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Pigment Binders:A Study of the Properties of Binders that can be Found in the Home |
Which Binder has the Best Quality: Honey, Poppyseed Oil, or Glue?
The pigment used in the binders is ultramarine. Click here to find out more about the pigment ultramarine.
Expectations: I expect the glue to dry very
fast, be very smooth when applied, and to bind best to the water color paper,
but not as well to the canvas and worse to the glass. I expect the honey
to dry within 24 hours, be smooth and easily appliable, and bind very well
to everything. I expect the poppyseed oil to take about a week to dry, be
very smooth when applied, and bind very well to everything.
Procedure: Measure out around 2g of pigment in each of the medium weighboats, taking into account the weighboat's mass. Label weighboats and record pigment mass for each. Put each binder into a plastic dropper container; to the glue add half as much water to the container; to the honey add a fourth as much water to the container. Starting with the honey, slowly add droplets of the binder to the measured pigments, while mixing with the spatula. Record the number of droplets required to reach a smooth paint-like consistency. After the paints are prepared, apply to the paper, canvas, and glass; if necessary add more binder, but record the additions. After the initial applications add more water to the honey and glue and more oil to the poppyseed, apply to the materials and record differences.
| Pigment and Binder | Measurements | ||||
| Sample | Weigh boat mass (g) | w/Pigment (g) | Pigment (g) | Binder | # of Drops |
| A | 1.487 | 3.513 | 2.026 | Honey | 55+5 later |
| B | 1.547 | 3.59 | 2.043 | Poppyseed | 48+3 later |
| C | 1.465 | 3.489 | 2.024 | Glue | 70+10 later |
| D | 1.574 | 3.58 | 2.006 | Honey & Glue | 10 &20 |
The Binders
I had thought that I could prepare the paints all at once and then apply them all at once but, by the time I got to applying them, they had already dried to the extent that it made application difficult, so I added more binder to each of the paints and recorded this in my measurments by a +. This shows that if an artist would like to use home-made paints he must be prepared to use them right away and it is even better if he prepares them as he paints though more awkward.
Poppyseed Oil
Though poppyseed oil is used by artists to some degree, it is by no means
near the amount of use of linseed oil. Poppyseed contains less total glycerides
than linseed does, and although the glycerides cause yellowing, they also
allow the oil to dry in the proper manner. So, poppyseed's inferiority must
be attributed to these less abundant glycerides. The drying curve of an
oil determines the quality and durablility of the film left after it has
dried. Poppyseed oil has an undesirable drying curve compared to that of
linseed oil, and though it does not yellow as much as the linseed oil, because
of its faster and more predictable drying linseed oil is prefered. (Mayer)
The poppyseed oil was fairly easy to spread on the canvas but not as easy as I thought it would be. The paper immediately soaked up the oil when the paint was applied but still left it wet for more than two weeks. The glass was easiest to spread and dried the quickest of all three materials. Suprisingly when more oil was added it dried even quicker on the glass but didn't seem to affect the times on the other materials. The oil did create a smoother application and a certain transparency to the paint.
Honey
Honey has been experimented with by artists throughout the history of
painting. I wondered why it was abandoned as an acceptable medium and is
now only used as an additive. It is found in the gum arabic solution for
watercolors. In this solution, it acts as a plasticizer
[plasticizer - term used to describe a product
that adds flexibiliy and overcomes a natural tendency towards brittleness.
It also improves brushing qualities,smooth capabilities with pigments,etc.]
and contributes to the smoothness in grinding and painting. Sugar in watercolors
acts as a plasticizer and enables the color to be brushed out with greater
ease; like glycerin, it also increases the solubiliby of the dry paint;
too much will unbalance the formula and cause the paint to be picked up
too easily during overpainting or other manipulations. Some artists think
of glycerin as a modern substitution for honey, but it is best if both are
used. Few artists attempt to make their own watercolors because manufacture
is so difficult with the facilities at the artist's command. Those who have
made adequately successful ones usually find they must do their own formulating
by experimentation, because each pigment will require its own special proportion
of binder. (Mayer)
The honey was easy to spread on all the materials used. I was expecting a lot quicker drying time but it took over two weeks to mostly dry. It quickly lost moisture enough to blend well, but it remained tacky for the remainder of the time. It dried the quickest on the glass, then the paper, then the canvas. I had expected it to dry quickest on the paper, then glass, then canvas but I suppose the glass allowed water evaporation more easily than the paper did. When I added extra water to the honey paint I was suprised to find that the drying time was decreased not increased, but not suprised to find it allowed a smoother application and a greater transparency. On the canvas the water caused the honey to want to bead up but smoothed out after a few strokes of the brush.
Glues
The glue used in this experiment
was standard non-washable white glue that can be purchased in a store. Artists
generally use glue prepared from animal skins; such as, rabbit,fish, or
calf. (Handbook) Since my main idea was to prepare paints from binders that
could be found in the household, I chose a glue that was likely to be in
your own home. Consequently, the best grade of bone glue is inferior to
all but the very lowest grade of hide glue. (Mayer)
The glue spread easily on all the materials used. It dried within minutes of application and even quicker on the paper. It also had a smooth matte appearance when dry. When more water was added the drying time decreased and the glue became translucent like a water color. I think the main problem an artist would have using glue as a binder is the quickness with which it dries. This would cause a problem if blending was needed.
