this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
33 points (97.1% liked)

The Grind & Bind Art Alchemist's Guild

140 readers
18 users here now

Good day and welcome to The Grind and Bind Art Alchemist's Guild.

An artist's community for the kind of people who don't just paint, they scavenge pigment from rotten leftovers. It's for potters who dig their clay from riverbeds, for weavers who spin their own wool (and probably know the name of the sheep,) and it's for digital artists who hack away at their creative endeavors.

All flavors are welcome to:

How it goes:

Be kind

Do onto others with kindness, curiosity and civility.

Please include images

Remember to attribute other's work, tag NSFW and Content Warnings if necessary, and describe with alt text for our differently sighted pals.

No AI*

This isn't a community for AI *unless you've built it yourself and trained it on your own work.

Tags are Optional

[Advice Wanted] — "How do you...?" and "Help, something exploded."

[Article] — Selt explanatory. Please include a webarchive link if a site asks for personal details or has a paywall.

[Discussion] — In the huddle of stained alchemists, debates and compliments are equally encouraged.

[Challenge] — Try something new or show off your niche skills. (Mods only)

On Self-Promotion

We all need to put food in the ferret bowl, but let's not talk money here. If someone asks to buy something, please take it to DMs.

!artmarket@lemmy.world and !artshare@lemmy.world are geared toward self promotion if you want to cross-post.

This is a dark place.

Most art will leave you feeling inspired, maybe even joyful — if not a little thoughtful. Not this art.

This is a place of paint drinking gremlins with caustic burns on our hands and ink stains on our feet. A dark, damp basement smelling of bleach and burning and bioplastics, of empty wallets and ephemeral passions, of education, of science.

Most art makes people better, but this place can only make you worse, poorer, stained, and consumed by the craft.

Icon drawn by Wren

Banner image taken by Cottonbro on Pexels

This is a new community, the structure and rules may change without notice. All things are ephemeral. Shoot Wren a DM if you have any ideas or want to help out.

founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
 

Most are from lake pigments, with a few earth pigments in the mix.

From the top left, reading right:

Top row: Red roses, iron oxide, greens from florist waste, cranberries

Middle row: Red roses (again,) red cabbage, kyanite, lemons

Botton row: Spinach and corriander, just spinach, beets, agate grindings (from my rock tumbler)

These are just the ones I managed to get potted and dried, I have a whole box of mixed paints waiting on another order of watercolour pots.

They all look a bit different in consistency in part because I've tried a few different formulas of watercolour mix, and because they're made from different things. Cranberries and red cabbage always end up a bit "sticky."

My latest formula for watercolours is:

  • 300g Gum Arabic Solution (gum arabic powder and water)
  • 280g Glycerine
  • 20g Clear honey
  • 20 Drops clove oil (antibacterial - paints will mold)

I mix into pigment at a 1:1 ratio by weight.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Wren@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice! I know quite a few older artists from remote areas who only painted with their own mixes. When I think about it, it makes way more sense to just have pigments and medium on hand rather than a whole bottle of acrylic that'll dry up before you use it.

But take that recipe with a huge salt block, I'm still in the experimental phase. My original had the same amount of glycerine and honey, but I found it cracked more when it dried — the red, green and yellow were made with that one.

Good luck!

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

take that recipe with a huge salt block.

I will, thanks. I know what I lost when I forgot the og recipie. ;c It came from a very reputable and now inaccessible source.

Alas, good quality watercolor is expensive as heck, and even tho I've gotten a lot of mileage out of a mid tier portable set, I'm craving the good shit. So it's worth a try.

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

If it helps, I started here: https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2020/09/25/making-handmade-watercolours-with-jacksons-artist-pigments/

And I might only have issues because I'm eyeballing my way through lake pigments, leaving leftover salts and chemicals because fuck stoichiometry. Real earth pigments could satisfy your cravings with that recipe.

BTdubs to save money on a muller and pallet I recommend a thrifted microwave plate and glass butt plug.