but from different manufacturers. I have, for example, six different
Yellow Ochres. They all have a somewhat different color and a
different texture.
Especially the texture of the paint is an advantage when mulling your
own. A lot of paint manufacturers overgrind their paints
("overmulling" is a better expression). This makes all paint extremely
smooth. But in many cases it is better to have paint with some coarse
texture to it. Especially in the case of Yellow Ochre, used for skin
tones, it will be advantageous to have some texture to the paint. It
makes the skin look more natural and less plastic.
A good site listing properties, names, pigment numbers, etc. is this
site :
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/waterfs.html
It is for water colors but most pigments of water color paint are also
used for oil paint.
I've found Kremer (http://www.kremer-pigmente.de) to be a good source
for pigments, they have a lot. Most of my pigments comes from them.
Making your own paints gives you complete control and it is cheaper
than buying top brand tubed paint (and it isn't so hard to equal top
brand paint). It also gives you insight in the unique properties of
each pigment.
However : there are some paints you'd better not make yourself.
Titanium White is a good example. It is very easy to make a Titanium
White which looks good at the beginning but turns brownish yellow
after a couple of days (the oil coming out of the paint). It seems
Titanium White is more sensitive to that (it's the only paint I've
made that showed that behaviour, I should have added Zinc White to
stabilize it).
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Paul Mesken, feared administrator of www.nellarteforum.com