MAKING HOMEMADE ARTIST PAINTS

The following recipes are all for water-based paints, this is because homemade water based paints are generally easier to produce and more reliable than are homemade oil colors. It is difficult to match the quality and economy of student grade oils colors manufactured by a reputable paint company. If economics are an issue, and you are painting with oils, the best approach to economy is buying a small well selected palette of colors in the pound tube size. You can pretty much mix any color using only White, Yellow, Blue and a cool Red. The most affordable choices for these primary colors are Titanium White, Hansa Yellow, Permanent Magenta (madder red hue), and Phthalocyanine Blue. WHITE Titanium White is warmer than Zinc White but has much greater covering power and a better reputation for flexibility of paint film than zinc when used in oils. YELLOW Hansa Yellow is more transparent than Cadmium Yellow but this can be a good thing but just a touch of white added to it will make it more opaque. BLUE The Phthalo Blue must be used with great care as it is a very powerful tinter and can easily overwhelm red and yellow when used in mixing colors. The used on its own Phthalo Blue will need a touch of white to give it body and luminosity as phthalo is so dark and transparent from the tube it seems almost black. COOL RED I find the Rose Madder hue color Permanent Magenta (linear quinacridone) easier to handle and mix with than Alizarin Crimson (dihydroxy anthroquinone) which is the conventional cool red in modern painting. If you are using only one red, the cool red is desirable since warm reds (cadmium, arylamide, naphthol, and toludine red) do not permit the brilliant purples possible with the cool reds, however, a cool red can be mix with Hansa Yellow to form a decent warm fire red or orange. OPACITY Since all these synthetic colors are quite transparent they require a small admixture of white to give them covering power. The traditional appeal of the now quite expensive cadmiums and copper colors is more their opacity than brilliance or stability relative the modern synthetics, opacity was seen as an important quality in oil paints to prevent them yellowing over time due to the yellowing of the oil binders. Another approach to giving body and opacity to the more brilliant and transparent red and yellow dye colors is by blending them with the more muted earth or synthetic mars colors (iron oxides) rather than white; that is Hansa Yellow with a Mars Yellow or Yellow Ocher and Crimson or Madder with a synthetic Mars Red or a natural earth Iron Oxide Red. ACADEMIC PALETTE If you are interested in an inexpensive Old Master look you can use the so-called Academic or Goya palette of earth colors (or the sythetic mars colors), these are the colors used for economy and reliability before the advent of permanent dye colors. The yellow earths: Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, and Raw Umber. The red earths: Venetian Red, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, and Burnt Umber. The green earths: Terre Verte and Raw Umber. These color names refer to the traditional native earth pigments but the modern synthetic iron oxides or Mars Colors are acceptable substitutes although somewhat more opaque and flat.

