Pigment forager. Medical Illustrator. Landscape and portrait artist. Retired equine veterinarian. Join me while I create art and art supplies in my studio. For more content and photos of my art work please check out my website and instagram feed.
Website: todayatmydesk.weebly.com
Instagram: @kjodigear
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The grinder comes from China and we supply it with
I love that you mix naturals + synthetics to experiment with a wider color range! Where do you find those Daniel Smith Dry Pigments? I haven’t found them anywhere. I like Daniel Smith watercolors. If the dry pigments from DS are discontinued, do you have a different brand you like?
These pigments were given to me by a friend, she bought them back when DS sold pigments. I now buy pigments online from Kremer Pigments, they have everything! You can get natural and synthetic, pretty much anything you need for paint making.
Thanks for this video, super informative, I can’t wait to give this a try!
Beautifully done! I'm in New England (where the ground is mostly rock, there is no clay to be found) but I dream at some point of doing a foraging road trip to make paints with. Ahhh that'd be fun!
Sometimes you can find colorful rocks soft enough to grind into pigment for paint in stream beds.
how did the light test turn out?
Thanks for the reminder! I haven't put a swatch in the window yet.
@leam1978 Ok, I was mistaken. It is in the window. And it has faded! So the brown is not light-fast. I need to put it in a hotter fire so I can completely turn the bone into carbon.
Our recipe says to use beeswax, it isnt brittle it comes out nicely. That color looks so nice!
I just attended a workshop on making paint pigment from malachite stone.... we ended up with a superfine pigment. the procedure involved many washes in clean water with more crushing and 'mulling' in between. the pigment after the last wash and rub down with the muller was so fine and light as talcum powder.... we added a binder to the final pigment in order to fix the colour and texture.
That's great! Did it make a nice color?
@@KJodiGear stunning.... absolutely beautiful.... I wish I could show you. this weekend the workshop is on making shell gold, and the last one is on making classical Jaipuri style wasli paper, that we use for classical moghul painting. it's so interesting.
@@munanana9824 that's great! If you are on instagram, DM me a photo! @kjodigear
Please mix this in a well-ventilated area, sometimes malachite can off-gas carbon dioxide when mixed with acidic water.
I use distilled water which can be slightly more acidic than tap water, but I mull in such small amounts that the amount of CO2 produced would be minimal. I also wear a mask/respirator when handling the dry malachite powder, as I don't want to breath in any of the copper compound dust. (I don't process much of this, and when I do, I do it outside, to minimize any dust in the studio)
What a great find! Purple rocks are not common.
No, they are not! Feel lucky that I found these!
I love how you make pastels and have started making them with lake pigments.
Thank you!
Do you do anything to fix the ph?
No, I don't change the pH after I've done the laking process. (Is that what you are asking?)
Very interesting. But why do you also put the green parts? Do they change the color any? I'm going g to have to try this, it looks like a fun project!
The small amounts of green in with these yellow flowers don't really change the color, so it doesn't matter if they go in the dye bath too.
Literally the coolest channel on KZread!! I LOVE your videos! ❤
Thank you so much!
Very interesting. Love watching 😊❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Do you offer teaching residencies? I’d fly out from our little island off the bottom of Australia just to learn everything!! 😍 also how do you code the stamping of your pigment sticks? Is there a standard to follow or just whatever makes sense to you?
The stamped letters on each stick are either abbreviations of the pigment names (I have given the foraged pigments), or a mix of the first letter or two of each pigment in the stick (for mixed pigments). I have given the pigments “place” names - usually nearby locations, because it helps me remember where I foraged them. (Place names for earth pigments are pretty traditional - like sienna and umber) I had hoped to teach a couple of afternoon intro to earth pigments workshops this year, but currently dealing with some fairly debilitating back pain ☹️ so those plans are on hold! Thanks for asking, though!
Thank you for that information, I’m just getting into pigment making ❤ i hope you feel better soon and find some peace with your pain 🥰 if you do get to the point of taking on students or online classes, I’m in!!
I love your experiments so much! Thanks for Sharing! ✨
Thank you!
Have you read Mary Virginia Orna's book on pigments? Impressive lady.
I bought it right after the webinar! Steve thinks he might have met her, via all the chem ed people?
@@KJodiGear Yes, she ran one of the BCCEs (at Clemson I believe) that several of us went to.
Cool video.. would love to see you swatching and how pigments behave while wet and it behaves when applying different effects to it like charging and cauliflower effects
I will work on one! Thanks for the suggestion!
