Recently, I was drawn to start learning more about how paints are made. I’ve done a lot of reading, Googling and watching YouTube. Granted that it is not the most scientific way to learn things but I think it gave me enough of an idea to give it a shot so I grabbed a bottle of Gum Arabic powder at Hobby Lobby. I was going to make my own watercolor paint. Here’s what happened…

I ground up the Conte stick using the little mortar and pestle. Then, based on multiple recipes for watercolor paints I found, mixed that powder with the Gum Arabic at a rough 4 to 1 ratio of powdered pigment to Gum Arabic. Honestly, I guessed at all my measurements so I will need to be a bit more exact next time around to be able to know what works better or worse than others. After playing with them for a while I decided to have a go at a full blown sketch or drawing or painting. Not sure what I would classify this one as but, with a little black and white charcoal at the end, I am very happy with how it turned out.