pigments & color choices Color pigments are pretty reasonably priced when purchased by the pound, but still, given how light the synthetics are, even by the ounce you are forced to lay out a fair bit of money buy them compared to a palette of Earth or Mars colors. I have made a choice to use the limited palette of black and white plus the earth colors. When I need a brighter chroma I just tweak my earth colors a touch of commercial Hansa Yellow, Quinacridone Red, or Phthalo Blue watercolor paint. In the 19th century students often painted with a very restricted set of colors, now sometimes called the Goya Palette: Yellow Ocher a Red Earth (traditionally Burnt Sienna) a white and a black. It was believed that painting with these simple reliable colors, aside from being economical, promoted a solid understanding of color. Cool grays were used in place of blue, and a sort of green was mixed by blending Yellow Ocher and Vine Black. I most often use a limited palette: Titanium White and Vine Black Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna Red Ochre, Red Oxide Dark and Burnt Sienna Burnt Umber Raw Umber and Terre Verte Prussian Blue These are all inexpensive and non-toxic colors and I can heighten them with touches of the brilliant yellow and red dye colors when needed. I use the cool Indian Red (red oxide dark) because it can mix richer purples and violets than the warm Venetian Red (red oxide light) but can be made to closely match Venetian Red using a touch of yellow. I use the Raw Sienna as a base for light flesh tones because of its transparency relative yellow ocher and it's subtlety and complexity. All in all, it is much easier to mix flesh tones from the traditional earth colors than from the brilliant modern primaries. The only other colors I usualy indulge in are synthetic Ultramarine Blue, and Chrome Oxide Green. Although dry pigments sold by the ounce are quite expensive, purchased by the pound or half pound all of these colors cost less than decent coffee... Most people order pigment on-line from Sinopia Pigments which has a terrific selection and good prices though the cost of the special historic pigments in at the begining of their catalog can be pretty scarey. Lee Valley Tools sells a terrific introductory set of fourteen two ounce samples of a range of yellow and red earths plus some black for around fifteen dollars --they do not sell a white though. The colors are around $4.50 by the half pound I think, I really like their selection. Williamsburg Art Materials has good prices and great quality but in their raw pigments I believe they carry the highly toxic traditional cadmiums reds and yellows but not the safer synthetics. Kama Pigment in Montreal is who I've purchased from since recently moving to Canada. They sell good synthetic reds and yellows as well as the cadmiums. To buy a half pound each of all the ten colors I use would run around $45 and half a pound will go FOREVER... you could get by with just Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Iron Oxide Red and Carbon Black for about and these can usually be purchased chep by the pound locally from a ceramics supply store. I have in desperate circumstance resorted to using children's poster colors for painting since I have found no substitute for buying manufactured raw pigments. I tested food color over the summer and the yellow and red held up very nicely but the blue faded, they have no body so you would have to use them with starch paste as I did or give them bulk with chalk for other water media. A couple of times I have gotten hardware store clerks in the US to sell me samples of the pigment suspensions they use to tint wall paint for about a buck each and they are sold in tubes at Canadian Tire in Canada, they are very light fast as they are used for exterior paint, a prof. in Saskatuwan uses them with wallpaper paste for screenprinting. For white you are left with chalk or slaked plaster Plaster soaked in an excess of water and stirred so it doesn't set, but these do not work in the presence of any oil content in a paint.

emergency paint When I used to use poster paints I would then go over them carefully with polyurethane to seal them and give them a more juicy oil look. More recently I dope the poster paints with matte acrylic medium or Elmer's glue, or evaporated skimmed milk, these binders help prevent flaking and so far my paintings have held up. If you have a store of dry pigment, a quick sketching medium can be made by blending it with a vehicle of water and powdered skim milk mixed half and half, it is said that some early American painters sketched in pigments ground with skim milk and went over these with oil after sealing them with varnish or shellac. A gouache can be made by pouring three table spoons of water into a couple cups of Sugar Twin sugar substitute and waiting for the sodium saccharin to foam out... this leaves a dextrose syrup sometimes used in place of Gum Arabic in cheap commercial watercolor and gouache paints, it is sometimes called British Gum. Dextrose gum ferments quickly so it can not really be stored for long unrefrigerated. I sometimes have found children's Mucilage Glue (the stuff that comes in the old fashioned bottle with the weird rubber top you cut a slit in to use) that is a cheap inferior grade of Gum Arabic but if it is used without enough pigment and water it is prone to crackling. It can be loosened up a bit with a touch of glycerin found in the cosmetics section of the grocery store as an emollient. Lastly is a paint I feel very conflicted about... soap. Ivory Soap(tm) grated or shaved and soaked in a small quantity of water: it is a joy to handle and gives a beautiful encaustic like effect but always remains fragile due to the non-drying tropical oils it contains. The authorities state that soaps yellow terribly over time due to their strong alkali content although have not observed this myself. Any way, since I am more interested in making paintings than what happens to them afterward (I know my work is ultimately landfill) I love using this stuff.

