Grinding paint

When grinding the paint you use, black oil and powder pigments. These pigment are readily available at fine art store and industrial supplies. First we will be using a piece of marble and a pallet knife, Dip your clean knife into the black oil and retrieve just enough oil to fit on the surface of the knife. Clean the knife with a paper towel and dip the same knife into the pigment. (picture shows amount) You don't need much.

Put the pigment in the oil and carefully mash the powder with the knife.

Mix the two elements until they are the consistency of soft butter.

Transfer to your pallet. You are ready to paint.

After your paints are mixed (remember to only mix what you need because they

have no preservatives so by morning they will dry) you need to make medium. You do this by mixing equal parts of mastic varnish and black oil. Dip your clean knife into the black oil and then use a paper towel  to wipe it clean. Put this on your stone. Dip your knife into the black oil and put this on the stone next to the mastic varnish and mix them together. They will gel immediately. Next time I'll talk about  mastic varnish.

Intro from artgirlannie

This is my first blog so bear with me. I am an artist. I was born an artist. Can not remember a time when I was not making stuff with my hands. So for what it worth here's some painting technique that I can share.

Black oil

This is a painting oil that is mixed with powered pigment to create paint.  The oil is raw linseed oil and this is mixed with powder litharge (lead). At this point I'd like to interject a warning. Lead can make you very, very sick so be careful with this process it can hurt you. This mixture is heating and bounced between two temperatures.   This must be done outside or in a well ventilated room. This predarken the oil so that the painting will never change the color is permanent. This why the old masters work is still as beautiful today as it was centuries ago.  You might ask why go to all the trouble of making paint?  Because it is different than the paint you can buy today. It is luminous. The paint sold in most stores are loaded with fillers, binders and preservatives.  So we grind our own paints. Grind is a strong word for this. We mix the oil in with the pigment. Picture to follow.