The Adventure to Create the Most Earth-Friendly Oil Painting on the Planet, Part 4: Paint
Mixing my own paint is healthier for the planet and saving me money
In my quest to make the most earth-friendly oil painting, I recently purchased some pigments in order to mix my own paint. Manufactured oil paints can have fillers or additives that are petroleum-based and materials are not harvested sustainably. I ordered some pigments from Natural Earth Paints, a company that not only provides naturally safe and eco-friendly pigments, but they are also harvested sustainably.
I purchased the Complete Eco-Friendly Oil Paint Kit, which includes ten pigment colors, a bottle of walnut oil, and a bottle of Eco-Solve, their safe non-toxic paint thinner. The kit sells for about $60. This kit gave me the chance to try a variety of professional-grade pigments without spending too much money. The colors inlcuded in the kit are: Venetian Red, Orange Ochre, Yellow Ochre, Terre Verte, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Purple, Black Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White Rutile, and Burnt Umber. If interested in purchasing pigments individually, Natural Earth Paints has twenty colors available.
MIXING
Mixing the pigments can be a bit messy. As it was my first time mixing oil paints, I just jumped in with both feet. I poured a bag of Yellow Ochre pigment into a cup, added the oil, and began mixing. It didn’t look like very much pigment, but it ended up making two 50 mil. tubes of paint, plus a little extra that went on my palette.
Each pigment is unique in its texture and absorption of the oil. The Ultramarine Purple took quite a bit of oil. When I mixed the Venetian Red, it took surprisingly little oil and I ended up with a red paint that was a little runny. Next time I will be more deliberate, measuring out how much pigment it takes to fill a tube and how much oil to get it to the consistency that I like.
Along with absorption rates being different, the amount of paint created from the same weight of pigment is different. All of the pigment colors were in 2 oz. packets, but the net amount of paint was anywhere from barely two to three-plus 50 mil. tubes.
Of course, pigment will get on your table, palette, or wherever you are mixing. You also will find that oil might find its way onto surfaces. The manufacturers suggest mixing with a palette knife on a palette. My palette was full, so I mixed in a cup with a knife. This method seemed to keep the pigment under control, but it is hard to get all of the paint out of the cup.
Once the paint was completely mixed, I scooped it with a palette knife into empty aluminum paint tubes. It takes a little practice to do this without getting paint all over the outside of the tube and elsewhere. Once the tube is three quarters filled, I folded the end over to seal the tubes. It is best to fold it twice and press the folds with a pliers to make sure it is sealed. Some of my tubes were a little too full to fold twice. I will revisit folding them after I have used a little paint. Also, no matter what you do, some paint is going to squeeze out when you fold the ends of the tubes. Did I mention it can be messy?
One note: since walnut oil can yellow over time, Natural Earth Paints suggests mixing the Titanium White with poppyseed or hemp oil, which does not yellow.
PERFORMANCE
Well, now that I mixed my paints I needed to test them out. I am working on a series of small paintings on panel for my annual Small Painting Online Auction, tentatively scheduled for April. The first layer gets thinned down and is applied without any additional oil. Because each pigment absorbs different amounts of oil, I found my paints to be much less consistent when using just thinner to help them spread. I think this will get adjusted in the future when I actually measure out pigment and oil.
The next layer was painted with oil added. I found the paints to perform just like regular store-bought paints. Some of the paints were strong and mixed well with other colors. Other pigments, like Terre Verde, were weak and difficult to mix with others — which means they performed just like their store-bought versions. Some colors, simply because of the physical properties of the elements used to create the pigment, do not cover well or mix well. But they make great glazes.
The colors that were in this kit all performed as I would expect these store-bought colors to perform. The only draw-back is that only certain colors are available, even in the longer list of twenty available pigments. There are no strong Yellow or Red Cadmiums, Cobalt Blue, or a few other colors that I find essential to my palette. But, within the list of twenty colors, there are many colors that I use regularly. Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Titanium White, and the Ultramarine colors are all essential to my palette and available. I had never used Black Ochre before. I tend to prefer Paynes Grey to a real black paint, so, I found the Black Ochre too black for my taste.
VALUE
At $60 for a kit of ten colors is an incredible buy. I was able to make twenty five 50 mil. tubes of paint from the kit . One 150 mil tube of professional quality Ultramarine Blue paint on a reputable low-priced website is $20.00. Obviously, there are savings in making your own paints from these naturally safe and eco-friendly pigments. Most of the colors that are available at Natural Earth Paints are the colors on the lower end of the price spectrum. Because of pigment costs and popularity, some colors of paint are priced higher than others, even within the same brand of paint.
For the future, I will use the savings on these earth-friendly colors to help off-set the cost of the more expensive but essential colors that are not available in a more earth-friendly option. Hopefully, they are researching and finding out ways to make earth-friendly options for the other colors that I like to have on my palette.
One positive aspect of buying large amounts of pigment, which helps one save even more money, is that powder pigments can be stored indefinitely. Oil paint in a tube can be saved for a long time but, after a while, the oil and pigment may separate. This can lead to the pigment solidifying in the tube.
Aluminum paint tubes and walnut or poppyseed oil are available at very reasonable prices, especially when bought in bulk. Natural Earth Paints has dented aluminum paint tubes at a a ridiculously cheap price of 50 cents a piece.
LABELING
One additional thing I will do is work on better labeling of the tubes. I think I will make small sticker labels on my computer with a color splotch so I can easily identify each color. As you can see from my photos, my purple painter’s tape with scratchy handwriting is not making identifying my colors very easy. Too much reading!
CONCLUSION
I really am enjoying using these naturally safe and eco-friendly professional quality paints in my art. They play well with other paint brands, are saving me money, and are providing a healthier experience for me and my patrons.
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If you have used Natural Earth Paints’ oil paints, let me know what your experience has been. To read about my other adventures in creating the Most Earth-Friendly Oil Painting possible, check out this link.