Making ochre paint by hand part 2 - Improving the pigment

Real, honest, hand made ochre paint

A few weeks ago I made a post about creating ochre paint by hand. I've been experimenting since then and I've improved the process.

I should mention that I'm deriving the ochre from rocks, not clay which is apparently how it's normally done. I haven't come across any local clay which seems like it would be useful for pigments... in fact, I'm not even sure what I should be looking for as far as clay goes. But I have walked past many rocks with interesting colours, and that's why I decided to turn them into paint.

Basically I'm just making it up as I go along. I haven't been taught any of this, but I'm sure someone has been using a similar method for perhaps thousands of years, who knows.

The main problem with the first attempt was that the pigment was not fine enough. It was inconsistent, Grains were visible when applying paint, and once it dried the surface felt a bit like sandpaper. When I brushed my hand firmly over the surface little bits would crumble off. I mostly solved the problem by mixing it into professionally manufactured oil paints. The ochre still came through and it helped get the colours I was after. View the painting here.

But I wanted better results so I can paint some pictures based entirely on pigments I have made. Pretty sure I'm just about there. Here is the process I've come up with:

Coarse particles left over from step 3

1. Find rock/s with a colour you like. Clean them to get rid of any impurities like bits of dirt and plant matter. We don't want that in our pigment.
2. Grind down rocks with a mortar and pestle. Add some water to prevent dust going everywhere. This also appears to help grind it down into finer particles, and it's easier to work with the paste it creates. This part can take up to a couple of hours. Don't put pieces larger than 1cm into the mortar as you're grinding. Break the rock into small bits beforehand.
3. Add some more water to thin out the paste and pour it into a jar. The largest, most useless particles will sink to the bottom of the mortar as you're pouring. Do this a couple of times to make sure you're getting as much of the good stuff as you can. 
4. Let the jar sit for about half an hour. Only the finest particles will still be suspended in the water. Pour this water into a second jar. I repeated this a couple of times, refilling the first jar with water and pouring off the top into the second jar.
5. Time to remove all the water and claim our pigment. After letting it settle for about 24 hours, pour off as much water as possible without losing any ochre.
6. Pour that into an oven-safe vessel of some sort, and chuck it in the oven for a couple of hours at about 100 degrees C.
7. Once the water has completely evaporated, you're left with dust which has solidified but will easily break down again when you add oil and crush it a bit with a palette knife.

This seems to work really well. The pigment has a great consistency and is easy to paint with. I'm not sure how durable it is yet, it'll be interesting to see how it behaves when dry for a while. I'm just about certain it will never, ever fade.

Pig hunting scene - first sketch

I was looking at some old mosaics, paintings and sculptures of Boar Hunting and decided that I should make my own picture of it.

I've decided that I'll be using as much hand-made ochre as possible.

Here are the first few lines of charcoal to rough out the composition:

Dog chasing a roo oil painting is now for sale

I recently brought this painting back from an exhibition it was featured in. It's now up for sale here:

Dog chasing a roo on madeit.com

Dog Chasing a Roo - Oil and Ochre on Canvas

Nude, oil on canvas added to online store

Just added this nude to my Madeit.com store.

Painted it a few years ago when I had access to nude models at uni.

80cm X 60cm.

Making ochre paint by hand

I decided that I should make some of my own pigments. Ochre seemed like a good start, as it should be relatively easy to access and make, and the colour will last indefinitely.

I found a rock with a nice rich colour:

Ground it up:

And put it in a jar:

Before adding linseed oil and using it in this painting, dog chasing a roo:

Dog Chasing a Roo - Oil and Ochre on Canvas

I used it in the dirt and roo. It did a decent job and really helped get the earthy colours I was after. The main issue was that I didn't grind it finely enough, and sand grains are visible in places. Not such a problem for the dirt, but I'd prefer to not have a sandpaper-ish surface for most other uses. 

I also used too much linseed oil - I'd recommend using as little oil (or whatever medium/binder/vehicle you choose) as possible to achieve a paste. Add more oil as required when painting. Mixing with other colours is a good idea, as whatever they've put in the commercial stuff helps hold it all together. I may experiment with something like Art Spectrum Oil Mediums in the future to make it more stable on its own.

Not bad for a first attempt I guess. I'm just glad it worked at all.

UPDATE 10/10/2011:

I've improved the process quite a lot:

Making ochre paint by hand part 2 - Improving the pigment

Dog chasing a roo - oil painting

Dog Chasing a Roo - Oil and Ochre on Canvas

This is my most recent painting. It was made to enter into the "Fur" art exhibition at Monstrosity Gallery in Sydney. It's 80cm x 55cm. Painted it on sturdy old canvas I actually made at uni about 7 years ago. There was originally a painted sketch on the cavas which looked pretty horrible and was never finished.

Part of it was painted with reddish-brown ochre paint which I made myself.

Oil Paintings from CSU in Wagga Wagga

These were completed while I studied Fine Arts at CSU in Wagga Wagga, and I still own most of them, plus another stack. All were created between around 2000-2004.