#PaintMaking
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lycomorpha.bsky.social
I'm feeling better & I'll be back to work/shipping the week's orders tomorrow 😁

So: my paint store is at lycomorpha.etsy.com & I have a new watercolour set there rn 🖌️

I'll be back to my paintmaking/drawing/pigment shenanigans too, to forewarn you!
Promotional pic for an 8 colour spooky season set with a botanical theme. An unwrapped pan of each colour of each sits on a postcard swatch, surrounded by spiny twigs, shells, pine cones, etc. The colours are a purple, black, granulating violet, lavender, pale blue, dark green, green gold, and granulating brown.
November 5, 2026 at 9:19 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Anyhoo, once you've stewed the roots at 70°C awhile, filter out roots from the dye, keeping everything warm. This can take some time.

Alizarine is water-soluble so it's good as a dye on its own. Laking is a process of binding & precipitating dye colourants to get insoluble pigment for paintmaking…
Madder dye being filtered to remove the roots. It's being filtered into a beaker on a hot plate to keep it at around 70 degrees C. A view into the filter basket, showing the murky mixture of liquid and roots being filtered into a clear red dye.
October 25, 2026 at 6:28 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Decided I don't have the spoons to re-grit my paint-making plates now, so that canwait.

Just gonna finish filtering the rest of the madder roots & alizarine made from the 1st half of roots. Then we can have some pigment shenanigans tomorrow 😊

Also turned my paint syringes. Lotta colours ont go rn!
Madder root ferment being filtered, alongside bright redalizarine pigment made by laking fermented madder roots, also being filtered. View of my paintmaking trolley in the studio. It's covered in old instant chai tubs that hold syringes filled with watercolour paint. I turn them over daily to stop heavier pigment settling at one end. I also use a vortex mixer before I use them to top up paint pans. On the window behind the trolley are way too many houseplants.
October 24, 2026 at 7:32 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Busy times are busy, but I got to making pale olive green marl and sea-coal paints for this yesterday.

Also separated out some of the larger particles from Kerrie's brown periwinkle shell powder, in the usual way...
A pile of pale greenish pigment powder with a spoonful of liquid watercolour binder in the middle of it. A black coal pigment being mulled into watercolour on my glass paintmaking plate. A pale suspension of fine periwinkle shell powder in water. It resembles tea. Definitely not drinkable tho. The heavier gritty fraction of the periwinkle shell powder in a different tub.
October 12, 2026 at 9:29 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
This is shale. I love using shale paint... Once it's actually made.

Making it in the first place is a monufuckingmental arse-ache.

Levigated & ground shale is soft, fluffy, & just the most floculant thing ever. You have to mull it a little at a time to get it super thinly spread to get clumps out…
A thick slick of lovely grey shale paint on my glass paintmaking plate. The arse-ache process of making the paint in the previous pic. It has to be mulled very thinly a little at a time. Nothing good comes easy I guess.
October 10, 2026 at 7:46 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Before changing plate to make shale... This is mussel shell pigment from Polbens www.pollybennett.com/online-store...

I shifted out larger bits of shell, mulled half, & also levigated half. The maker left it coarse deliberately, & no shade, but I prefer a finer pigment. More on that another time.
A violet blue pigment being mulled into watercolour binder. A small amount of the starting pigment, found at the link in the post, sitting on my glass paintmaking plate. The point here is that it contains both fine and coarse particles. Some of the aforementioned coarse particles have been sieved out of the pigment.
October 10, 2026 at 6:02 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
…or beach brick, coal, clay, etc.

Most of these don't make it into my shop, cos I only have small amounts (my shale mud being the notable exception.)

But given I've raised a good amount of £s for AKT & Medical Aid for Palestinians with small paint sets?

Let's see if I can do the same for RNLI…
Jars of homemade pigment sitting on my glass paintmaking plate. There's a big jar of ground shale, and many smaller jars of ochres, marls, and beach brick and tile pigments. There's some vials filled with pigment made by Kerrie Owens and Polbens, made from ground found seashells. There's also some sea-coal and minerals from Kerrie too.
October 10, 2026 at 11:12 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Forgot to finish this, because Friday brain I guess. I did mull it!

I'm gonna say it's... Purple. Maybe more blue-leaning in person than it looks here. But mostly it's definitely still purple.

I'll scan the swatch & do a light-fastness test next.
A small pile of purple pigment with a spoonful of gloopy liquid watercolour binder in the middle of it. It's sitting on my glass paintmaking plate and there's a metal paint knife next to it. The paint knife has been used to mix the pigment and binder to a purple paste on the surface of my paint making plate. A glass mulling tool AKA muller has been used to thoroughly combine the pigment and binder into paint, on my glass paint making plate. The muller has a wide, flat bottom surface and a thinner handle. It's moved over the paint on the plate in a swirling motion, pushing the paint between the two glass surfaces into a thin, smooth layer. This is what really makes a thoroughly mixed paint, without any clumpy lumps of pigment left. The finished purple paint has been swatched on a watercolour sketchbook. There's blocks, lines and circles of colour showing how the paint looks at different dilutions with water.
August 22, 2026 at 10:53 AM
cageyratfish.bsky.social
my lycomorpha bias is because they're my alt text sensei :) got me into doing it on twitter way back when. and their alt text is fantastic (as is their art & paintmaking & very creative swearing)
January 18, 2025 at 1:53 PM
vintagewatercolors.bsky.social
Tell me why I only noticed today that my gum arabic has nutrition facts and a best buy date lol

