Making Acrylic Paint, additives

Making Acrylic paint is similar to making watercolor paint, pigment + binder = paint, pigment + binder + additives = thick paint.  But I wanted slow drying Acrylic paint  

In 2014, I experimented with the various products available then to slow down the drying time on the canvas, a gessoed piece of 140# watercolor paper, and have workability similar to oil paint.

I mixed Matisse brand vermilion with

1. Open thinner, it dried on the palette in 15 minutes and on the paper in 60 minutes
2. Liquidtex Slo-dry, a very liquid mixture that dried in 3 hours on the palette and 15 minutes on the paper
3. Liquidtex Flo-aide, 30 minutes on the palette, 15 minutes on the paper
4. Liquidtex wetting spray, 30 minutes on the palette and 15 minutes on the paper
5. Golden Retarder, 15 minutes on the palette and 3 hours on the paper
6. Golden GAC 100, 15 minutes on the palette and 30 minutes on the paper
7. Golden Acrylic Glazing, 15 minutes on the palette and 30 minutes on the paper
8. Golden Self-leveling medium, 15 minutes on the palette and 30 minutes on the paper
9. Golden Open Acrylic Gloss, 15 minutes on the palette and an hour-ish on the paper

I found no product that allowed me to keep it alive on the ground (gessoed paper).  Considering my experiment, I have to comment, but who cares?  Acrylic paint is a fast medium that can be easily painted over, it’s not oil paint.

In 2015, I experimented with mediums

1. I mixed GAC 100 with Gouache and a little extender and had a wonderful paint
2. Dr. Martin’s pigment with Golden Open and extender makes a thin, very liquid, paint
3. Powdered pigment and Golden Open and extender makes a thin transparent pigment.  I felt that I should have continued and added more dry pigment to the mixture
4. GAC 100 plus Open Mat Medium and Gouache makes a wonderful paint, it will stay alive on a Stay Wet Palette 4 hours then begins to become Cottage Cheesy
5. GAC 100 plus dry pigment will stay alive for 6 hours on a stay wet palette and hardens at 7 hours
6. Dry pigment plus GAC 100 plus Windsor Newton Slow Dry is the winner

The Windsor Newton formula was clearly the winner (#6 above), but I reiterate what’s the point, this is not oil paint.  Acrylic painting is faster than oil painting.  If you want to mix paint of work on a lorge surface for a considerable length of time use a Stay-Wet palette.  I’ve had acrylic paint mixtures stay alive for weeks on the palette.  Over time the paint begins to smell.

Making your own paint

The note on the top of the Guerra website says it all, pigment plus binder equals paint, pigment plus binder and additives makes very thick paint.

The simplest paints to make are water-based paints, egg tempera, watercolor and gouache.  Egg Tempera is egg yolk and pigment.  One fresh egg yolk without the membrane sack a few drops of vinegar and an equal amount of water mixed together and added to the pigment equals egg tempera.  Koo Schadler has a wonderful book on the subject including the techniques for using this pigment.  I deviate from her recipe by using Dr. Martin’s pigments.  Dr Martin’s pigments are already in a water suspension, so one avoids the mulling of the pigment and the resultant hazards. The painting technique is tricky, but the result is a luminescent color that dries instantly and seems impervious to everything.   

Watercolor is almost the same but simpler still.  Water plus Gum Arabic equals paint.  Gum Arabic is the gum of the Acacia tree which grows in Africa (Gum Arabic got it).  You can buy it already process from an art supply store or your can purchase Acacia power from a health food store.  Acacia powder is used for tummy problems.  I purchased tummy powder and mixed it into a suspension as thick as honey.  The results are amazing.  This goop is so strong that when applied to a piece of 140# watercolor paper on a block (Fabriano hot press), it peels the paper off the block.  Truly this is a binder.  There is a question of creating a suspension of the dry pigment and Gum Arabic, this is named a surfactant. A surfactant makes the mixture more liquidy.  The traditional surfactant for watercolor paint is Ox Gall, Windsor Newton makes a good product.  So making a watercolor paint would be dry pigment mixed with surfactant+water+Gum Arabic.

I have a ton of tube colors along with large bottles of Dr Martin’s colors.  I plan to use these up this year and experiment with Gamblin dry pigment and Acacia powder.  If you read the advertising on the tube colors often it will say that honey is added to the pigment.  I believe that this is another way to water down the binder and create a better brush feel.  It does make a good feeling paint directly from the tube, but I paint from a re-wet palette or dry pan.  If I do add a smoother, I’d be tempted to add corn syrup.  It is thick and clear.

Gouache is watercolor with an opaque ingredient, Chalk.  The formula is pigment + acacia + chalk + honey (corn syrup)+surfactant + water.  I have not made any Gouache, I don’t see the point since I have quite a few tubes to use.  

