Tools of the Trade

For this week a look at some of the paints I use. I was fortunate enough to have teachers that taught me the importance of using high quality materials, it makes a fair amount of sense that if you use higher quality materials your end product will also be higher quality. It was a bit hard though as a poor art student to get behind, higher quality materials also usually have a higher price tag. I have seen the difference in materials pay off though.
When I chose materials there's more than just the quality and price to be looked at, one thing I look for is a high quality and trusted brand of paints, usually this means one that's been around for a long time, it also usually means they're in Europe. The last time I was looking to get more color options for watercolor I researched and debated and decided upon Schminke.
Schminke is a German brand that was recommended to me by a trusted teacher.
After deciding on a brand there's still much more to do. I was taught to use single pigment paints/colors and to research how these pigments will interact with one another. I hadn't ever given it any thought but it's important to remember that your paints could have chemical reactions to one another, not explosions but reactions which could effect your colors and thus your paintings. I want my work to be archival and to be long lasting, in a hundred years or more I want my work to look the same or with very little variation. Anyway I when I find a single pigment paint in the color I'm looking for, I find out any information I can about how light fast it is, if it has a toxicity warning etc. After I've looked at what information's available I then consult The Materials and Techniques of Painting by Kurt Wehlte. The book has a section on pigments and for each pigment it gives various names it goes by, the chemical make up, how lightfast etc. it might be, what types of paint (oil, watercolor) the pigment works well in and what pigments you shouldn't use it with.


As a general rule I try to avoid pigments that are or could potentially be toxic but sometimes there's just not a good alternative, in those cases I read the MSDS (medical safety data sheet if I'm not mistaken) and find out how toxic and if it's safer in some mediums. Cadmiums are very toxic pigments due to their heavy metal make up. I do have a tube of cadmium red but I use it sparingly and consider the instructions in the MSDS.
Long winded but that's how I chose paints.