My Handmade Watercolours
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Here is the story of my handmade watercolours. In early 2017 I had nabbed myself a discontinued Winsor & Newton Watercolour Pan. Not wanting to lose this colour I fought to find a way to reproduce it. This threw me deep into a journey of making watercolour paints myself by hand.
A lot has changed since then! I have grown a well established name for myself as a paint maker. I’ve made some essential pigments that you can find from most big watercolour brands including ultramarines, phthalos & earth tones. I have also crafted some niche colours such as those made from precious gemstones and discontinued pigments that are not available to large scale manufacturers.
My Process
Making paint by hand is an exciting and more labour intensive process than you may have imagined! It’s also rather messy!
I start off with making my own paint binder. For watercolours it is gum arabic based. My paint binder is also vegan so there are no animal products involved. To my binder I add the pigment of choice. Pigments can vary, some are very fine and are easy to mix in with my binder, others can be coarse and will require longer and harder grinding to get to a smooth paint consistency.
Most of the heavy work done in this process are some strength and a tool called a muller. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like a detached glass door knob that has a flat side which has been frosted. I’ve added a picture below.
Once the paint has reached a nice smooth consistency the pouring and drying process can begin! I hand pour my paint into empty pans. I do this in many many layers allowing each layer to dry fully in between. This step on average takes between 4-6 weeks. This is a long time. I do this to ensure the paint is fully dry. This minimizes the chance of air bubbles in the paint and as each layer shrinks a little when it dries it also allows me to cram even more paint into the pan. This way you get lots of paint! Much more than you would get from a commercial paint brand.
It doesn’t end there! I then wrap the paint in foil that has parchment paper on one side. This helps keep the paint fresh and stops any dirt or dust getting onto the paint. I then finish it off with a wrapper that has the name of the paint and a splash of colour.
I usually also send out little swatch cards with each colour introducing you to the paint and it gives you a run down of some information about the pigment and characteristics of the paint.
What's So Exciting About Handmade Paints?!
“Wait a minute! I can buy my paints from the art shop. What is so special about handmade paints?”
Well let me tell you,
Handmade paint makers are worth investing in. Often big commercial companies like Winsor & Newton, Schmincke and Sennelier produce paints in large batches. Nothing wrong with this however paint makers make rather small batches in comparison. Because of this we buy pigments in smaller batches. A lot of pigments aren’t available on a large commercial scale. Pigments such as ones made from gemstones like Lapis Lazuli, Malachite, Azurite aren’t usually available in large quantities and when I say large quantities we’re talking tonnes! This is due to them being rather pricey and not having the quantity available.
There are also some pigments that aren’t available in large quantities too such as discontinued pigments or pigments that are not heavily used in commercial production. Handmade makers can produce paints made from these pigments because we don’t require the enormous quantities of pigment that big companies do.
Long story short – paint makers can offer niche colours or colours that big companies cannot. Most makers are also artists themselves (such as me!). This means they know what they want in a good paint and can make paint with this in mind. You will also get some good Karma points for helping out a small business.
Examples of some more niche pigments I have used are Manganese Blue Genuine, Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, Jarosite, Quinacridone Gold Genuine, Genuine Cinnabar, Genuine Vermillion & many more.
Check out a video to the right of me taking you though the whole process from start to finish, From making the binder to grinding the paint.
Feel free to check out my FAQ where I have answered some common questions I get about paint making!