Please remember this safety tip if you use dry pigment and you plan to use a Muller please either pre-mix the dry powder with water or wear a breathing mask, pigments are poison.  The technique is spelled out in the safety section of Guerra’s website.

Have fun, paint more

Buying pigment

If you've sloughed through all of my ramblings on color you should be ready to buy paint.  Let me recap.  I want true colors that are: reproducible, in other words my black is PBlk11 regardless of the brand I purchase, transparent and lightfast. I want to be able to make a watercolor palette, a egg tempera palette and an acrylic palette. I'd love the pigment to be available in tubes for watercolor and acrylic and ground and in suspension for egg tempera. I favor American products.  Please look back to my earlier post on my palette experiments to see the pigments I'm planning to use.

It seems to be a long standing belief that natural colors, NBlk11, made from ground burnt bones is a better way, a more natural way to have the perfect color.  I've experimented with natural pigments, while they are historically fun to use, it doesn't meet my needs.

An astute reader will point out that my demands for are bizarre, well Bunky here's another twist I want the pigment to be available in silk embroidery floche and 2mm silk ribbon!  Practically, my needs are impossible and can only be met if I mix my own pigments.  The next series of posts will be my experiments with mixing stuff.

I've researched these manufacturers and they're a great start to meet my demand of CI ASTM standards and availability

Daniel Smith, WA
A lovely website DS doesn't have my exact palette, but I'm certain that I can make a decent watercolor palette.
Gamblin, OR
I have experimented with their dry pigment and they're great.  I can make a watercolor and acrylic palette from their materials, but I would need to find different hues.
Guerra, NYC
An in-your-face website, with wonderful telephone support.  Guerra has all that I need to make my own palette and I'm planning on ordering shortly.  BTW my order for my hues plus binders will be $150.

I do not know these manufacturers, but my investigation suggests that their pigments meet my standards
Earth Pigments, AZ
RGH, NY
Kremer, NYC
Robertson, UK
Kroma, CAN

These manufacturers, I'm certain do meet the standards, but I'll be damned it's difficult to find.

Holbein, JAPAN
I use the Holbein enameled aluminium palette and their watercolors in my 2015 palette.  The Antique White is fantastic for the Zorn portrait colors.
Sennelier, FR
Used in my 2015 palette.
M. Graham, USA
Used in my 2015 palette.
Sinopia, CA
I do not know this natural pigment company
Stevenson, CAN
Their online catalog is excellent, but I do not know them.
Binders, GA
I do not know this firm.
Natural Pigments, CA
Used in an earlier palette, very nice people.

The language of color

By now you should realize that there are more than 3 primary colors.  The color theory by Albert Henry Munsell is the standard.

Munsell's small book is available from the Chicago Public Library.  He uses 3 color terms.  The first is Hue, the color itself.  The primary hues are Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple.  By adding Black and White you would have a complete palette.

Value is the lightness of the color.  Some authors use the terms, tone for the addition of white to the hue and tint for the addition of black.

Chroma is the purity of the hue.  Having been trained as a scientist, I immediately think of saturation or intensity.

In his book he gives a simple description of the system.  Imagine your hand with your fingers closed so that all of the finger tips come together.  Holding your hand vertically, the knuckles represent the primary colors, R, Y,G, B, and P.  As you move towards the finger tips you add white to the colors until you reach pure white (a theoretical threshold) as you move down to the wrist you add black to the colors until your reach pure black.  This model presents a three dimensional color chart.

Munsell's system works great.  It helps me conceptualize the process of mixing colors and opens the door to placing the color on the ground (canvas, paper or whatever).  There are some wonderful products for the Munsell system.  The most expensive is the Munsell color chips, I've seen a full set and it is beautiful and pricey.  I use a color wheel by Jill Ridder, www.jillrider.com  The exterior of the wheel has the common color names, Vermilion, Cadmium Red and so on, the circular spinner is funnel shaped to show the analogous colors, the  two discords and compliment.  For instance, Vermilion, has discords that are between Violet + Magenta and Emerald Green + Phthalo Green with a compliment between Cobalt Blue + Phthalo Blue.  The painter uses these discords and compliment to punch up her painting.

This works great, except that when you go to the local Art store, you do not find colors labeled with Munsell color names.  Some paint manufacturers do list the Munsell information in their website, bless them, but it is a tough search.  To further complicate matters, our computer screens do not mix colors the way we artists do and the Munsell system is not represented adequately on line.  Simply put the Vermilion shown on the screen is not the Vermilion squeezed from the tube.

There are other standards, C.I., Colour Index International and ASTM, American Society Testing Materials.  These standards present a code for instance NR1, meaning natural red number 1, or PR1, pigment red number 1.  It is these standards that are very specific down to the formula for the pigment in your hand.  No longer does the artist have to rely on an inexact historical descriptive name to purchase color.

