Home Forums Explore Media Watercolor The Learning Zone Is this glycerin good enough to be added into watercolor?

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  • #477449
    calvin_0
    Default

        Pardon my ignorant, can I use this glycerin for my watercolor? a lot of people seems to use a food grade glycerin but I want to avoid food grade because all the food grade glycerin that i found is also a sweetener…

        I dont want to add anything that would attract ant, otherwise I would just use honey..

        on related note, does anyone know how much glycerin should I add into a full pan watercolor? I heard adding too much isnt good for the watercolor..

        thanks.

        #873008
        D’Lady
        Default

            I’ve used that.

            I’ve also used the stuff from the pharmacy that comes in the dark brown bottles, but it’s more expensive & I’m not sure it makes any difference.

            I usually just pick up a little glob on the handle of a paintbrush, then mix it into the paint. For a commercial pan, you’ll have to use a smaller amount more often as it won’t get completely mixed in. A blob on the end of a toothpick is probably enough in that case.

            -DragonLady

            Which would be the bigger waste:
            your art supplies, or your creative soul?

            #873017
            calvin_0
            Default

                I’ve used that.

                I’ve also used the stuff from the pharmacy that comes in the dark brown bottles, but it’s more expensive & I’m not sure it makes any difference.

                I usually just pick up a little glob on the handle of a paintbrush, then mix it into the paint. For a commercial pan, you’ll have to use a smaller amount more often as it won’t get completely mixed in. A blob on the end of a toothpick is probably enough in that case.

                thanks…

                #873015
                Kaylen
                Default

                    My bottle is a dark brown one but that looks like the stuff to me,

                    Kaylen Savoie
                    https://www.savoieartist.com/
                    At least twice a year,paint something better than you ever painted before.

                    #873011
                    DaveCrow
                    Default

                        Glycerin functions both as a sweetener and as a humectant (moisturizer). There is no difference in the chemical composition between the glycerin sold as a food sweetener, a skin softener, and a paint additive.

                        Shop around and find your best price. You probably won’t need a lot.

                        "Let the paint be paint" --John Marin

                        #873009
                        indraneel
                        Default

                            on related note, does anyone know how much glycerin should I add into a full pan watercolor? I heard adding too much isnt good for the watercolor..

                            Adding too much will prevent it from drying if applied thickly. How much to add depends on pigment. Organic pigments and those with extremely fine particles will need more. Use a dropper, mix thoroughly and wait 1 day before adding more. Add equal drops of glycerine and water.

                            #873018
                            calvin_0
                            Default

                                Adding too much will prevent it from drying if applied thickly. How much to add depends on pigment. Organic pigments and those with extremely fine particles will need more. Use a dropper, mix thoroughly and wait 1 day before adding more. Add equal drops of glycerine and water.

                                thanks.

                                #873016

                                Otherwise, if you struggle with yur watercolour drying to quickly, when painting on location, add one or two drops to the water.

                                Maria - Made in Portugal
                                "Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art" - Virginia Woolf

                                https://womenwagepeace.org.il/en/

                                #873012

                                Glycerine does … what, again? Oh now wait a minnit, I think I get it … it’s a “humectant.” I didn’t know that I needed to humect my watercolor paintings. Do I need to humect them?

                                (Really, it’s a serious question. I put it kind of silly-flippant, yes, but I do request a quick answer or a pointer or two, thanks!)

                                -----
                                Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

                                #873019
                                calvin_0
                                Default

                                    Glycerine does … what, again? Oh now wait a minnit, I think I get it … it’s a “humectant.” I didn’t know that I needed to humect my watercolor paintings. Do I need to humect them?

                                    (Really, it’s a serious question. I put it kind of silly-flippant, yes, but I do request a quick answer or a pointer or two, thanks!)