WOW!!! very interesting.... Thanks for sharing with us!
Thanks so much for sharing this. I learn something new each time I watch your videos.❤ 🙏
You are so welcome!
Seriously cool.
I love your circle lightfast swatches. It’s so much easier to see the difference in fading when it’s surrounded by color, instead of a side-by-side half-faded stripe of color.
Yes, I agree. And having a bunch of paper punches from other projects made these lightfastness swatches easy to make!
I instantly subscribed when I saw you start mulling the sand. This is great content! Also, when you mentioned the chalkiness of the paints I thought they would make nice gouache.
Thank you! Yes, most of my foraged pigments make a semi-opaque paint. I have also added them to titanium dioxide to make some opaque gouache. They take a different approach to paint with than the transparent (commercial) paints I also use - it’s been a bit of a learning curve. They lift so readily, you have to put them down and then leave them alone! Very easy to make mud if you are’t careful…
@@KJodiGear I purchased some Wallace Seymour inorganic tube paints made from materials locally coated in Scotland. The way the owner described them, they’re just gum Arabic, water and pigment, so they’re probably similar to what you’re making here. I’ll have to add some honey or glycerine (maybe a little of both) to dry them in pans. I just love artisanal paints, especially if the pigment is made from locally foraged materials, I haven’t made any yet, but I bought a muller and made a frosted glass palette to try! I really enjoy your videos!
So cool
Love the process! Just saw the video while doing research for one of my own! Great channel! 😁
Thank you so much!
Excellent! I create soft pastels in a similar way. QUESTION: why remove the magnetite? (thanks)
I remove the magnetite to make paint out of it by itself. I have left it in with the sand and made paint too, but it's nice to have the really black paint on its own.
Oh! Excellent! Thanks.
how interesting!! it was genuinely so surprising to see such a rich brown color emerge from sand!
Me too!
I was also very surprised! Maybe there was residual magnetite in it?
@@jessieellwood yes, there is residual magnetite in this sand, I can get most of it out, but not all of it.
This is magical to watch, thanks for putting it up as well as nice reminder about the use of medium
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it!
Simply Gorgeous. You will make many artists happy with this box. 🤩
Thanks so much 😊
Thank you for sharing this - I have a favourite beach I'd like to try this with so am very appreciate for all the tips!
where aand how do I get the stones/minerals and how do I start making my own please?
I find the colored stones and soil near where I live. You can purchase natural earth pigments online from places that sell pigments, like Kremer Pigments.
Do you sell your watercolors? I love the earthy colors. 😍 Thank you for sharing your expertise with us😊
I do occasionally sell some sample dot cards, and some of my extra pan paints. Do you do Instagram? I usually list them there when I have them - if you follow me there, you can DM me and I’ll let you know when I have some available. @kjodigear
What a fabulous little treasure box 🫶🏼
Absolutely gorgeous! I hope that you've found pigment and paint making to be such a joy!
It really is! I've been a painter forever but only in the last 6 years started foraging pigments and making my own supplies!
Hi wonderful tutorial. Where do you buy the small glass paint jars with metal lids?
I buy the vials on amazon, they come in different sizes. You can also find slightly bigger jars (Google rooster mason jar shots) that will hold more pigment.
@@KJodiGear thank you! Can’t seem to find it. I’m looking for the very small/flat ones you showed. Looks like a lip balm container
@@elinlee17 oh, sorry! Those are plastic, they were given to me by someone. Pretty sure they are lip balm containers! Let me see if I can find them.
@elinlee17 i can’t find them online, but what does show up are the little flat round bead containers with clear screw tops that you can get at any craft store (I’ve even seen them at walmart). They are a little bigger than the ones I have, but they would work for storing watercolor temporarily. (They don’t seal airtight, but that wouldn’t really matter). I have purchased some glass ones with metal lids from amazon for my oil paints (they are in the oil paint video) - I really like those, but many of the comments complained about them arriving broken (and several of mine did).
@@KJodiGearohh ok great! Thank you so much for letting me know and looking into it😄❤will try those!
How do you differentiate what rocks are lightfast and not? Or any other natural mediums? TIA
The iron oxide/hydroxide earth pigments are light-fast. So rocks that you find that are soft enough to grind will make a light-fast paint. The color/dye you get from plants (the botanical pigments) will not be light-fast. Some will last longer than others, but they will all fade in UV light.
