Articles

NEW WAYS TO THINK ABOUT ARTIST PAINTS

Today we have some useful tools that can save us time and money, while giving us high quality and great versatility. Dispersions for example can allow us to bypass the laborious grinding and decanting of pigments. They are not completely universal but with a little knowledge they can allow you to cross over into several media of painting without having to purchase multiple sets of tube/jar paints. They are extremely concentrated and are used, in fact, to make the paints you purchase in art material stores. No wonder the companies do not make them available to artists. So remote are they that most teachers/professors have never seen them or utilized them.

Learn them and explore many painting media and mediums with them. (We use them in several workshops and seminars where we what to cover multiple painting techniques such as watercolor, gouache, egg tempera, egg-oil emulsions, inks, in acrylics, etc; and for staining woods - used by violin makers and furniture makers).

We have a couple of Demos for you to see; then we will give you more information about them. demo into modeling paste - demo into egg - (at the end they click to: Learn More About These Dispersions)

SOME MYTHS ABOUT PIGMENTS

First I want to say that pigments are not manufactured for artists; but artists do use a few of the thousands of pigments that are manufactured throughout the world. Most pigments are not of the quality that would allow them to be used in artist materials.

Many of the earth tones and natural oxides that we use today were used by the old masters but their form is somewhat different. For one thing, today's pigments are 'micronized' that is to say they are in a very fine and uniform state when they arrive to the 'colorman' to be ground into drying-oils and other binders/vehicles of paints. This is a fact that is often passed over too quickly in the discussion of artist materials.

Some would say that today the pigments are 'too finely processed and too uniform' and I would have to agree. Yet, it is because of their uniformity that it is easier for today's artist to mix many of his own paints with a minimum of time and effort. We have no control over the processing of the pigments so we will have to cope with the resultant material but we can utilize the benefits.

Much of the reference material, on the market today, discourages the artist from learning these basic tasks of a painter. I have seen many demonstrations which show laborious grinding of pigments into vehicles, precise formulas, excessive directions and leaving a large mess of tools and surfaces to clean and students with long faces contemplating the drudgery to be repeated for each color of their palette. It does not have to be that way and instruction should show that with a basic understanding of the materials a painter can mix a palette of colors and conserve them for future use or utilize them that very day.

An important rule of thumb in the preparation of paint is: the minimum quantity of binder necessary to wet all the particles of pigment will yield a good paint.

That being the case and if my preference of paint was oil, I could make a small quantity of paint directly on my palette with pigment, linseed oil and a spatula. If by mistake I add a little too much oil I have a choice: I can add a little more pigment to arrive at an acceptable consistency of paint or if it is my habit to paint thinly and use a medium that has oil in it, I could opt to simply leave the oil portion out of my medium (If a chief added salt to a meal and I know it, I would probably not pickup the salt shaker before tasting). By understanding the few materials that are used in any given technique I can learn to adjust to any given situation in my studio. This is how I was taught and this is how I pass it on to the next generation of painters.

FIGHTING THE HIGH COSTS OF ARTIST MATERIALS

Over the course of my lifetime I have witnesses many 'polarizations'. In that creative lifetime I have seen the cost of artist materials rise to the point that I can not understand how people can afford to use fine materials. At the same time, painters have been lead away from the knowledge that would allow them to become more self-sufficient. And the disparity is being perpetuated in schools, with only a handful of teachers/professors who will take the necessary time to explain where painting came from, update the basics with the modern materials available and demonstrate their usage.

Here is an example of cost cutting that comes from a little knowledge and taking the time to use that knowledge: I recently happened upon a new art materials store in the area. As is my habit I entered to review some of the products like paints, mediums etc. I picked from the shelf a familiar 2.5 fluid ounce bottle (a popular brand name) of Gum Arabic. When I turned it over to read the price my eyes bulged from their sockets - $10.25! Even though I realize there are better prices to be had in large chain store or an online catalog, the price would still be relatively close for this staple material of watercolorists.

The fact is that for approximately $5.50 I can purchase 1/4lb of Gum Arabic; if I took about 4 ounces by volume of the powder and placed it in a empty tomato can that had 4 ounces of cold water, gave it a little stir then placed the can in a pot of water on the stove to heat it Ü stirring it for several minutes and dissolving it, I would have made more than 6 ounces of the gum. Here is the best part! I would place the solution in a clean juice bottle (the kind with a twist-off top) and add Another 4 ounces of cold water! That would give me close to 12 ounces of Arabic and I would still have the remaining portion in the powdered form. Saved $5, made 4 times the amount of material and can make some more if I run out in the middle of a painting session. Plus I have the satisfaction of knowing 'exactly' what is in the solution. I mark the bottle and store it in the refrigerator (if I want I can add 4 drops of vinegar that will make it last even longer. If I put a few drops onto my palette and squirt a few drops of dispersion into the gum I get watercolor ready to mix with water and paint.

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