I'm out here making edible paints

#paintmaking #watercolors #paint #artists #vintagewatercolors
Gum arabic food grade container has nutrition facts and a best buy date.
January 6, 2026 at 1:32 AM
vintagewatercolors.bsky.social
Had a client reach out to create a custom paint set and I had to buy new colors.
I put together the colors below and I'm IN LOVE!!
Thinking of creating a new painting kit with these colors. Whatcha think?
#watercolors #handmadewatercolors #vintagewatercolors #paintmaking #paintkits #paints
January 30, 2025 at 12:23 PM
lynnzsidovsteiner.bsky.social
Playing with some new pigments: Cobalt Violet Ultra Dark, Phthalo Blue, Chromium Rutile Yellow and CadmiumRed Maroon; The Solstice set. Painted a small 6 x 8 linen panel in studio.
#nocturnalpainting #art #paintmaking #cityscapes
January 13, 2025 at 12:02 AM
the17thqueen.bsky.social
Interesting! Is that the different natures of pigments, or too much binder? Each pigment seems to have its own personality in the paintmaking, which feels daunting to me; but then those quirks is what makes me love painting with watercolor :)
August 12, 2025 at 12:08 AM
kadeperegrine.bsky.social
All this to say: paintmaking is exciting! She's got these colour charts she paints her samples onto with the date and What 3 Words location for earths and just the date for botanicals so we can see if they fade over time. The plants are elderberry, blackberry and common mallow flower.
September 6, 2025 at 9:55 AM
fireworksam.bsky.social
2 eyeshadow colors I have turned into watercolor paints. I have been enjoying doing this.
#paintmaking #watercolor
January 24, 2024 at 3:13 AM
treesandwords.bsky.social
I don't comment on them because I know nothing, Jon Snow, but I really enjoy your paintmaking material. I hope you keep posting it for a long, long time.
November 17, 2024 at 9:42 PM
lesliehandmade.bsky.social
Watercolor made with foraged earth pigments from Oregon. Paintmaking kit from Whitesnake Arts on etsy. Finished abstract landscape. #watercolor #handmadewatercolorpaint #earthpigments #abstractlandscape #sketch
July 11, 2026 at 8:41 PM
lesliehandmade.bsky.social
Handmade watercolors from foraged earth from Oregon. I got the paintmaking kit from Whitesnake Arts on etsy. The earthy tones and rustic feel of the paint kind of helped me get abstract, which I struggle with. I like how this one turned out. #watercolor #abstractlandscape #handmadewatercolorpaint
July 11, 2026 at 2:46 PM
vanessavulcania.bsky.social
Paintmaking is my meditation. 💛
January 23, 2025 at 11:09 PM
uterus8.bsky.social
pigment collection from recently collected 🌱s in Chico, CA (except for Butterfly Pea & Avocado Pits + Skins)
swatches on watercolor paper,
& none of these batches have gum arabic added
#naturaldye #naturalpaint #plantpigment #naturalink #inkmaking #paintmaking #plants #naturalart
February 1, 2025 at 12:13 AM
augh3d.bsky.social
right now we are figuring out all the thinges like those ribs and meshes, surface detail and describing it as only normals, then we will do the rest of the paintmaking with those kinda set down and global to influence everything else

substance automates this with anchors but its a fuckin mess
April 14, 2026 at 3:30 AM
nyaart13.bsky.social
Had an awesome workshop with Wild Dot SG at NIE today on making paint with #earthpigments today!

Really insightful teachings on #paintmaking, #foraging and preserving nature whilst foraging for pigments outdoor.

Fun fact: Cooked rice starch works as a binder as well, like gum arabic!!
February 27, 2025 at 6:10 AM
thevoidpaths.bsky.social
Next step in #pigment making and the #lakepigment extraction process. Straining the plant material out of the dye. #art #artist #paintmaking #watercolor
November 21, 2024 at 8:06 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
30. Cooking big to save spoons (that garlic & stuff - we're cooking it int middle of the night rn, while it's cool enuf to put the oven on)

31. Eating like I mean it

32. Buying 'too much' liquorice

33. Living with cats

34. Falling down the pigment & paintmaking rabbit hole (still plummeting TBH)
A big green hawkmoth being drawn in colour pencil. It's shaped like a tiny jet plane and it's very fluffy.
August 11, 2026 at 10:56 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Itty bitty run just to see how it feels, check how it dries, etc.

Was deliberately a bit stingy with the binder, ont grounds that it's easier to add some more later than it is to take some out!

It's like a green leaning indigo...
A little pile of the blue pigment on a paintmaking plate, with a well made in the middle filled with liquid binder. The blue pigment is being mixed with the binder using a paint knife to form a thick paste. The pigment and binder are being smooshed together with a glass mulling tool (which looks a bit like a glass mushroom with a flat top) to better combine them into paint. The paint has been scraped together, slorped up into a syringe, and a little dispensed into a twin half pan, labelled 'rose lake hot'.
June 12, 2026 at 6:45 PM