Oil paints are quite the opposite, taking a long time to dry and allowing for easy manipulation or even removal of paint.

You will need Dry pigment powder ( filler) Medium (the recipe below uses ready-made Winsor & Newton gum Arabic) A smooth slab of glass or polished stone of size at least 30 x 50 cm. A palette knife A muller Pans, shells or beer bottle caps for storing excess paint.

Ruth Siddall, 2020 1 The only specialist piece of kit here is the muller (left). This is a mushroom-shaped glass tool which is used for thoroughly mixing the pigment powder with the media, so that every individual pigment grain is coated with medium. It is not used for grinding pigment powders (use a pestle and mortar for that). This will ensure a smooth homogeneous paint. You can get by with mixing the medium and pigment using a palette knife but if you are making larger amounts, its worth getting a muller. These again, can be bought from good artists materials suppliers and come in a range of sizes. If youre just intending to make small batches of paints, buy the smallest available. The base of the glass muller should be perfectly flat and frosted, as should the glass slab on which you process the paint. If they are not, you can create this surface using a very fine-grained sandpaper (wear a mask whilst youre doing this!).

Step 1. Start small. Practice with 1 teaspoon of pigment fillers etc. Put this on you slab and make a small well in the centre and pour in about 1 teaspoonful of gum Arabic. Start to mix together using a palette knife, holding this so that the blade is parallel to the surface of the slab. As you go on, you can, if required add more pigment and gum Arabic. Aim for a consistency like runny honey.