distemper The only emergency paint that would meet the approval of the conservator is distemper. It was used in the past by a number of artists, most notably Edouard Vuillard, but it has now fallen into disuse aside from in scenic design for the theater. Distemper is simply pigment in a vehicle of hide glue or edible gelatin, such as Knox gelatin sold near the canning supplies at the supermarket. Rabbit skin glue which is becoming harder and harder to find is cheaper and more adhesive than gelatin but it has a strong funky odor. The gelatin or glue is prepared by dissolving one half ounce (1 Tbsp.) in a cup of nearly boiling water, this is mixed one to one by volume with pigment and thinned liberally with water. Too much gelatin and too little water results in cracking and cleaving of the dry paint film, too little gelatin results in a powdery paint film when dry. One reason that distemper has been abandoned in easel painting is that the paint must be kept warm to prevent gelling. I have found this no grave obstacle if I keep my paint containers sitting in a tray of just boiled water. The other difficulty in painting with distemper is the color shift. When the paint is wet the pigment has a dark wet appearance, but when the paint cools, even if the pigment is well adhered, it lightens to the appearance of the original pigment when dry. Vuillard is said to have dealt with this by keeping a tin sheet warmed on a buffet warmer and testing the pigment out on that since the paint dried nearly immediately on the heated surface... I simply keep samples of dry pigment in view to help me anticipate the color of the paint when dry. If you paint over a sketch in distemper with oils it will take on the darker wet tonality again unless it is well sealed with a layer of pure gelatin to isolate it. The paint can be made somewhat harder and more resistant to moisture if a little cooking alum is added to the hot gelatin solution before mixing it with pigment.

egg tempera In its simplest form this is the admixture of pre-wetted pigment to pure egg yolk which serves as the binder. I store my pigments in paste form in either baby food jars or the mason jars used in canning. Pigments that are light in weight will not wet properly with water without a touch of rubbing alcohol to break the surface tension of the water. I add alcohol as a mater of course to prevent molding in the stored pigments paste, I have also used Listerine mouthwash. Enough water is added to the pigment to make it a smooth, workable paste which can be picked up on the end of a brush. Since modern pigments now come so finally machine ground you can ignore the insistence in old texts that the pigment be well ground with the water on a slab, instead I add a dash of alcohol and what I guess is the right amount of distilled water for a given pigment, close the lid of the jar tightly and shake. If the pigment is to be stored for any length of time you must add a little more rubbing alcohol and top the paste off with enough extra water that a layer of clear water sits above the paste once it has settled, the pigment is more liable to mold or dry out without this. When it is time to actually use the paste it is an easy mater to either pour off this layer of clear water or carefully tip it to one side of the jar and reach in with a knife to grab the pigment paste. As for the binder, this is pure egg yolk well blended with just less than an equal measure of water. Most people crack the egg, pour off the white and carefully pass the yolk sac back and forth on paper towels to remove all traces of the egg white. The white, or albumen, can cause a fragility or even crazing in the final paint film but I don't worry over much about making sure all traces of the albumen is removed. The egg sack is then held over a small jar or bowl and punctured so that the yolk runs out of the sack which is then discarded. A little water is well blended into the egg yolk to make it easier to handle. The yolk consists of water, some oil, emulsifying proteins that permit the oil and water to blend, and other proteins that oxidize over time to create a very stable and resistant paint film. The thinned egg is added 50/50 to dabs of pigment paste in the wells of a water color palette or in small cups... Too much egg to too little pigment dries slowly to an overly glossy or greasy film while egg mixed with enough pigment and thinned liberally with water should result in a opalescent semi matte paint film that does not dust up when dry. The traditional method of painting in egg tempera is to build up many layers of paint applied in small hatching strokes. I have found that a watercolor technique of painting in flat areas of color and sponging in texture will work if you can apply the paint quickly and it is well diluted with water... in fact, egg tempera can be improvised simply by blending egg yolk into tube water color paint on the pallet. Many more layers of egg tempera can be built up than is possible with watercolor, the problem is that once the brush mark or paint film begins to set up, but before it has actually dried, it is damaged if it is gone over with wet paint even of the same color. An other approach to modifying the working properties of egg tempera is by making a varnish, oil, or varnish/oil emulsion with it. This is done by cracking an egg at one end so that it forms a cup... the egg white is poured into a tall narrow bottle (empty spice bottles are perfect) followed by the yolk from the pierced egg sack... water is not added but instead the cup made by the shell is used to measure a less then equal portion of dammar varnish, linseed oil, or a blend of the two which is added to the whole egg. The jar is well shaken until bubbles of oil are no longer visible in the egg... an equal volume of water is now added and blended in with vigorous shaking. This egg based emulsion should be water soluble for painting and clean up and sets up more slowly than pure egg yolk paint but remains a delicate surface longer as it does not form a truly leathery paint film until the oil component of the paint has oxidized to a certain point... I strongly recommend using artist's linseed oil since the stuff from the hardware store is of really terrible quality and should be avoided unless you are going for a grungy prematurely aged look in your painting. If the tempera is to be used on paper, wood, or board and it contains any oil or varnish, the support should be well sized with diluted white glue (Elmer's) or with a layer of one part egg yolk diluted in eight parts water. The traditional ground for egg tempera is glue/chalkgesso polished to a smooth ivory like finish.

