This post was written by our friend Edward Stuart, an art and decoration enthusiast as well as an online publisher Canvas Art. He writes on topics of art, art history, design, and home decor.
Whether you just like the idea of making your own paint, you’re worried about commercial paint toxicity, or you just don’t want to support international trade paint making can be a fun and rewarding experience for anyone. Once you know the basics making paint is relatively simple, and exploring and coming up with new types of paint for yourself is half the fun. Let’s take a look at how you can get started.
Basic Paint
Paint is made up of three things: color pigments, sticky stuff (so it sticks to a surface), and runny stuff (so you can spread it). These are referred to as pigments, binders, and thinners respectively. Below we’re going to look at a few varieties of each, and give some ideas about what to look for to come up with new ones.
Pigments
Pigments can be made of just about anything. Commercial paints are made largely with synthetic pigments that you can buy online, but you can also substitute a vast array of organic colors. An easy way to get pigments out of stuff is by boiling, though that’s not always the best way. Other ways might be to crush, mash, or grind raw or dried ingredients like barks, leaves, flowers, minerals, charcoal, or even dirt. The best way to find out is to just try a variety of methods to see what works best.
Binders
The binder is the stuff that the pigment is put in that doesn’t evaporate off. If you only had a pigment and a thinner, the end result would just leave some pigment dust on you surface that might easily be blown or brushed off. What defines a binding agent is that it absorbs and suspends other stuff for application. Good binders often contain fats, for example egg yolks contain fats, and any variety of oil you can think of can be used to bind pigments. Other options include wax, resins, or even just plain water. Using water as a binder won’t leave anything but the pigment itself when it dries, which might be undesirable unless your pigment can adhere to your painting surface independently.
Thinners
Thinners are used to dilute or dissolve your paint to give it a more desirable consistency. Thinners often come in the form of water (water colors!), alcohol, turpentine, or acetone. The thing they all have in common is that they’ll evaporate and not leave anything behind in the long run. Modifying the amount of thinner in your paint allows you to control how densely your pigment is spread on your surface. If your paint is already using oil or another runny liquid as a binder you might not need a thinner at all since the oil might make your paint sufficiently runny on its own. Another interesting thing about thinners is that you can use them to modify the surface tension of your paint. If you don’t want your water based paint to bead on your page you can add a non-water thinner to disrupt the surface tension and give you a more even spread.
