DIY Watercolour Paint

Hello Readers!

Among my many hobbies, watercolour painting is one of my favourites!

So when I found this video tutorial on how to make your own watercolour paint with kitchen supplies, I just couldn’t resist! 

These homemade paints are super cheap and can be made over and over again when you run out.

This idea came highly recommended from several readers, so thanks to those readers who brought this link to my attention, you know me so well! 

So let’s get started!

Here are the ingredients and supplies you will need to make your own watercolour palette: 

• Food colouring 
• Red 
• Blue 
• Yellow 
• Green helps too! 
• ½ cup Baking Soda 
• ¼ cup Cornstarch 
• ¼ cup White Vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon Corn Syrup 
• An Ice cube tray (one that you don’t plan to use again) 
• Measuring Spoons! 
• A large, pourable Bowl 
• A Whisk 
• Toothpicks (for tiny mixing!) 

Step 1: Mix your dry ingredients

Measure your cornstarch and baking soda into the large bowl and whisk together. It may seem hard to tell when it is mixed since these are both white powders, but you will notice the cornstarch tends to clump with itself, so just mix until there are no clumps.

Step 2: Add Corn Syrup

I have this as its own step because you also need to prepare yourself to move a bit quicker in the next few steps, so get your ice tray ready (and possibly some paper towels!)

Step 3: Make some Foam!

Everyone knows the reaction that will occur when the vinegar is added to your baking soda mix, this is also why a large size bowl is required! 

Add your white vinegar to the mix and start whisking right away. Don’t shy away from the foam, it just means it is working! Again making sure to get all those clumps out of there so it can be poured and mixed easily.

Step 4: Pour

Starting a little at a time, pour your mixture into the tray you have prepared. Try to keep it evenly dispersed between the cubes so you don’t run out of one colour sooner.  

Once poured, assign each cube a toothpick and stir occasionally while mixing your colours. Keep mixing the cubes you haven’t added colour to yet as well because they will start to set and this will make it more difficult later on to add colour.

Step 5: Colour mixing

There is no science to food colouring; experiment with it and explore the colours you can create. This step does need to be somewhat quick, but you can save time by thinking out your colours beforehand. Using your basic Kindergarten colour theory and the 3 or 4 colours I recommended at the start, you can make every colour!

Just remember to keep stirring those cubes before and after you’ve added the colour. I did notice while doing this step that the vinegar and food colouring wants to separate from the starchy mess, but a quick stir fixes that right up!

Step 6: Wait

This project requires you to hurry up and stop.
The mixing process is somewhat time sensitive, but then you are going to have to cash in some patience points. The recipe states to let the mix sit for 2 DAYS to set. I mixed my paints on Saturday morning and as I write this Tuesday morning they are nearly finished setting. So I am potentially waiting 3-4 days for my mix, so be sure to keep an eye on your mix, and don’t jump the gun!

Step 7: Just add Water!

Now comes the fun part! All your hard work and patience has paid off and you have before you a watercolour palette handmade by you! All that is left is to paint, but where to begin? There are many things to be aware of when painting in watercolour, so here are a few helpful hints. 

Tips:

Be aware of how much water and paint you have on your brush. The more water, the lighter the colour. Remember you can add more colour little by little in layers, but you can not take colour off! 

If you paint on wet paint the colours will mix on the paper, if you want them to remain separate colours you will need to wait for it to dry first before applying more paint. Also keep in mind some colours will not show over others. {ie: yellow will not show up if painted after a darker colour}

If you are rendering something 3D with shading you will need to work from the highlight to the shadow. Leave less paint where the lightest points are and add more and more colour/pigment as you move to the darker areas.

There are many techniques that can create interesting patterns in the paint that require no paint brush! Try using these techniques on your painting and see what happens:

• Salt 
• Paper towel 
• Painting on already wet paper 
• Adding more water to paint already on paper 
• Blowing the paint around with a straw 
• Use a wax crayon or candle to draw and then paint over 

Watercolour paint requires a thick, porous paper to work properly. You can find this paper at any store with art supplies, generally they will say “cold-press” and/or 140lbs on the cover, this means it is thick enough to handle the water. Remember your colour mixing; if you couldn’t create a colour through food colouring perhaps you can make it now with your completed paints.
Mistakes will happen. Don’t let them stop you from trying again!

I always have fun painting with watercolours; it is calming because it requires you to take your time. This keeps me from rushing into paintings with no forethought or planning, and it makes it all the more worth it when it is complete. The effort that goes into a watercolour painting can be frustrating when you are first trying it, but just remember that practice makes perfect and don’t give up! I once had a teacher in art school tell me that the expensive paper, brushes and paints do not make your painting any better, it’ll just make you feel worse if you mess up. So keep that in mind as you use your homemade paint, your cheap paper and dollar store brushes to make your masterpiece!

Until next time...

But wait - THERE'S MORE!
That's right - me again! This post was initially written in 2015 when this blog first came to be - I didn't want to change too much of the original post - but I did want to add a few things!
Firstly, please check out My Work for some more water colour paintings I've done!
Secondly, you can also check out my Instagram for a few paintings I used to hint about this post!

Finally - I'd like to share the progress for the Christmas present I made for my father! He is a funny guy, and he often asks for nothing for Christmas! In the past he made a comment about just wanting some sunshine more than anything else - so that is when I created the Sun and Moon stress balls for him and my mum. So this holiday when he said "nothing, or maybe something handmade" I knew I had to subvert expectations of a crochet gift!

I decided to create a winter inspired painting - so that it wasn't too festive and could be displayed year round. In the past I have done some Christmas watercolour cards for my parents - so I needed this to be different.

I did some research on Pinterest for a starting point - I moved through to my thumbnail sketches, using my pencil crayons to develop my colour story. If I do say so myself - I struck gold! Once my subject matter was decided I began my painting. Watercolour paint requires a lot of "hurry up and wait" so I documented each stage where I left the painting to dry between steps!

I started with the background wash - I had to be careful to not put water where I intended the moon to go. After creating my winter sky I added the shading to the craters in the moon. The Step 1 image is slightly brighter than the others because the paint was still wet when I took the photo and the paint will always dry slightly lighter. After it dried I added the trees - I used a fan brush and a side to side brush stroke to get the texture. I also used this time to amp up the sky colours a bit, darkened the very top of the page, redefined the edges of the moon, and added the moon shadow behind the trees.

At this point I could have called it done - but I always like to add a bit of contrast. In the Step 3 photo you can see the stars I added to the sky as well as the snow on the tree branches. It is hard to tell in the photo but I also accented certain stars with a silver gel pen. This way at different angles your eye will notice different things throughout the image. This also matched the silver frame it is now housed in - bringing the artwork beyond the paper!
I think everyone should try water colour painting - even if just for fun - it something the entire family can enjoy and, if you practice, you can create some amazing works! If you try out the homemade paints, let me know how it goes in the comments!
Get painting readers!
Until next time,
I'm Kat and that's that!