casein paint This is a more elaborate and durable version of milk paint... the casein protein is treated with alkali to make it water soluble but that alkali is then driven off or otherwise stabilized rendering the paint somewhat water resistant over time. Most published recipes are based on using Ammonium Carbonate (smelling salts I believe) but this is no longer commonly available. Casein peaked in popularity as a painters medium right before the end of second World War (when casein/formaldehyde plastics were in common use) but has all but been abandoned outside of the UK since the advent of Magna paints, and then the acrylic emulsion paints. I use casein in place of acrylics, which I can't stand, because it permits a gouache like impasto but is cheap and durable... it is not as flexible as oil or acrylic so it is best to use it on heavy paper, board, or muslin adhered to board. Cloth can be adhered to board with the diluted casein medium and some authorities recommend a casein/chalk ground as a superior gesso ground for oil painting. The key to casein is adequate dilution with water as it is a very strong adhesive that shrinks on drying and can cause warping or even splitting of the support. To prepare the casein solution, take a cup of non-fat cottage cheese, rinse off the soluble gums and sugars, add distilled water to cover and blend well with a tablespoon of either household ammonia, grocery store pickling lime, dyer's soda ash, washing soda, or laundry borax dissolved in boiling water. Stir well and let sit until the cheese curds have dissolved and you have a syrupy solution, this could take say forty minutes... this casein concentrate stores refrigerated from two or three days in the case ammonia casein to maybe over a week in the case of borax casein. For use it is diluted with three parts water and blended with pigment to make a workable paste. In the case of the ammonia used as the alkali agent, the casein solution should be set in a bath of hot water in order to permit the ammonia to vapor off before the casein is blended with paint... in the case of using lime or soda, as the alkali remains present in the paint, alkali proof fresco colors must be used, namely the earth and mars colors along with alkali safe synthetic Ultramarine Blue, and of course white and black. Soda and lime casein are both toxic to ingest and prolonged skin contact can cause lye burns. When Borax is used to dissolve the casein it also remains present in the final paint film but it is a salt which is an active alkali only hot water so the paint is somewhat humidity resistant. Borax can cause skin irritation and is toxic to ingest but it is supposed to produce a paint which is more durable than those produced with other agents. However, some authorities claim the borax can re-crystallize over time in the case of mural painting on plaster and thus destroy the painting... I use Borax Casein exclusively on wood and paper and have yet to have problems with it.

