How to mix pigments?

Typically you mix them into your chosen carrier. In the case of oil paints, you could use linseed, walnut, safflower and a few others. Safflower is very, VERY slow drying.

If you opt for linseed, pay the extra for artist-grade refined linseed.

If you want acrylic, sorry, I don't know the details. Probably any artist-grade acrylic medium would work, as long as you don't opt for the gels and ultra-thick ones.

To mix, you want a glass plate and muller (available from most art supply houses online.)

Kremer Pigments in NYC has a good information & recipes section: http://kremerpigments.com/service/information-and-recipes

Oh - and you'll want empty tubes. Again, any online large art supply (*** Blick, Jerry's Artarama especially) or, Kremer

Regardless of carrier, your colors will start to dry immediately, so tubing them is about the only viable option... unless you want to be like Rembrandt and any other early artist - they pretty much mixed their colors on the day they used them.

Winter of 42

If you want acrylic, sorry, I don't know the details. Probably any artist-grade acrylic medium would work, as long as you don't opt for the gels and ultra-thick ones.

Keep in mind that many acrylic mediums are white when liquid, but dry transparent, so your "wet" mix will probably not be representative of the colour it will be when dry.

I don't get  it.  What is the point of going through this hassle with all of the premixed paints are readily available?

Do NOT use linseed oil! Boiled, or straight it takes two weeks to cure completely. Most artist oils are mainly linseed. It's cheap which is why they use it. Unless you're looking to use a custom colour you can use any paint on the market to mix.

~ Cobra Chris

Cadet Chuck

I don't get  it.  What is the point of going through this hassle with all of the premixed paints are readily available?

 

I have 100 grams of 6 different colours of pigments, I cannot and would not afford buying each color.

Gentlemen; I was asking about mixing pigments for dry use, I don't want to make paint. Mixing paint is easy.

By the way; I don't know why this topic is under "Ships", it should have been under "painting".  

Possibly any sort of solvent that will evaporate completely. In addition to water: alcohol, MEK, white spirit/odorless mineral spirits, etc. If any of your pigments are soluble in your solvent, that's a no-go. And, as you said originally, you have to wait for the solvent to evaporate.

Only other option seems to be dry-blending. You might study some industrial blenders and emulate one on a tiny scale, especially tumble-blenders. The challenge there will be to get the mixed pigment out completely, leaving no residue to contaminate the next batch. Almost all of these machines have internal vanes to ensure complete mixing, leaving all sorts of surfaces and nooks & crannies that have to be cleaned.

Mini-sized clear plastic storage jars might work, as you could shake, turn, roll, etc. until you've achieved the blend you want. Cheap enough that you could reserve sets of them, one each for various color families around the color wheel, making contamination less of an issue.

By the way, I've been mixing colors for paint for 15 years now, and I don't find it easy... and linseed is used primarily for its refractive properties rather than its cheapness. The gem-like color of a well-formulated oil paint is inimitable owing to its apparent depth.

Haptesthai, could you tell us what you're going to paint? The material may be important to which solvent you need.

jtilley

Haptesthai, could you tell us what you're going to paint? The material may be important to which solvent you need.

 

Plastic, lol. I am planning to use it mixed with acrylic medium for painting, and also to use it dry for weathering purposes. :)

@Winter of 42

Thanks a lot, I got 25 glass jars of 40ml for that purpose. I put my pigments in a bigger plastic jar (200 ml), shake it until I get tired, (it is homogenous enough, but pigments can be still seen with a close inspection) then transfer them to smaller jars.

Glad it's (almost) working. Be sure to tumble and roll as well as shake... tumble end over end, roll with the jar on its side... devoting equal amounts of time to each operation (shake, rattle and roll )