When I did egg tempera I bought a tonne of pigment. Which really, I should use as it was not cheap and it’s just been sitting there.
One of the things I never got was a proper glass muller. Ie, a wide based/etched/glass tool for getting the lumps and bits out by grinding pigment.
Well guess what….I finally made my way out to somewhere that sold them and got myself one! (Could have got one online if i wanted to pay $40 postage. NO way.)
My Muller! Yes, yes. I know. It does look like a sex toy.
the stuff! pigment, various chemicals, the muller, and etched glass to grind on.
I made up a solution to mix with : one part gum arabic to half a part glycerin and half a part of honey (finding a chemist that sold glycerin took far too long – had to go to four). Lots of recipes on the interwebs, I used the artist’s handbook book I have.
I use a lot of green that I like to mix from yellow/blue using normal paints. So, why not mix one of my own?
You can see that just using the knife meant it was blodgey and gritty looking.
TIME FOR THE MULLER OH YEAH
That’s sooooo much better! Didn’t take long either. The earth pigments I did next took longer.
I tried various colours and filled them into empty half pans. I ran out of half pans so i dribbled the rest into a palette I had. Will give the actual paint a go soon. I also made up a white but added some gilder’s whiting to make an opaque paint (gouache). I then spilled gouache everywhere and got white all over my phone while taking these photos. GO ME.
I will tell you how it goes when they have dried out and i use them.
🙂