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Basic Ingredients What you will need
This page contains a basic summary with links to pages with more
detailed information. Fortunately the traditional painting media are
simple in make up and can easily be made by artist's willing to go
follow the inevitable, but straight forward learning curve.
Additionally there are simplified ways that the more
sophisticated modern paints such as acrylics and alkyds can be
experimented with without gaining a science degree. This site is your
resource center for paint making help.
Supplies Where to find paint
making ingredients
This site is aimed at a global audience so no one answer will suffice.
The short answer is to start with your local art materials store. Major
European paint manufacturers continue the age old practice of supplying
artist's with pigments, and the larger stores will stock these or be
able to order them in from catalogs. Winsor and Newton, Old Holland,
Schminke, and Blockx all supply excellent ranges. Old Holland's range
is particularly extensive, and they sell Cold Pressed Linseed Oil
produced in a windmill. Winsor and Newton also sells Cold Pressed
Linseed Oil. Other oils including Poppy Oil are also readily available
through the commercial art supply market.
There are also specialist suppliers of pigments in existence like
Kremer of Germany. These companies (along with Old Holland) are able to
supply historic pigments such as genuine Ultramarine (Lapis Lazuli),
Smalt, Naples Yellow, and so on.
What artist's materials suppliers do not tell you (because it destroys
the mystique, and therefore the justification for high prices) is that
most pigments they use and sell are purchased on the international pigment market just as
with other materials and it is only the historic pigments, the ones no longer used by other industries that are still made in house by the artist supply houses
themselves. Artist materials manufacturers would like you to believe that the yellow oxide in their tube of oil paint or watercolour is somehow special, but in fact it is likely to have come from the same batch used by house paint manufacturer. This means large savings can be made (and for the same
quality) by buying pigments from any business that sells pigments to
industry in small quantities. Any large city with an industrial base is
likely to have several of these suppliers. The downside of this is that
the artist buying pigments this way needs to become familiar with the
variations of quality and physical characteristics of the many pigments
for sale. After all, while the quality may be identical, there are cases where the pigment may be manufactured in a certain way in order to exhibit specific characteristics when used in a particular industry and this may not be obvious to the untrained eye, and they may render that pigment less suitable for other industries including making artist's paint. Many of these pigment wholesalers have little expertise in the
requirements of the artist, and often speak the jargon of paint chemists in the industries they normally deal with, so it can be a case for the inexperienced artist of 'let the buyer
beware'. For this reason it is advisable for the beginner to start with
the offerings of the artist supply houses as they have made this
selection process already and you can be assured that the pigments
offered are suitable for the purpose of making artist's paint.
Every country is different in regards to art supply stores, but most
are likely to have some that specialize in pigment supplies. In
Australia Parker's at the Rocks in Sydney is always recommendable. In
the US and Europe there are many. Links to some of them are found here.
The other major supply point is of course your own effort for those who
decide to try collecting colored clays to make pigment from. In many
ways this is the most satisfying method of all. In this case all
responsibility for purity and quality are in the artist's own hands.
With wisdom in collecting choices, the results can be spectacular. Do
avoid the temptation to use organic substances such as plant extracts
to supplement your color gamut, as these without exception will only
satisfy in the short term and are always very variable in quality that
do not match the excellence of natural Earths.
Pigments The coloring agent
used in making paint
Pigments are colored powders made from tiny solid particles ground to a
very small size as this is necessary to make a paint with all the
characteristics that we associate with artist's paint. Dyes and colored
resins are available but they not only are less light fast but also do
not make a liquid that has the brushability and body that artist's
paint requires. Pigments come in thousands of colors but only a few are
suitable for use by artist's. Full pigment information is found here.
Pigments
Tools and related equipment
equipment.
Safety equipment.
Binders The liquid component
These are the liquids that turn pigment into paint when ground together
in the appropriate manner They range from oils, waxes, resins and gums
to the latest products of the laboratory. Every kind of paint has its
own kind of binder, in fact it is the binder more than anything else
which determines what kind of paint the paint is. Follow the link for
detailed information on the binders you will need.
Binders
Tools and related equipment
equipment.
Safety equipment.
Other ingredients Often
essential, usually neglected
Artist's tend to think that anything that is not pigment and binder is
just an adulterant. It is not true, although many manufacturers have
overused and abused what should be necessary ingredients to add in
minimum proportions to make paint perform in a way that suits the
artist's needs. Gouache is the classic case of a paint that is simply
watercolor until the addition of chalk to give it that opacity and
creaminess we love in the medium. This is your essential guide to the
other ingredients you are likely to need from time to time.
Inert pigments, extnders, fillers,
driers etc.
Tools and related equipment
equipment.
Safety equipment.
Related Links:
Studio notes
Testing paint
Starting to make paint
Making Oil Paints
Making Acrylic Paints
Making
Watercolors and Gouaches
Making Egg Tempera
Making Hide Glue Chalk
Gesso
Making Encaustic
Paint
Making Fresco Colors
Making Pastels
References
Alberti, L B, On Painting 1435
(Penguin Classics)
Cellini, B, The Life Of Benvenuto
Cellini, finished 1562 but not published until 1730
(Heron)
Cennini, C d'A, The Craftsman's
Handbook. 1437 (Dover)
Doerner, M, The Materials Of The Artist And Their Use
In Painting, 1921 (Harcourt Brace)
Eastlake, Sir C L, Materials For A History Of Oil
Painting, 1847 (Dover)
Feller, R L, Artists Pigments 1986
(National Gallery Of Art / Cambridge University)
Gettens, R J, and Stout, G L, Painting
Materials: A Short Encyclopedia, 1942
(Dover)
Gottsegen, M D, A Manual Of Painting Materials And
Techniques, 1987 (Harper & Row)
Maire, F, Colors: What They Are And What To Expect Of
Them, 1910 (Drake)
Mayer, R, The Artists Handbook Of Materials And
Techniques, fifth edition 1991 (Faber
& Faber)
Merrifield, Mrs. M P, Medieval And Renaissance Treatises
On
The Arts Of Painting 1849 (Dover)
Muther, R, The History Of Painting From The Fourth
Century To The Early Nineteenth Century, 1907 (Putnam)
Parkhurst, D B, The Painter In Oil 1898
(Lothrop, Lee & Shepard)
Patton, T C, Pigment Handbook, 1973
(Wiley)
Porter, N Webster's Revised Unabridged
Dictionary, 1913 (Merriam)
Pliny, The Elder (Gaius Plinius), Natural
History, 77 AD (Penguin Classics)
Roy, A Artist's Pigments: A Handbook Of
Their History And Characteristics, 1994
(Oxford University Press)
Taubs, F, A Guide To Traditional And Modern Painting
Methods, 1963 (Thames & Hudson)
Theophilus, On Divers Arts, 1125 (Dover)
Various, Encyclopedia Britannica,
fifteenth edition 1981 (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc)
Various, Paint And Painting, 1982,
(Winsor & Newton / The Tate Gallery)
Various, The Artist's Colormen's
Story, 1984 (Winsor & Newton)
Vasari, G, The Lives Of The Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors And Architects, 1568 (Penguin Classics)
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