Tubes contain soft paint with more water content. Cakes are hard and have a low water content. Watercolors are available in the form of cakes, tubes or in liquid form. Water - yes, depending on the type of watercolor paint supplies you buy, they contain a certain amount of water. Sometimes fillers are added just to reduce the proportion of costly pigment in the paint. They also modify the way pigment sticks to the paper to prevent it from ‘lifting off’ the surface when you apply new layers of paint. These colorless fillers are necessary to improve texture, and provide a smooth and easy to handle consistency. Other fillers enhance the handling or color appearance of the paint. This is usually transparent or white crystals which enhance the color of the pigment, or adjust the lightness of the paint when dried. The type of moisturizer used is often glucose (for example corn syrup) or sometimes even honey! The plasticizer used is usually glycerin, and makes up about 20% or less of the paint.Ī small amount of brightener is sometimes added to watercolor paint. These additives also prevent the paint from drying too quickly so that watercolor washes can be applied more easily.
For this reason watercolor paint includes a moisturizer and a plasticizer to help extend the life of your paint but also to make it softer and easier to dissolve. Watercolors made only with pigment and gum-arabic will dry to a hard block.
Gum arabic and synthetic binders tend to dry relatively quickly. Binder is a transparent substance and in general makes up about 50% of the paint. The binder also helps produce a brighter color by holding the pigment particles together on the surface of the paper. The job of the binder is to help the colored pigment attach and “bind” to the watercolor paper. The binder in watercolo rs is traditionally gum-arabic, but some brands use a synthetic binder. The proportion of pigment in paint varies between 10% and 20%. With student grade paint the cost is lower because some of the expensive pigments are replaced with moderately priced alternatives. Most manufacturers offer two qualities of watercolor paints - professional grade or student grade. The quantity of pigment in the paint can also vary depending on it’s grade or quality. Some of the natural pigments are hard to acquire, which makes certain colors more expensive. There are over 100 pigments used in artists watercolor paint. Watercolor paints also contain some other additives which alter the paint’s appearance, the way the paint performs, and to extend the shelf life of the product.įirs t and foremost you have the very finely ground colored pigments. Watercolor paint is made of a few simple ingredients, but the two main components are the pigment (this provides the color) and the binder (usually gum-arabic).
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