Make sure there is some sort of baseboard trim in the room that you want to paint. If you don’t have baseboard trim, the wall is much more likely to shed, especially as you sweep or vacuum.
DIY Gouache: A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Own Opaque Watercolor Paint
Gouache paint is an opaque watercolor paint made by mixing pigments with a binding agent, typically gum arabic. The resulting paint is thicker and more opaque than traditional watercolors and is often used for illustrations and other forms of commercial art. Gouache can be made at home by mixing pigments with gum arabic and water, and it is a relatively simple process that an artist can perform with a moderate amount of knowledge.
What makes gouache different from watercolor paint since both have gum arabic as the binding agent? It is the opacity of gouache and how it is handled that makes it different. Extender pigments such as barite (baryte, British spelling, or the synthetic mineral, blanc fixe) are added to most pigments to increase the opacity of the paint. Some pigments, such as most earth pigments, do not require extender pigments since they naturally contain extenders, such as chalk or quartz.
Materials Needed
To make gouache paint, you will need the following materials:
- Pigments: You can use any pigments suitable for watercolors, such as natural pigments like yellow ocher and burnt sienna or synthetic pigments like phthalo blue and quinacridone violet.
- Extender Pigments: Barite (baryte) or chalk is used to add opacity and extend the pigments.
- Gum arabic: This is a natural binder that is derived from the sap of the acacia tree.
- Glycerin (preferably from a vegetable source)
- Water (preferably distilled water)
- Borax
- Grinding plate (smooth, flat glass or stone plate)
- Muller (glass or stone muller to grind the paste)
- A palette knife or spatula for mixing the paint
- Mortar and pestle (for grinding pigments if necessary)
- Scale or measuring spoon (for measuring the pigments, gum arabic, and other ingredients)
- Glass or plastic dropper (for adding water to the paint)
- Glass or plastic containers with lids for storing paint.
All of the materials above that you will need are available from Natural Pigments.
Preparing the Gouache Binding Agent
Prepare the binder for gouache paint. Borax is a preservative that prevents the solution from spoiling. It isn’t necessary to store the solution in the refrigerator.
| Ingredients | Parts by Weight |
|
| Part A | ||
| Gum arabic | 4 oz | 100 grams |
| Water, distilled | 8 fl oz | 200 ml |
| Part B | ||
| Borax | 1 oz | 25 grams |
| Water, distilled | 2 fl oz | 60 ml |
| Glycerin | 2 fl oz | 60 ml |
- Add gum arabic powder to water.
- While stirring, gently warm the solution not exceeding 140° F (60° C) until all the gum dissolves.
- Prepare the second solution by adding borax to water.
- While stirring, gently warm the solution not exceeding 140° F (60° C) until the borax dissolves.
- Add glycerin to the solution.
- Mix the two solutions together and store it in a sealed container.
Of course, you can skip this step entirely by purchasing Watercolor Medium from Natural Pigments.
How to Make Natural DIY Paint
To make your own DIY paint, you only need a few simple ingredients: aggregate (see below for an explanation), white powdered clay, wheat paste (recipe follows), and water – plus pigments as desired. Basically, you mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, and voila!
Applying this kind of paint is a little different than brushing on latex or other standard paints. We’ll get into that a little bit later. Here in the Asheville area, Highwater Clays is a great local source of materials. They do ship, but clay is very heavy, so it makes sense to seek out a local source before mail-ordering this stuff. A 5-gallon bucket is a great vessel to mix your paint. Use a paint mixer attached to a power drill to combine everything thoroughly.
DIY Paint Recipe
- 2 parts aggregate (see below)
- 2 parts white powdered clay (White China or Kaolin works well)
- 1.5 parts wheat paste (recipe follows)
- 1.75 to 2.25 parts water
- Pigments as desired
Aggregate
Aggregate can be made from a variety of materials. A combination of glass-blowing sand and mica dust is best for smooth DIY paint that doesn’t shed. That’s because this kind of sand has way smaller particles than regular play sand. Mica dust will give your wall a beautiful shimmer when it’s properly burnished.
U se all glass-blowing sand and no mica as your aggregate for your first coat. Then use 3 parts glass-blowing sand and 1 part mica dust for your final coat. This gets translated into 1.5 parts glass-blowing sand and .5 parts mica for your overall recipe, although you will mix two separate batches.
Regular play sand will also work as an aggregate in DIY paint. Both mica dust and glass-blowing sand are more expensive than this coarser option, so your choice may depend on your budget.
How to Make Wheat Paste for DIY Paint
- 1 part bleached white flour
- 1 part cold water
- 5 parts boiling water (in a pot)
Use bleached white flour. Don’t be tempted to use whole grain flour; don’t use spelt flour, or teff, or buckwheat. This might mean making a special trip to the store, but it will be a trip worth taking. You aren’t going to eat this wheat paste. Whole grain flours just won’t work in natural DIY paint.
- Boil your 5 parts of water. Keep it actively boiling throughout the process.
- Whisk the flour with the cold water in a separate bowl or bucket until you have a very smooth paste with zero lumps.
- Now drizzle the flour/cold water mixture into the actively boiling water that is still on the stove. Whisk as you drizzle (it’s easier with 2 people).
- Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, until your wheat paste starts to get slightly clear.
- At this point, you should have lumpless wheat paste. If you do have lumps, strain them out and discard them.
Pigments (Colors!) for Natural DIY Paint
Many different natural pigments can give color to DIY paint. Of the many powdered metals that work well, iron oxides are the easiest to find and they are completely non-toxic. Iron oxide and rust are synonymous, so you are basically working with a wide variety of colors of rust when you choose this group of pigments. From iron oxides, you can mix up all sorts of colors, most of which come out in various shades of yellow, brown, red and black. Even though we’ve managed to get some colors that look somewhat blue and green from iron oxides, many folks say that they look pretty gray. Perhaps beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, as it’s said.
To get hands-on guidance about DIY paint and other natural building modalities like natural plasters and working with rough-cut wood, sign up for our Natural Building and Tiny House Workshop .
