| Painters made up their own paints during earlier | | | | ground would be destroyed by oil. Water simply |
| times. As they became able to they paid | | | | dries out leaving the paper ground |
| someone else to do this for them. Then it | | | | unharmed.Pigment is the first unprepared vital |
| became fashionable and even desirable for the | | | | basic raw ingredient in all paints. Pigment is simply |
| master painter to offer student apprenticeships in | | | | color. There are no specific watercolor pigments |
| return for their free services of cleaning modeling | | | | or oil pigments. Pigment is derived from natural |
| and making up paints.This was a good deal for the | | | | substances such as rocks earth shells animals |
| student. The would-be painter learned first hand | | | | plants and chemicals. Some pigments are |
| the possibly secret craft and chemistry of making | | | | simulations of natural pigment substances.When |
| pigment into paint. This gave the student a | | | | Pigment is prepared to make it suitable for a |
| contact with painting materials unknown today. | | | | specific surface type it becomes paint. This |
| Some artists now mix their own paint and claim | | | | preparation is the result of research over the |
| benefit in their painting because of this.Perhaps this | | | | years and is directed towards achieving long life |
| is not so good an idea as it might sound.There is | | | | over some hundreds of years for each specific |
| no doubt the principle in theory is sound but I | | | | use.Understanding this is part of the technique of |
| doubt if the longevity of the painting should be | | | | painting with all mediums and when painters opt to |
| risked against the undoubted advantage the big | | | | ignore the technique of this they are likely to |
| paint manufactures have not only of expenditure | | | | short change those who will buy their work |
| in R&D but in the techniques of testing. Adopting | | | | because the painting will not retain its original |
| testing standards is a policy and a science in itself. | | | | integrity for very long. It will disintegrate. This is |
| Who else has the time and resources to do this? | | | | exacerbated by the increase of toxins in the air |
| The painter has more pressing uses to invest in | | | | as these find paintings easier to destroy than |
| time.Watercolor Paints are the same as any other | | | | most other objects.Watercolor pigments are |
| paints with the exception their medium of | | | | simply pigments prepared for use on paper or silk |
| transfer or thinning to the paper-ground is water. | | | | grounds for ready use by painters in watercolors. |
| Water is used instead of oil because a paper | | | | |