The artistic painting
Often expensive, the artistic material can put a stop to your creative desires. Here we give you some simple recipes to make watercolour, gouache oil painting, tempera or pastel.
Watercolour
Watercolour is a pictorial technique using finely grinded pigments mixed with gum Arabic. The small size of the material and its speed of execution make it the ideal tool for the realization of sketches and studies, and its beautiful transparency differentiates the gouache which is opaque.
Basic recip :
- Arabic gum ;
- Pigments (to be grinded again if necessary in a mortar) ;
- Hot water.
Optional : you can add a few drops of clove essential oil for preservation and 1/2 teaspoon of honey for transparency.
Préparation :
Put 1 teaspoon of gum Arabic in a glass jar, dissolve with 2 teaspoons of hot water (or heat the mixture in a water bath). Stir in the natural preservative (a few drops of clove oil). Add the pigments at a rate of 1/2 or 1 teaspoon depending on the opacity of the pigment.
The fluidity of the watercolor must be similar to industrial watercolors. You can add water if necessary, to correct your preparation.
We advise you to reuse our small empty glass jars to store your home watercolors.
For ease of use, also think of our ready-to-use hand-made watercolours.
Watercolour paint made by par Nathalie Chavant with our pigments
Oil painting
Oil painting is a slow drying technique, as opposed to acrylic painting, or watercolour, which are aqueous techniques. This particularity allows the artist to take the time to mix his colors, to recover an error and to rework his motif for several days until obtaining the fade, the modeled, the touch that he desires.
Basic recipe :
- Linseed oil ;
- Pigments.
Optional : essence of turpentine (to fluidize), essential oil of clove (natural preservative), Meudon white to opacify.
Version 1)
Grind the pigments in a mortar if necessary.
Place the pigment on a pallet and pour a little linseed oil over it. Mix with a spatula. Depending on the consistency you want, you can add oil, turpentine to make it more liquid or Meudon white to thicken it.
Version 2)
Grind the pigments in a mortar if necessary. Mix the pigments with linseed oil, turpentine oil, a few drops of drying or linseed oil (drying accelerator), and the preservative (a few drops of clove essential oil). We advise you to reuse our small empty glass jars to store your home oil paints.
You can also choose our ready-to-use, handcrafted oil paints.
La nuit étoilée by Van Gogh - oil painting (this one may not have been made with our pigments)
Gouache
Gouache is a pictorial technique similar to watercolor which, unlike it, is opaque.
Basic recipe :
- Arabic gum ;
- Water ;
- Pigments ;
- Clove essential oil (optional) ;
- Talc or Meudon white or calcium carbonate.
Préparation :
Put 1 teaspoon of gum Arabic in a glass jar, dissolve with 2 teaspoons of hot water (or heat the mixture in a water bath). Add the preservative (a few drops of clove essential oil). Add the pigment(s) (between 1/2 and 1 teaspoon).
Add 1 teaspoon of talc, Meudon white, or calcium carbonate to obtain an opaque gouache.
We advise you to reuse our small empty glass jars to store your home gouaches.
Gouache made by Matisse
Tempéra
Tempera is an egg paint. It is the oldest and most perfect technique in terms of hold.
It consists of mixing pigment, water and egg (yellow and white, or only one or the other). The oxidizing egg yolk makes the paint insoluble with water, alcohol and gasoline after drying.
Basic recipe :
- Water ;
- Pigments ;
- Eggs.
If necessary you can add to this preparation:
- 1 teaspoon of beer ;
- 1/2 teaspoon honey ;
- 1/2 teaspoon of rabbit skin glue the day before ;
- 1/2 teaspoon casein.
Tempéra made with our pigments & sent by Claude Beraud-Barbet
Dry/Oily pastels
The pastel is a coloured stick used in drawing and painting. It is composed of pigments, a charge and a binder. We distinguish dry pastels (soft or hard) from oily pastels (with oil or wax).
Basic recipe :
- Water ;
- Linseed oil or wax (for oily pastel) ;
- Arabic gum ;
- Meudon white ;
- Pigments.
Mix 1 teaspoon of pigment with 1 teaspoon of Meudon white, add water little by little while mixing until you obtain a homogeneous paste. Dilute the gum Arabic with water and add a small amount to your dough. Knead well again. Form sticks and let them dry.
You can also choose our ready-to-use pastels.
Play-Doh
Do you want to offer your children a creative and 100% natural activity ? Here is a simple and playful recipe to make with them for hours of mixing and original creations.
Basic recipe for about 1 kg of dough :
- Water ;
- Wheat flour ;
- Fine salt ;
- Natural pigments ;
- Olive oil, sunflower oil... Mix in a large bowl 500 g of flour with 150 g of salt and 1 teaspoon of the natural pigment of your choice. Dilute with 1/2 litre of hot water. Add a little olive oil. Stir and let cool. Knead the dough and, if necessary, add oil (to keep your modelling dough for a few days, put it in a plastic box in the refrigerator).
Gesso
Gesso is an ancestral coating used for the preparation of surfaces to be painted such as furniture, woodwork and paintings.
It delicately whitens black beams while transparency.
Basic recipe :
- Pelleted rabbit skin glue ;
- Water ;
- Meudon white or calcium carbonate.
Photo by Nathalie Boisseau - Esprit Cabane
And speaking of support, make sure, for all these recipes, to paint on the right canvases/papers/support.
Good work ! Feel free to send us your achievements to sales@ocres-de-france.com, we will be happy to share your photos on our social networks.