I know I’ve posted my watercolours before, but here’s a fresh batch with a couple new colours - paprika (literally made with paprika) in the top and verdigris at the bottom. The middle is made from red cabbage and the yellow is tumeric.
Verdigris is made from decomposing copper in an acetic acid vapour. I found you can add sulfur, too, to get a darker green. You only need a jar with a lid, a thread, and some cleaning vinegar to make your own, but it does take a while.
The red cabbage isn’t red because the colour changes with PH, more basic = blue and green, more acidic = red and purple.
Here’s a bonus pic of my process for making lake pigments (how I get the colour from the red cabbage,) with coreopsis in the filter and a fresh batch of birch and dogwood bark just settling down.
Huh
I use a charcoal wash for greys like watercolour. Never thought about making my own watercolours though!
How do these look on paper? That paprika looks like it would create a nice colour
Charcoal looks great, I find. You can mix it with watercolour medium for more sticking power as well.
Diluted pen ink is a good way to build up shadows, too.
Here’s my ongoing chart of colours, it doesn’t include everything I’ve made. Paprika is just below agate.