Hello I wanted to share my experiences with making watercolor.
I have a premade set for making watercolor which I would recommend if someone wants to start with it. Because there were recipes in it. And I totally needed these for the start.
This is what I use for making the paint (here venetian red). The lower part of the pestle and the inner of the mortar are not glazed. This is helpful for the dispersion of the pigment.
For making the color you need pigment and a solution of the binder. This can be bought ready made. (was included in the set) and it is possible to make it yourself. The classical binder for watercolor is gum arabic. In asia similar colors are traditionally made using glue as a binder but I never tried this. When I make it myself I dissole gum arabic in the double ammount of water. If there is dirt in it I filtrate it. Than I add a little bit of glycerine. Some people add honey or ox bile to inprove the solubility and the dispersion of the color on the paper but I never tried this.
Leftover solution can be stored in the fridge. If uncooled it can get moldy.
The making of the color is simply putting pigment in the mortar and then rubbing the binder solution in until there is an homogenous liquid with the right consistency. It is hard to describe it is ver mud like. I just made venetian red according to the recipe until I could feel the right consistency.
When the right consistency is met I fill the color in a pan and let it dry. It dries faster if filled in in thin layers and the next layer is added after it has dried. but even then it does take long until it is dried normaly it takes days until a pan is completely filled.
If you do not want to wait until it has dried you could buy empty aluminium tubes and fill the color in there. I think I am too clumsy for this.
Normally I test a new color I never made before I test it before I let it dry. The color is ready to use directly out of the mortar.
If you got the ammounts wrong two things can happen if there is not enough binder solution the color dries to a massive block of color and you can not dissolve any of it with water. If there is too much of the solution the color will not dry in the pan and just stay liquid. It is still usable just hard to handle without this empty little tubes.
I would recommend everybody who uses watercolor to try this. Because it is really fun. And you get colors without fillers just pigment and binder. And you can colors that xou can not buy at all. E. g. I am not limited to the particle size one would normally use. As you can see here
I made a color with bigger particles where I glue small but visible garnets to the paper with the binder. It has a nice sparkling effect and could be a way for lazy people to paint distant pebbles.
The first not buyable color I made and used was gofun shirayuki. A japanese pigment made from rotten oyster shells. And I think it is a great color for ghosts and fog if diluted. Less diluted it could be useful to paint porcelain (but I did not test this). I used it in this picture.
If anybody has any different experiences feel free to correct me. If there are any questions please ask.
P. S. in my learning process I made a lot of venetian red I could give away some if someone needs a pan.