                                    most of the artist watercolor doesnt need it since they already included it in their formulation…

                                    glycerine is also a plasticizer, which prevent dry watercolor from cracking…

                                    if you are using artist watercolor, you probably wont need glycerine unless your watercolor cracked and brittle while dry up in pan or it doesnt re-wet too easily…

                                    #873013

                                    Oh ok … I do notice a few brands crack more than others, but I kind of like the WAY that they dry up into a powdery cake (if you know Holbein single-pigment watercolors, especially their “Irodori” style, you know what I’m talking about). I find this type of drying to be eminently re-wet-able and highly useful. But, to the contrary, there are also the utterly impermeable non-powdery hockey-puck style dried up nuggets which, I suspect, would be more in line for a little glycerine treatment. I don’t think I have any tubes of paint which hockeypuckifies itself like that any more …

                                    -----
                                    Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

                                    #873020
                                    calvin_0
                                    Default

                                        but I kind of like the WAY that they dry up into a powdery cake (if you know Holbein single-pigment watercolors, especially their “Irodori” style, you know what I’m talking about)

                                        I’m not too sure about the powdery cake in holbein paint…

                                        here is my standby holbein paint, the magenta and yellow on the right is holbein gouache.. the rest is artist watercolor… do you see the texture that you are talking about?

                                        #873010

                                        I make watercolor paints and I use “glycerol” straight from the pharmacy and not expensive – no additives in it at all.

                                        Learn as if you were going to live forever. - Ghandi

                                        #873014

                                        @calvin_0 Absolutely! The turquoise (middle bottom) is turning into the “powdery cake” that I was referring to. I think the dark blue (top, second from left) is also going in that route. The shiny faces of the others are preventing me from determining. I think the point I was trying to make (and you probably got this so maybe I don’t need to repeat it) was not, so much, that some pigments do it more than others; but that the same pigment in Holbein, as opposed to in another brand, will be more likely to do it in the Holbein. In the long run, what I’m objecting to, is any dried-up cake which is DIFFICULT to re-wet, as opposed to (what I think of) the way in which Holbein in my experience is EASY to re-wet. For me, if you can’t get most dried-up cakes back into a gel consistency, then you can’t use them ever again, and I sometimes find that to be the case with many different pigments in several different brands. With many of those other paint brands (though not all, and not in all pigments; some are more tractable than others) I would have to stir and stir and stir, wonder whether I’ll ever have a re-use-able cake, and then stir some more; or, better, just throw it out if it dries up overnight, and re-squeeze new from the tube. But with Holbein, I don’t need to re-wet all the way back to getting the entire half-pan to a gel, because the powdery-cake will be useful sooner than getting to gel consistency. Make sense?

                                        -----
                                        Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

                                        #873021
                                        calvin_0
                                        Default

                                            @calvin_0 Absolutely! The turquoise (middle bottom) is turning into the “powdery cake” that I was referring to. I think the dark blue (top, second from left) is also going in that route. The shiny faces of the others are preventing me from determining. I think the point I was trying to make (and you probably got this so maybe I don’t need to repeat it) was not, so much, that some pigments do it more than others; but that the same pigment in Holbein, as opposed to in another brand, will be more likely to do it in the Holbein. In the long run, what I’m objecting to, is any dried-up cake which is DIFFICULT to re-wet, as opposed to (what I think of) the way in which Holbein in my experience is EASY to re-wet. For me, if you can’t get most dried-up cakes back into a gel consistency, then you can’t use them ever again, and I sometimes find that to be the case with many different pigments in several different brands. With many of those other paint brands (though not all, and not in all pigments; some are more tractable than others) I would have to stir and stir and stir, wonder whether I’ll ever have a re-use-able cake, and then stir some more; or, better, just throw it out if it dries up overnight, and re-squeeze new from the tube. But with Holbein, I don’t need to re-wet all the way back to getting the entire half-pan to a gel, because the powdery-cake will be useful sooner than getting to gel consistency. Make sense?

                                            I see, thanks… I use mostly holbein watercolor, so I generally dont have problem with cracking or re-wetting… I only get glycerin because i’m experimenting with gouache… so it’s just a precaution since most gouache dont dry well in pans..

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