I mixed the glue and honey together hoping to create a superior binder. This did not happen. When they were mixed together they did each impart some of the qualities I had desired but also some that I had not foreseen. With the honey I desired the rich smoothness of the application and the plasticity. With the glue I desired a quicker drying time than the honey. I was able to get all these characteristics but also got a loosening of the pigment from the binder. The paint had the matte finish of the glue, which was acceptable, although the shiny finish of the honey, which had a oil-like appearance, was most desirable to me. The property that discouraged me from considering it superior was that if I touched the paint with my finger some of the pigment rubbed off onto it. This property is not one desired when creating a painting; it would be messy and create smudges.
Canvas
Although canvas board [canvas
board - pasteboard to which prepared cloth has been glued or pasted]was
used in this experiment because of cost, it is unreliable for permanent
professional painting because of the unknown quality of the materials generally
used. Canvas does not refer to any specific material of fabric, but is applied
to a variety of closely woven materials of relatively coarse fiber. As a
general term it implies a coated fabric ready for painting. The quality
of the fabric is very important as are the coatings applied to it. The best
canvas material is linen with threads of equal weight and strength. The
cheaper sort of ready-made artists' canvas is made of cotton, which is entirely
inferior to linen; it stretches poorly, has an inferior surface, and doesn't
take the size or priming well. Worse still is a linen-cotton mixture because
of its unequal absorption and variations of tension when exposed to a discharge
of atmospheric moisture. Overall, the fabrics purity and suitability to
a canvas and ability to take on sizing and priming greatly effect a painting's
quality and longevity.(Mayer)
Glass
The glass lends a quality to the paint that can't be observed on paper or canvas. The transparency allows the paints opaqueness or translucence to show through. As the light enters the paint, certain characteristics of the pigment and binder are observable. Paint A, the honey, is on the left. Paint B, the poppyseed oil, is in the middle. Paint C, the glue, is on the right. The paint streaks located on the top of the plate of glass are the original paints prepared. Those on the bottom are those with extra water or oil added after the first application. In the top streaks the paints are all opaque. The bottom streaks are each translucent to a certain degree. In the picture to the left notice that the bottom streaks of pigment color are fairly consistent between binders. In the picture to the right the pigments are shown at an angle in which light shines through the paint, luminating from within. The honey retains ultramarine's deep blue, but the oil and glue appear different than before. The oil creates a magenta/purple translucence with the light shining through; a quality that is very beautiful and perhaps useful to some artists. The glue glows a much paler almost white blue when observed throught the light; this would add a different quality to a painting.
Watercolor Paper
Oil painting on paper is not recommended. It is not known how far back
in time paper was used for oil painting because so few example have survived.
Paper has always served well for sketches, color notes, and other purposes
where longevity is of secondary concern, but for major works the practice
has been abandoned because no major works of oil by great painters have
been found. There have been various revivals of the use of paper in different
forms but all have not lasted; about a hundred years ago brown oiled paper
was used, fifty years ago artists made examples on glue-sized paper for
cheap sale, and even now it is being experimented with. Mainly, paper is
used because of its economy. Unfortunately, oil paintings on paper will
not last beyond thirty to thirty-five years without treatment by professional
restorers. (Mayer)
Painting Techniques fromWinsor & Newton
Painting techniques have a lot to do with the need the artist has for certain qualities in his pigments. The quicker the drying time, the quicker the application has to be and the more precise the artist has to be in a limited period of time. With oils an artist can linger over a painting for extended periods of time depending on the type of oil used. With watercolors the artist must be very precise because the drying time is almost immediate and doesn't allow any blending except by layers. With glues the drying time is slightly extended and allows blending to a degree. With plain honey the drying time is longer than the oil but without the extended blending time, unless water is added and, even then, the blending is not as smooth as before. Some techniques are:
Alla
Prima [Alla
prima - A term applied to paintings that are finished very quickly,
usually in a single session.] is usually done in the outdoors where subject
is more likely to move or become altered in some way in a short time.
Blending [Blending
- physically mixing it with other colours upon the surface] implies colours
which are graded together, e.g., a dark twilight blue in a sky, but that
is not necessarily so.
A glaze across the surface of a picture will pull the image together,
toning down too bright a surface or any bare canvas spots. Glazing [Glazing -
is a process of layering a transparent colour over the picture and can be
repeated with different colours.] in layers is more time consuming, requiring
that each colour layer be dry before applying the next, but the result can
be surface of dramatic depth and brilliance. Glazing allows rich, luminous
hues to be developed in ways that are simply not possible with a single
layer of colour.
Impasto
[Impasto
- Thick, heavy painting; usually oil painting composed of pronounced bristle-strokes
or palette knife applications, which stand out in relief and are plainly
apparent to the spectator.] adds an element of vigour to the painting surface.
Amber Hodges , 1998.
