New Pigments

I’m not happy with my lighfastness tests for colored pencils, so I bought a few more pigments to paint with. And dug up some orange clay!

I ground the orange clay for a long time and also mulled it. I suppose I might need to levigate it carefully, to get out any sand. The reds and greens I ordered from Natural Pigments. The reds are gorgeous! The greens are very subtle. I used egg yolk for this – I’m going to see how these greens look in gum binder.

Oh! The ‘burnt’ sienna didn’t work out. I cooked it over a flame in a cast iron skillet. Nothing much happened.

Is there anything else? Oh yes – those are actual earths. Dug out of the ground, ya’ll. I thought I’d combine a little natural with my synthetic organic pigments.

Well, time to levigate (levigate is a fancy word for letting sand settle to the bottom when water is added).