I'm just curious if anyone can attest to the quality of pigments from TKB trading as compared to other watercolor/artist pigment sources? I have a lot (as in, far FAR too many) of pigment samples from them from making cosmetics as a hobby. Tons of mica colors as well as matte pigments and dyes. I was just wondering if I might not get the same quality of paint than if I got pigments from say Kremer or another artist supply source?
I'm still going to use them to experiment with, I'm just seeing if anyone has experience with them.
Awesome all those Pigment Brands I learn here!
I just skimmed over the Description of the TKP Pigments and it says the are suited for epoxy and acrylic Paint...that sounds good!
I have no experience with them, sorry!
Maybe you can buy a bottle of the pearlex Pigments, and then compare how both behave...
That's what I did with my micas
( I am a Beginner, too 😉)
I would totally make paint out of them, even if they don't work ( what I don't believe) you only waste a few cent worth of gum arabic and a bit work...
Please keep us updated how they turn out! 💖
Hi there, No I haven't heard much in the way of this brand from any other makers. I would be interested to hear how your experience unfolds. Happy experimenting!
So I figured I would share my results so far here, since TKB are the only pigments I've played with so far.
From left to right: a pigment they sell as "Pigment Blue 15", which is a Pthalo blue A mica pigment Red Iron Oxide (red shade) Chromium Oxide Green I'm still learning, so I'm pretty sure the consistency issues are MY fault, not the pigments. Pthalo blue is a TERRIBLE first try for a beginner, as i found out! It needs more binder and more mulling than I gave it. Same with the green on right. Not enough binder, it dried up and shrank and cracked like heck. I thought it was okay, because I got virtually NO color lift from the paper when I tested it. The red oxide isn't that bad! I think it needs a little more binder and mulling, but it came out the best of the 3 mattes so far. The swatch is a little messy because I was fussing with it on the paper. The shimmer came out fine, I just don't like the pigment itself. I didn't when I tried using it for cosmetics either. I'm going to consider blending it with other pigments, because I have a LOT of it, and I don't want it to go to waste. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the swatch I did of the mica. This mica has a ferric ferrocyanide base, which puts a bluish almost indigo tint under the more green shimmer. It's not the most harmonious color combination, IMO.
Thank you for sharing. I actually really like the mica one.
And these are some more matte pigments I got from them that I'm looking forward to trying. I think the Ultramarine would be a good test color, if I wanted to compare it to other pigment suppliers. The big bag of "honey yellow" was on sale for a REALLY good price, so I got a big bag of 4oz. The other bags are 1oz. Which is more than enough to experiment with. The sample sizes of most tkb pigments are very affordable, but they are only about 1tsp-1Tbs (most are 6g, some are 2.5) of product, which isn't really enough for more than 1 or 2 tiny test batches.
Thank you so much for sharing your progress. Phthalo blue is an extremely difficult hydrophobic pigment that I would not recommend for beginners. I should really write a post about difficult pigments and good ones to start out with. Also, there is no need to mull mica (unless paired with a matt pigment). Hopefully that tip saves you some time and muscle. BTW, the blue came out lovely!
Yeah... I kind of jumped right in without doing much research on what pigments would be beginner friendly haha. But the 1 oz bags were not terribly expensive (like around $6 I think??), so not a huge loss. Or not a loss at all, if I just come back to them after I have a little more patience and experience with mixing and mulling in general. As for the mica, it is listed on the bag as Mica AND Ferric ferrocyanide, which is a blue matte dye/pigment used in cosmetics. (I have no idea if it has a pigment number like PBwhatever) So I figured I should mull it for good measure, and it DID help the way the color laid down. The mica blue, or the blue swatch with the 3 pans? That's the pthalo "Pigment Blue 15"! It was a bit of a pain because of the hydrophobic thing, but it's soooo pretty!! <3 <3
Phthalo blue is a beautiful blue but such a nightmare to work with. I don't tend to make batches unless there's demand for it.
@Stacey Dodd Don't a few of your blues have pthalo blue pigment as part of the mix? Is is a little easier to work with when blended with other pigments?