cold wax encaustic This paint is based on a wax/water emulsion made by saponifying natural beeswax in water using an alkali such as household ammonia or laundry borax. Ten parts distilled water is brought to a rolling boil in an enamel pot --bad things will happen if you use tap water or an aluminum pot-- one part clarified bees wax is added followed by a tenth part household ammonia. The ammonia should cause the layer of melted wax that sits atop the boiling water to go into emulsion with the water turning it milky white. This is permitted to cool and the cake or scum of wax soap that floats to the surface is used for the cold encaustic paint. I prefer to use borax as I find it gives me a smother and creamier wax soap than does the ammonia. I dissolve four to six tablespoons of laundry Borax in two quarts of rapidly boiling distilled water... one half pound of pure beeswax is added to this and should dissolve in as it melts. I usually can ladle two cups of wax soap off the water when cool... formation of the soap is helped by continued stirring while the water cools and a film of un-saponified wax my form over the wax soap if the concoction is left unattended while cooling... this thin wax film can be peeled off and used for some other purpose... it can not be thrown in with the next batch of wax to be saponified. Now that we have our wax soap it requires a binder to be used as a paint. The wax soap is mixed with about one third part pigment and is used by either mixing with diluted egg yolk, or if you want a paint with indefinite shelf life, enough gum arabic or dextrose gum is added to cause the paint to lose its milkiness and take on the color of the pure pigment paste when wet... The egg or gum holds the wax and pigment in place until it can be burned-in using a household hair dryer... do not use the hair drier to re-melt the wax until you are pretty sure the water has completely evaporated out of the gum... otherwise the wax will not adhere properly to the surface below it. Sometime after the paint has cooled it can be polished to a semi-gloss with a soft rag. I have gotten nice results blending wax soap into commercial watercolors but since the pigment load to gum vehicle proportion in watercolors are low the wet paint is dramatically lighter in color than the paint will be when it is finally burned in...

gum oil I don't know how I feel about this paint... it is the only reasonable homemade substitute for oils but doesn't have anything to recommend it over the egg/oil described above except that it can be mixed before hand with pigment and stored as ready-made paint available for immediate use. First either buy Gum Arabic or make a Dextrose Gum made by mixing two cups of Sugar Twin and four tablespoons distilled water and giving the sodium saccharin over night to completely foam off leaving a clear blond gum One part artist's stand oil and one part dammar varnish are mixed and added gradually to five parts gum solution using an egg beater or electric kitchen wand... the oil, varnish, and gum should be blended thoroughly so that no globules of oil are evident. The result should be a creamy white emulsion to which dry pigment should be added sufficient for the paint to match the appearance of the pigment when wet with plain water, the milkiness of the gum/oil will otherwise give the paint an misleading pastel quality when used which darkens on drying. Shake up the bottles of paint whenever you think of it to help keep the oil in suspension during storage. This paint is water soluble although you might want to thin it with skim milk rather than water while painting.

sizing Emergency size can be white craft glue diluted 50/50 with water or else acrylic matte medium used as it comes in the bottle. The preferred size is one tablespoon rabbit skin glue dissolved one cup clean very hot water. A tablespoon of unflavored gelatin dissolved in a cup of very hot water maybe substituted. In any case, the water should be brought to a boil and removed from the heat before the gelatin or glue is added. This glue or gelatin solution is used to size paper cloth or panels while still before it cools fully and begins to gel... if a board is to be sized both the front and the back of the board should sized to prevent the board from warping when the glue cools and contracts. For painting on found fabrics such as bed sheets or tablecloths it is necessary to adhere the cloth to a rigid support such as wood, masonite, or even foam core or heavy weight cardboard. Again, the back of the panel should be sized to minimize warping. This size remains water soluble and sensitive to humidity but I cannot stand acrylic gesso and have always used rabbit skin or gelatin for both my size and my gesso. It can be made slightly harder and more humidity resistant by adding a pinch of cooking alum to the water before the glue or gelatin is added. Rabbit skin glue is stronger and cheaper but more difficult to find than the unflavored food gelatin which is usually sold with the canning supplies in the baking section of the grocery store.

gesso This is the surface tradionally painted on. Here chalk (this is available for around $10 for fifty pounds either as whiting from a ceramics supply place or field marker from a hardware and garden place) and some white pigment is blended into the glue size described above until a creamy texture like tomato soup is obtained... this is applied over a sized board in three or for coats with each coat permitted to fully dry and then lightly sanded before the next coat...the result is an amazing ivory like surface. If the pot of gesso has gelled between coats carefully warm it up again without permitting it to boil. In the case of tempera it is traditional to paint over this white ground but you may want a final coat tinted pink with a red earth, or tinted cool gray with charcoal or raw umber and maybe a touch of Yellow Ochre.