User:Floor/week10

Making natural paint

I found a focus point very late this quarter.. I really enjoyed trying out line, woodblock and lithography but it wasn’t anything I wanted to investigate further. Then I found the chlorophyll printing technique. A technique that requires some time to develop.. not ideal. But lack of chemicals and close relation to nature really interests me. So I wanted to investigate that a little further in the time that remains. Also I what I found out this quarter is that I prefer to draw or paint directly, not have to carve into something or treat a surface with tons of chemicals before I can get started. So I decided to make my own paint using berries (blueberries and raspberries).

I warmed up the berries in a pan on the stove to make a sort of jam. I then tried mixing it with two different binding mediums: egg yolk and milk. (See the results below)

I found that egg yolk doesn't work that great for me, but maybe I used a bit too much. I preferred to use the pure, sifted fruit juice/jam and only mix it with milk to get a lighter tone.

When I apply the paint to watercolor paper it starts off pale and then becomes a more intense/saturated purple (blueberry) or pink (raspberry). When I paint on a more absorbing paper surface (tissues and coffee filters) the colour comes out very intense right away and then stays that way.

I actually like the slightly grainy, speckle-texture you get when painting with the fruit juice.

I would really like to try to make stencil or silkscreen prints using this paint.