Making vegan watercolour paint || A look into my sustainable art studio

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 12:32:45 +0000

Welcome (back) to my channel! In this video you will get a look into my sustainable art studio while I make my own vegan watercolour paint.

I started making vegan watercolour paint, because I have a line of vegan PhD theses with my company GreenThesis. I wanted to be able to offer completely vegan design too.

So why vegan watercolour paint? Regular watercolour paint uses a variety of animal-derived products. Most paints for example contain ox gall and/or glycerine made from animal fat. In my previous watercolour paint recipe I already eliminated these animal-based ingredients by using plant-based glycerine and skipping the ox gall altogether. However, I did use honey, which isn't vegan either, so I decided to also search for alternatives to honey, and I'm very happy with the results. In addition, I also don't use animal-derived pigments in my vegan paints (for example bone black, eggshell white, carmine and sepia). On a side note, paper also isn't necessarily vegan, because they are often sized using for example gelatin, made from animal bones. Thus I also searched for vegan paper alternatives and my favourite vegan paper to use for my vegan designs is now agave or bamboo paper by Hahnemuhle, which is certified vegan.

The paint I make today uses French ochre, basically soil, which I ground, sift and purify to get a fine pigment. The pigment is then used to make watercolour paint, using my own vegan watercolour binder.

I love making my own paint. It takes a lot of work for just one color, usually several hours if you make everything from scratch, but it is so satisfying, and it really lets you connect to the source of art, the raw materials. Fortunately, with watercolour paint, a little goes a long way, so the paint I make will last for months.

For those interested: for my vegan binder I used gum arabic, distilled water and vegetable glycerine (1:2:1 ratio), and a drop of clove oil as a natural preservative.

If you try your hand at making your own watercolour paint at home, please take the proper precautions, such as protective gear, and only use non-toxic materials. This video is meant as an inspirational video only.