Paint recipes

You can apply gold leaf to this primer.

Wheat paste glue 1 to 1** with

• ​ gypsum (terra alba - raw gypsum - not plaster of Paris)

*I have been reading up on wall board mud and plaster.  10% Talc added to the mix in mud reduces cracking.  I think I might try talc in my next primer recipe.  

​**​Use a scale to be precise.

Wheat  paste  works  great  on  wood  but  I  had  long-term  problem  with  the  primer  cracking  on  canvases  and  have  stopped  using  wheat  paste  on  canvas.    Instead,  I  am  simply  painting  on  the  raw  canvas.    Water  color  will  not  adher  to  pre-primed  canvases.    I  take  those  apart  and  flip  the  canvas  over  to  use  the  unprimed  side.    Another  reason  for  this  is  that  I  will  be  putting  an  encaustic  overlay  onto  the  finished  work  and  wax  adhers  better  to  the  raw  canvas.    It  took  quite  a  while  to  understand  this  but  I’ve  got  it  now.

Gum Arabic:

This is a recipe I found on the internet.
“Ingredients. 

The ratio is 1 part gum to 2 parts water. Boil water (or use distilled water) and allow to cool to about 140° F (60° C) and then add the powdered gum, stirring to make sure there are no lumps. Continue warming the mixture at that temperature and stirring to dissolve the gum arabic completely.
Site: NaturalPigments.com”

Watercolor binder:

• 1 Tbsp gum Arabic (liquid as from above)
• 1 tsp glycerine
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 drop clove oil (preservative)

Watercolor paint:

combine:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp pigment
• 2/3 tsp wheat starch (filler to make a smooth texture)  [Wheat  starch  filler  -  2  Tbsp  wheat  starch  to  1  Tbsp  boiling  water  -  mix  until  smooth]
• ​1/2 tsp kaolin clay  (Optional  -  to  make  opaque  color)
• 1 tsp watercolor binder (add more binder as needed to make a good paste mix with the pigment)

Alternative  watercolor  paint;  works  as  well  with  egg  tempera.

• Make  or  get  a  glass  palette.    [I  made  a  sandwich  of  9”x11”  pine  board  with  a  piece  of  white  mat  board  and  then  a  piece  of  8”x10”  glass  taped together  with  duct  tape  which  is  waterproof.  ]
• long  flat  edge  palette  knife
• stick  of  soft  pastel.    The  higher  the  quality  of  pastel,  the  better  the  paint
• scrape  a  small,  very  small  amount  of  pastel  onto  the  glass  palette.
• put  a  few  drops  of  egg  tempera,  or,  watercolor  binder  onto  the  pastel  scrapings  and  mix  with  palette  knife.    V’oila!    You  have  instant  paint.

I  stopped  using  pastel  and  could  not  find  anyone  who  wanted  the  pastels  so  they  gathered  dust  in  the  basement.   While  struggling  to  get  a  good  color  mix  from  raw  pigments  I  had  a  brain  wave  out  of  the  ethers;   ‘combine  the  painting  medium  with  crumbled  pastels.’   The  result  is  stupendous!

[I  am  going  to  try  straight  gum  arabic  without  any  additives  and  see  if  that  works.   I  would  call  this  ‘de-engineering’  a  painting  medium.]