I am kind of discouraged after a week of experimenting with making oil paints using natural pigments and linseed oil. The conclusion of my experiments is that it doesn’t work. My pigments all come from soils and I was using linseed oil bought at the local hardware store. The linseed oil turns the pigment powders about five shades darker, and after a week, they still haven’t dried. Linseed oil is supposed to be a “drying oil” meaning that with oxidation a chemical change takes place turning the oil into a dry plastic-like solid. It’s a bit of a shame that this didn’t work since I have 4 liters of linseed oil sitting in our shed.

Originally I was making the transition from egg tempera to oil paint in order to paint on canvas. Oil paint is more flexible than egg tempera, therefore can be used on a flexible support like canvas, whereas egg tempera requires a more rigid support like wood panels, board, or in my case thick paper. The root of the problem must be that I am using “industrial-grade” not “artist-grade” linseed oil. I’m going to bring back some of my pigments and try this again at home with the highest quality artist-grade linseed oil.

In the mean time, I am going to continue working in egg tempera on 300lb hot-pressed watercolor paper. If I mount and frame these properly when I get back home they should be in good shape to last 100+ years!