Handmade Watercolor
Unearthing ⊙ Natural ⊙ Focus
I hope one day, I will only paint from my own handmade paints, collected from the earth I’ve walked on.
I am passionate about color, especially earth color.
Have you ever wondered how paints are made? Or, where do pigments for painting come from? Natural pigments come from the land all over the world and synthetic pigments such as Prussian blue are artificially made by human.
Before experimenting at home, I took a class at Kremer Pigments to learn how to make my own watercolor paints.
Paint primarily made up of pigment and binder.
We can't paint with pigment. It needs a binder or medium to hold it in place on a surface. And, the type of binder will determine what the paint is called — watercolor, oil, acrylic, etc
Watercolor binder is made from gum arabic, honey and glycerin. Gum arabic is the binder, honey retain the moist and glycerin will minimize cracking of the paint.
On a glass palette or marble slab, the pigment is mixed with gum arabic solution and use a glass muller to evenly disperse those fine particles into the binder.
The mulling process differs from pigment to pigment. Some are easy, some require more patience.
The process is slow but therapeutic, and surprisingly pleasant.
Today
I have made over 80 unique watercolor paints from pigments sourced from Kremer Pigments ⊙ Rublev Colors ⊙ Guerra Paint ⊙ Earth Pigments
Next
I will attend an Earth Pigment Workshop by artist Stella Maria Baer and learn how to sift and grind collected sand and dirt into refined pigments at Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Updated: Attended workshop on March 2020
Soon
I will be able to make paints from the earth I’ve walked on and collected over the world.
Updated: And so it begins.
Curious about Pigments and Colors?
A Dictionary of Color Combinations
The Secret Lives of Color
Werner's Nomenclature of Colours
Chromatopia
An Atlas of Rare & Familiar Colour
Interaction of Color
Harvard Art Museum ⊙ Pigment Collection Colors All Aspects of the Museums
ErdeWachsStift ⊙ Crayons out of soil
Atelier NL ⊙ Soil Projects ⊙ Colors of Best ⊙ Colors of Van Gogh Village
Artist and pigment worker Heidi Gustafson
Next
Photography ◑ A Quieter Tale