Corn Starch

[Bongo]

I ran across this fix for cheap acrylic paint that is too thin or transparent.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxnUkawGYWE8Wo9VifdwVk--kokwY2aJ_-?si=ew8c-H9qpgK7VT_f

and when you buy that corn starch, be sure to tell 'em bongo sent you.

 

[Donna T]

I have a not-so-cheap violet by Golden that is so thin and transparent I never use it. Corn starch: it’s not just for thickening fruit pies anymore.

 

[Bongo]

Yes. Doesn't have to be cheap paint. I wonder what would happen if you put cornstarch with oil paint. You can use cold wax i.e.' to thicken, but the results are still transparent.

 

[Marc]

I wouldn't recommend it from a permanence point of view. It might go brownish after many years of aging.

 

[Enyaw]

I read Rembrandt used wheat flour in his paint to get the impasto.

 

[Marc]

I heard Rembrandt using of sorts of things for his impasto. Egg yolk, Dutch stack white, printer plate oil, chalk, marble dust. The only time I recall wheat flower was in filling the small weave holes in some canvases. and the flour had discoloured. Though this was of little importance as the oxide earth or/and lead grounds usually covered them.

 

[Enyaw]

I don’t know if this is legit but here is where I read the article
Article

 

[Marc]

The NBC article is slightly misleading because it doesn't mention that the study by Jana Sanyova found wheat starch grains in the secondary coloured ground layer not in the actual impasto. The NBC piece quotes Narayan Khandekar speculating on an impasto use. (but they haven't found it there)

 

[Marc]

There is a history of wheat starch being used in tubed paints in the late 19th century and it was poorly thought of. Likely, if for no other reason, that it was a way on cutting the percentage of expensive pigments.

 

[Enyaw]

Thanks Marc. I actually tried it but didn’t like the resulting change in my paint so quickly abandoned it. I actually didn’t like marble dust either. I settled on cold wax.

 

[Terri]

I have a not-so-cheap violet by Golden that is so thin and transparent I never use it. Corn starch: it’s not just for thickening fruit pies anymore.

Donna, is that violet from Golden's Fluid line, by any chance? I've noticed that most of them are quite transparent, as opposed to Utrecht Fluid acrylics which seem opaque (in my limited use so far!).

 

[Donna T]

Terri, the one I have is ultramarine violet from Golden’s Open line. Maybe it’s useful for glazing but I gave up on it. It sounds like I’ll need to experiment with Utrecht too.