Making your own oil paint is a process that creates a direct connection between artist and material. Beyond controlling consistency and colour strength, each paint becomes something uniquely crafted rather than simply bought. Whether using finely milled pigments from Jackson’s Art Supplies or earth collected from the banks of the River Thames and other locations, handmade paint combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary practice. Also see this Post.
Why Make Your Own Paint?
Before the nineteenth century, artists routinely prepared their own colours by grinding pigments with drying oils. Today, making paint offers complete control over colour, a better understanding of pigment behaviour and the opportunity to create unique, personalised paints.
Materials You will need:
● Dry pigments
● Cold-pressed linseed oil
● Glass slab
● Glass muller
● Palette knife
● Gloves
● Airtight jars or paint tubes
I bought a a glass slab and muller from Great Art in Shoreditch London. Cold pressed linseed oil remains the traditional choice for most pigments.
Choosing Pigments
Jackson’s offers an extensive range of traditional earth colours and modern synthetic pigments. Earth pigments such as Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber are ideal for beginners, producing stable, creamy paints. Modern pigments like Phthalo Blue and Quinacridone Magenta provide exceptional intensity but often require more careful adjustment of oil. Every pigment absorbs oil differently, so there is no single formula.
Making the Paint
Place a small mound of pigment on a glass slab, add a little linseed oil and mix with a palette knife until a thick paste forms.Using a glass muller, work the mixture in slow circular movements until it develops a smooth, buttery consistency. Adjust with small amounts of oil or pigment until the paint spreads easily while holding its shape.
Understanding Pigments
Each pigment has its own character. Earth colours tend to be forgiving, while Ultramarine, Titanium White and iron oxides all behave differently during mixing. Learning these characteristics is one of the pleasures of making paint.Store finished paint in airtight jars or aluminium tubes with a few drops of linseed oil on the surface to minimise skinning. Always handle dry pigments carefully, avoiding dust and wearing gloves and a good face mask, particularly when working with pigments containing lead, cadmium or cobalt, I avoid these pigments.
Painting with Handmade Colours
Handmade paints often feel richer and more responsive than commercial colours. Their subtle variations and tailored consistency encourage a more considered approach to painting and foster a deeper understanding of the medium.
From Riverside Mud to Artist’s Pigment
An exciting extension of paint making is creating pigments from the landscape itself. Always wear the appropriate safety equipment and use gloves to pick up items from the beach.
Along Bermondsey Wall East, the Thames foreshore reveals naturally coloured clays, ochres, mineral-rich silts and iron stained sands. Collecting small quantities responsibly allows these materials to become part of the finished artwork. After drying, the sediment is cleaned, crushed and repeatedly washed using the traditional process of levigation*, separating fine pigment from coarse sand. Once dried and sieved, the refined earth is mixed with linseed oil in exactly the same way as commercial pigments. Unlike manufactured colours, these natural pigments produce subtle greys, browns and ochres that cannot be replicated exactly. Each batch reflects the geology and history of the riverbank from which it came.
For artists interested in landscape and place, these paints become more than a medium. They carry the physical presence of the area where they are collected into every brushstroke, reconnecting painting with one of its oldest traditions making colour directly from the earth itself.
*Levigation is the process of reducing a substance to a fine powder or paste. This is typically achieved by triturating the material with a mortar and pestle, combined with a viscous liquid known as a levigating agent.
Below paintings useing the above Processes.