Finally, if I am seeking Alizarin Crimson, PR83, http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/waterr.html tells me that there are 6 true pigments manufactured and a lake and a hue both are versions of the true color.  This is not to say that a lake or hue is bad, but if you are painting with PR83 and switch brands mid-painting (horrors) a lake or hue is not the same color.  Handprint laboriously tested all of the watercolors available and compiled them with all of the information.  Thank you Handprint!

Here be dragons, beginning color

If you review the earlier posts you'll see the evolution of my palettes, evolution of my style with my selfies and more importantly the list of web resources on Art.

When I began this journey in 2010 my goal was to learn to paint a realist figure using watercolor paint.  I wanted the paint to be transparent and to achieve their final color through overlapping layers of paint.  I later learned about glazing. I want my final palette to be the same across binders.  The binder is the substance that holds the pigment together, Gum Arabic for watercolor, GAC for acrylic.  Allow me to remind you, my final goal "famous artist" is not to be a realistic figure or portrait painter. Rather I see the ability to create a realistic figure to be a test of ability, a litmus test. What I plan to do is a form of abstraction, but more about that later.

All new painters make the same assumptions

• The basic colors, AKA primary colors are a triad
• You go to the store and buy a bunch of colors and smear them around and you're done
• The store has competent advice
• The manufacturers all produce the same color, Cadmium Red Medium, for example, is the same from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Consider this painting, my first for 2016.  The colors are: Titanium White, Bone Black (Yes they're colors) three blues, Yellow Ochre, Vermillion, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Yellow light, Cadmium Red Medium and Cadmium Yellow full.

When you look at the painting and try to count the colors you will count more colors than those listed above.  Obviously, you are sophisticated and realize that in order to achieve color harmony blending the colors listed above will provide a harmonious palette and add to the quality of the final product.

As to the four assumptions, all are incorrect.  When it comes to color all of the names are incorrect.  More gently, my ultramarine blue is PB29, yours may not be.  Go ahead and check.


As to the four assumptions, all four are incorrect.  There are 5 primary colors, 7 counting Black and White, PBlk11 and PW6 specifically.

Internet resources

I assume that you have sites and blogs that you use. like my bookshelf these are sites that I use regularly.  If you haven't discovered RSS readers, a blog reader, I like Feedly https://feedly.com/i/welcome

On color and palettes, in no certain order
http://www.paintmaking.com/traditional_palette.htm
http://colourlex.com/
A phenomenal achievement  http://www.artiscreation.com/Color%20of%20Art.html
The Munsell system https://www.rit.edu/cos/colorscience/rc_faq_all.php
A wonderful idea http://www.colorhunter.com/

For your aesthetic
 http://www.artbabble.org/
Bert Christianson http://bertc.com/index.html
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project
http://www.artic.edu/mobilefront

On technique
The mind behind Dinotopia http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2015/03/five-tips-from-carl-evers.html
A master of egg tempera http://www.kooschadler.com/index.htm
A phenomenal achievement by this artist http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html

Blogs I read daily
Contemporary Art daily
Muddy colors
A plein air painters blog
A/art
Arrested motion
Street Art utopia
Urban sketchers
Watercolors
Watercolors and words

What's on the bookshelf?

I love to read.  There are certain books that if stuck on a desert island I'd have with me.

The Art spirit by Robert Henri.  Henri was a pivotal artist and teacher at the Art students league in NYC during the Armory show.  This is a bedside book, a book that you read regularly.

Alla prima, everything I know about painting by Richard Schmid.  Schmid is the master painter of Contemporary Realism and the rock god for the oil painters at the Pallet and Chisel in Chicago.

Light for the artist by Ted Seth Jacobs, a complete discussion on light.

Breaking the rules of watercolor by Burt Silverman, watercolor painting has a number of shibboleths, Silverman breaks each one and explains the hows and whys.  I re-read this book regularly.

Painting from life, explorations in watercolor by Douglas Lew, Lew traces his exploration chronologically.  It is on every watercolorist's bookshelf.

Curatorial care of works of art on paper by Anne F. Clapp, it reads like a dissertation and it is the only book on the subject.

Frames and framing, the ultimate illustrated how-to-do-it guide by Gerald F. Laird and Louise Meiere Dunn, CPF, the title says it all.

Ceanne's composition by Erle Loran.  I've had this book all of my adult life.  Loran takes some of Cezanne's paintings, breaks them down into geometric form and ties Cezanne's writing on the subject to the exploration, in addition Loran photographed the landscape chosen by the artist so that the reader can see exactly what Cezanne modified.

This book published in 1943 is part of a series by the University of California press.  I've seen others in this series, on other artists, all are excellent.

Perspective! for comic book artists and Extreme perspective! for artists by David Chelsea, a complete exploration of the topic.

A good source for books, Powell's bookstore in Portland, Oregon.  A massive warehouse of used books at good prices.  BTW related to the Powell's bookstore here in Chicago, unfortunately their inventory isn't related.