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The grind…

watercolors

My paintbox came with some old watercolor pans. I hadn’t intended to rehabilitate them — they were dusty, crusty old bricks — but I started totting up how much it would cost to replace them and I relented.

Some of the pans were nearly used up. There were paints from several different manufacturers spanning many years. In other words, whoever owned this box before me painted a lot. Like, a real lot. That makes me feel a bit funny. I wonder if this box will land back on eBay some day, anonymous again.

Watercolor, in theory, is infinitely re-wettable. Some people even believe the old materials are preferable. Not me; we’ve gotten better at manufacturing all sorts of things in our day, and I believe artificial pigments are among ’em. Particularly during and just after the War, there were some pretty shitty art materials on the market. But, hey, a half pan of cadmium red alone was going to cost £7, so let’s grind.

I sperged at length about making paint earlier this year. To rehabilitate watercolor, you really only need to smash it up with water but, since I decided for some reason not to bring my muller across the pond, that was easier said than done. All’s I had was a palette knife. I managed it in the end but it took some elbow grease and bent my favorite knife.

The recipe above is from L. Cornelissen and Son, a good old fashioned mid-Nineteenth C. London colorman. That’s what art shops were called back in the day, when you bought pigments and made your own. The paint tube (and therefore pre-manufactured paint) was invented about the time Cornelissen opened his shop and it took a while to catch on. (Incidentally, no paint tube, no Impressionism. Probably).

Well worth looking around their site. They still sell all the stuff! More paint recipes at the link, too.

Notice honey is one of the ingredients. It adds wettability and a certain slight gooiness. I had to add a bit to my grind, as these sad old paints were…whatever the total opposite of gooey is. Desiccated, I guess.

I suspect that Winsor and Newton, at least, still uses honey (or sugar syrup) in some of their colors, because I once had cockroaches attack a painting of mine back in my student apartment days. They neatly ate off the burnt sienna parts and left the rest. Weird.

p.s. That spooky bastard Carl has won another dick. That means a new Deadpool this Friday.

Comments


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 5, 2017, 6:33 pm

Oh, and to answer your earlier question, Uncle Al: I put that brush through the pencil sharpener to make it the same length as the others. Not least so it will fit in the box. I got in the habit of doing that with those super long oil painting brushes (I could poke an eye out with those!), but the sharpened end is a useful tool for all sorts of things: scraping away paint, picking dust and hairs off the surface.

Well spotted, by the way.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: September 5, 2017, 7:32 pm

So, you dont use the sharpened end to stab people? You disappoint me. 🙁

Anyway, M. Graham adds honey to their paint. When you uncap a tube, it goo-s out.

http://mgraham.com/products/watercolors/


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: September 5, 2017, 9:00 pm

Sure, Carl, again, totally coincidence.
my idea that he’s actually causing it?
yeah, that’s just crazy talk, uh huh.

Carl – help us out here – Kim Jong Un.

Oh, and Sweasy, since you left your mueller here, you can have this one – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mueller

Oh, MULLER, oh….well

you can still have this one, we won’t miss him 🙂 .


Comment from xul’s fedora
Time: September 6, 2017, 1:00 am

Carl just might be one of those Reapers from Dead Like Me. 😉

Well, I might not be around for the new Deadpool since Hurricane Irma will probably be blowing us away by then. And I’m not famous, so y’all can’t pick me! 😛


Comment from thefritz
Time: September 6, 2017, 4:00 am

xul’s fedora…unless you’re in the Keys you have until Sunday night before Armageddon starts. Me in West Palm will be hunkered down with a weeks worth of vittles and libations. Generator is fueled, shutters go up Thursday.
Current models have it hitting around midnight Sunday. Sadly, if we get a direct hit I probably won’t be around to collect my dick should I win. A Cat 4/5 will put a hurt on whoever gets the eye…Godspeed to all in her path.


Comment from xul’s fedora
Time: September 6, 2017, 1:13 pm

thefritz, I’m in N. Miami. Got plenty of water and food, gas and a generator, but don’t know if I’ll be able to get the damn thing started since the last time it was used was for Wilma. Sigh. And just me and my elderly mother here. Double sigh. :/ Anyway, stay safe Florida minions!


Comment from The Entertainment Must Flow
Time: September 6, 2017, 7:23 pm

Like the spice.


Comment from Ric Fan
Time: September 6, 2017, 9:11 pm

Ugh. Earlier they said Irma was slightly veering East. But now it is back West.

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