Candle soot goes way back in tradition and is an excellent black.. Also serious question: if you are burning something anyway, what is wrong with just making charcoal?
Nothing wrong with charcoal. I have a carbon black I made from wood charcoal in the altoids tin as well. And scraped carbon off a surface from an oil lamp. They all mull up slightly differently.
The darkest pigment of black you can achieve by doing lamp black method
This is an awesome video! Definitely need to try making my own pigment sometime, this looks like a fun activity to try with my daughter. Thanks for sharing
Your videos deserve more views Just informative and overall entertaining
So pretty a design when your using the glass thing with "Lake" on the glass, if could frame that on a wall. Use dyes for wool and cotton, but read if laked, wont work on cotton later. Am researching what else besides alum works for laking, and you use calcium carb(chalk), but read of bismuth (thought of buying it at dollarstore). If you changed that pH, would your pigment colors have changed? So many interesting things you show !!
@aliveandwell early on, i experimented with changing the pH of the dye to get a different color, then doing the laking process, and found that if I made the dye too acidic, the laking process didn’t work. Sometimes the process completely changes the color on its own - I have a couple of purple leafed trees and the dye is purple, but when you add the sodium carbonate, the lake pigment turns green.
@@KJodiGear think to dye wool from a lake, acid is added (so called a split lake)(wish worked on cotton fabric also, will try painting on fabric, then after mordant)
@@1aliveandwell yes, that would make sense that acid would undo it. (As when you add it beforehand, it doesn't allow the precipitate to form)
@@KJodiGear just found this by M Garcia on chem of Al in clay, think is saying using lime or ashes to make useable?! kzread.info/dash/bejne/iHij1tqdl6nKiaQ.html You have clear information on your videos
Wow, I need this blue in my life!😊It's so beautiful! Thank for this great tutorial. ⭐
You’re welcome 😊 It is a really nice blue!
Hi Kjodi. I'm new subscriber and I'm glad I found you. I love the content of yr videos. I make sometimes my own paint with pigments I buy, easy for me😊. But seeing the all process is fascinating. I am wonder if I could do something with all the seashells I collected... Great video and thank you for sharing.🙏
Some people use the seashells as containers to hold the paint. Be really careful about grinding shells, some of the creatures with shells (like mussels) concentrate heavy metals in them and breathing that dust is bad. Google “Gillian Genser” - a sculptor who got heavy metal poisoning due to the blue mussel shells she carved and used in her art.
@@KJodiGear Hi, Kjodi, I'm very grateful for this precious advice and the link to G.Genser. What a story!! I'm always careful not to buy hazardous pigments to grind. I have a list with all the pigments' information and seashells is one to add and definitively do research before experimenting. Many thanks again & have a great day!😊
I was going to ask you to teach the girls and I how to do this, and now I see you’ve made these lovely videos!!! Thank you for sharing!! ✨🙏🏼✨
You are so welcome!
I think it's called the pith?
that’s it! Thank you!
Sorry if you know this, but: Oil pastels are made with a non-drying oil, not with the drying oils used to make oil paint. Your 'pastels' are actually oil sticks, they will either dry hard, or will develop a thin film that needs to be repeatedly scraped off in order to use. To make true oil pastels, you'll need a different oil -- originally coconut oil was used, but nowadays they're made with mineral oil. You could technically use a variety of vegetable oils, but you have to watch they don't go rancid or cause damage to the paper. The only other ones I'd try, personally, would be castor oil or jojoba oil.
yes, thank you, exactly! I figured that out awhile after I made them (and they developed a skin, like oil sticks). I also made several that had too much wax in them, so they were more like crayons. I still need to try this again, to make a better oil stick, and also thought I’d try using mineral oil for the oil pastel? I believe that it is non drying.
I think i finally understand this process! Thank you….
Glad it was helpful!
@@KJodiGear i have an urge to figure out how to make marbled paper with the clay/earth pigments…using natural materials from local sources…so kinda rules out the seaweed thickener…any thoughts?
@woodsiastudio Do you follow Skye on instagram? @aequoreamarbling She will know.
I rather buy than make my own
yes, there are many beautiful oil and dry pastels that you can purchase, and I also enjoy making art with them!
Very interesting. I learned a great deal from your video.
the earth pigments or ochres we forage are supposed to last long, but have you experienced some of them being unstable as well, thank you.
no instability in the ochres. They are lightfast. I have started playing with changing the color of some of them with heat. (Which is historically how burnt umber and burnt sienna were made.)