Two questions regarding homemade paints.

[Carcharhinus]

Hi, I'm about to make a couple of different paints to use in some upcoming paintings.

I purchased 50g of Cobalt Blue Pigment yesterday as a birthday present to myself, and because I didn't really want to spend £21 on a tube. I already have a big glass slab and a heavy glass muller.

I also have a 15g tub of Cadmium Red.

I'm already aware of safety concerns and have the equipment to stop me breathing it in/touching it.

Once the paint is made, I was wondering if I could store it in the clear plastic containers that the pigment came in. Something tells me that I'd be better storing it in a lightproof container like an aluminium tube but I really have no idea.

I'll also be making the Cobalt Blue in safflower oil. On the back of my safflower oil it says 'may cause cracking when overpainted with linseed oil'. I'll be using this blue in mixes and with layering and most of my paints are mixed with linseed oil, but I'd like to avoid the cracking. Is this warning just W&N covering their backs?

Any help you guys could give would be great. Thanks.

[Eduardo Flores]

The only solution for keeping oil paints is the use of the traditional aluminum tubes: other containers will ruin the paint with the skin produced by the oxidation of the oil, and the evaporation of the solvent (if any).

The best oils for artistic paints are linseed oil for nearly all cases, and walnut oil for colors that do not accept yellowing (pure white, purples, violets...).

How do you plan to obtain a perfectly smooth, homogeneous painting?

Eduardo

[0chre]

Safflower oil is a slower dryer than linseed oil. Slower drying oils under quicker drying oils can cause trouble, like cracking. But Cobalt blue is a quick drying pigment, so it could be safe to use in the lower layers, especially if you don't use thick layers of it in the lower layers.

[llawrence]

Yeah, get yourself some tubes. Easy and convenient.

Or, conversely, you can just mull up the paint as you need it, just the amount that you'll need for that day's painting.

[Carcharhinus]

Thanks guys. Does anyone have any experience with these:

http://www.aswexpress.com/discount-a...int-tubes.html

[karenlee]

Yes that's what you want.
Tricky to fill but provides the best protection if you don't want to make paint as you use it.

[Carcharhinus]

Are those ones in particular any good, or am I just getting the same thing with aluminium tubes no matter where I get them from?

[Alan P. in OC]

Originally Posted by Carcharhinus

Are those ones in particular any good, or am I just getting the same thing with aluminium tubes no matter where I get them from?

They're serviceable, at best.
I had to get empty tubes to tube up my value scale of gray paints, and bought these.

The good: they're the only ones I can find that weren't too big or too small.
The bad: several have sprung leaks where I regularly crimp up the bottom as the tube empties.
Many caps get stripped when there's even just a little bit of paint in the threads of the tube; I'm glad they package them in a box of 48, because I've had to change caps maybe 5 or 6 times in the year and a half of owning these.

If I had to buy more empty tubes, I'd look around a lot more to see if I can find a different brand, but if I couldn't find others I guess I'd buy more of these. They're so cheap and, for me, give me more than I really need, so the extra caps come in handy.

[Carcharhinus]

I guess I'll shop around then. The amount you get is attractive, but I have enough issue with leaky tubes and broken caps when I buy paint already tubed.

I'd really like some 22 ml though. Or even 18ml.

[llawrence]

You can pick up some 20mL at naturalpigments.com.

[SSB]

Daniel Smith has excellent tubes in all sizes, check it out.
I have tubed all kinds of paint with these and haven't had a single leak!

http://www.danielsmith.com/ItemSearc...tubes--srcin-1

[Carcharhinus]

Thanks guys. I'm actually in the UK so I'd prefer not to pay the extra shipping. I just can't find anything over here less than 35ml. I might have to just go for that.

Edit: I might actually get some of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-X-HUMBRO...#ht_9203wt_956

and empty them out.

I was looking for some old ones that I had upstairs years ago but they seem to have been thrown away. If I can find some on ebay that will get me them for about 50p per tin I think that'd be a good deal.

[Carcharhinus]

Update.

I found a model making supplies site that sells the small aluminium pots for 25p each. I think I'll order 20 to make the postage worth it.