Homemade Shimmer Watercolours

I have to admit, I cannot not try out stuff I come across on the internet. And I also have to say that I absolutely love glitter, and shimmery effects, I am a fan of all metallic colours.

So I had a look at a few videos -because that is where one learns new skills these days- to check out what minimal basics I would need to make my own shimmer paints. It makes me feel good whenever I already have all I need at home and not have to buy extra supplies.

One very good starting point might be Oto Kano , she has a youtube channel and she makes her own watercolour paints, there is Denise Soden with her channel In Liquid Colour who looks at pigments and colour compositions with great detail, and then I also found this video here, showing the very basics (2 ingredients) needed for watercolour paints. The guy in the second video has a lengthy calculation about how much money he could save by making his own paints, and while I do agree that it can save you good money, it might also mean that you end up with copious amounts of one colour that you might never use up on your own.

Anywho....

Of course I dove into my stash of art supplies to see what I could come up with and behold ! I found several little jars of mica pearlex powders... and I do have a couple of tubes of watercolours. What I did not have was a free small palette or spare tin, or clean halfpans not yet spoken for. And if I do not have a palette I am going to make me one...

All it takes is some elderly tupperware and some hot glue.

My first colour to try out was Quinacridone Gold, one of my favourite colours. In the picture I have the Quin. Gold by Schmincke, but I really used the one by Winsor and Newton, the two companies use different pigments to make this colour. This is good to know in case I run out of one in the middle of a painting...

The pearlex mica changed the shade of the gold from Yellow to a bit of a greeny hue, but I managed to get a nice little shimmer into my paint. I had already picked out a few more combinations, being careful to match the shade of pearlex to the colour, a list of my pairings will be at the end of this post.

Getting messy with paints, powders, spatulas and swatch cards. I am loving this... :-)

And these are my finished paints, a little collection of 10 shimmer paints, more or less successful. The yellow did not turn out as shimmery as hoped and neither did the Magenta in the top row. I did not yet get to try them in a painting so they might still turn out interesting.

And here the finished swatchcard, I took pictures at different angles to show the shimmer effect where it is noticeable.

And here is the list of paint/pearlex pairings:

1. W/N Quinacridone Gold (Pr206,Pv19,Py150) + 665 Sunset Gold

2. W/N Winsor Yellow (Py154) + 641 Orange Pumpkin & 651 Pearl White

3. W/N Quinacridone Magenta (Pr122) + 642 Salmon Pink

4. W/N Winsor Violet (Dioxazine) (Pv23) + 664 Reflex Violet

5. Schmincke Neutral Tint (Pr122,Pb60/Pbk7) + 646 Mink

6. W/N Quinacridone Gold (see above) + 660 Antique Bronze

7. Schmincke Burnt Umber (Pbr7) + 660 Antique Bronze

8. W/N Quinacridone Magenta (see above) + 643 Pink Gold

9. Schmincke Phthalo Blue (Pb15:1) + 647 Sky Blue

10. Schmincke Neutral Tint (see above) + 651 Pearl White

I love how the two Neutral Tints look completely different now with the different mica powders in them, the Mink has a little secondary green shine to it. It will be fun to paint something with them.