Not so simple Charcoal Black pigment!

[@phillipstroll7385]

Btw. If you carbonized cloth you don't have to grind so much. It almost automatically becomes a fine powder. It's more like soot in sheet form. Make it easier on yourself.

[@phillipstroll7385]

We used to use bones and when we didn't have enough of those we used 100%cotton handkerchiefs to get our carbon. We also used to make our own charcoal for drawing. We used to make a white charcoal as well. I love your channel. It takes me back to me and my siblings playing and making our own art supplies after cub scouts.

[@nunyabiznes33]

Is carbonized bones harder to grind into a fine powder compared to wood charcoal?

[@TheExalaber]

Some tips for selecting fully burned pieces of char in the future. They should be relatively small to ensure that they are the same all the way through. They should have an iridescent blue sheen on the surface. They should have a glassy or ceramic sounding chime when dropped on a hard surface. They should stick to your tongue when licked. They should make a clean sharp break when snapped in half.

[@TheExalaber]

A very dark matte black surface would probably also work well because it indicates that the piece is overdone.

[@alexvids9232]

rofl no

[@PurpleHaze2k9]

my best suggestion is to make lamp black as done in antiquity. dirty flame (oil and anoxic burn) and a bowl to make lamp black, it's of 'airfloat' fineness and requires no grinding. Thats whats used to make ink sticks in asiatic areas

[@Pixpaint1]

Try Soot Black using grapeseed oil and peach pits, from what I read the potassium in the grapes and the peach pits makes it suitable for watercolor

[@visionofawallflower]

5:39 ah, beautiful sounds to send to your enemies 😂

[@CulturalEspionage]

I've been collecting coffee grounds (used) to try and carbonise the same way you would with wood, thinking about that though, my bet is, if you start with a fine power of material, clump it together and bring the heat up gradually, it will be more uniform and might be more opaque once mulled with oil or some other binder. but soot is probably better though, I like this video because you go in depth, something I would like to do more. great quality video, always interesting to see other artists processes.

[@TheRealChaosWizard]

i was able to make it as fine as it can be in just 5 to 10 min. i grinded it in mortar but once it was done i was not satisfied with end result so i took it out and added little back to the mortar (key part is to add little by little) and added a bit of acetone in it and started grinding again. acetone evaporates pretty fast but what i was aiming for was some liquid that would help me grind it better. result was really good, now i just need to decide how to use it. charcoal had many uses back in the day and as i am trying to go this path, it might come quite handy some day

[@WolfgangSchweizer]

just an idea: you coul try using Shisha charcoal or charcoal for burning church incense as long as it contains no additives. I tried beechwood grilling charcoal. Was not as hard to grind as the one in your video, but still not very easy to do, even in a granite mortar. It was a bit brownish also.

[@bjmaguire6269]

Thank you so much! I appreciate learning with you on your videos. I was impressed with you using the hot water to help sort out the courser particles. I've heard hardwood charcoal can be difficult to work with because of its' density, though the density might help give better coverage. Alder and Willow might be easier with their lower density. Have you considered getting or making a ball mill? It is supposed to crush powder particles into platelets which improves mixability apperently.

[@paintaway2349]

hi great content !!! I've once thought of scraping the naturally derived pigment material on a coarse surface (a big rock, a brick, a sandpaper) so to avoid the first rough grindings which are messy and sound really loud, although I haven't given it a try myself, but it would be a piece of cake with this soft charcoal chunk, it would be like sharpening your charcoal drawing stick but collecting the charcoal powder rather than throwing it away ...... its like drawing with pastels but collecting their powder from the paper.....it came to my mind once when I utilized a red stone to "draw" on a big rock, I observed and thought why not scrub it until you get your first pigment powder which you can later grind finer and clean it, it would be much more comfortable. So you might want to give it a try. I will of course when I'll find some space to do so. With charcoal chunk one could do it indoors, but maybe it could even happen indoors with rocks, using different sandpaper grits (but the again its the issue of breathing dust, although you could wet the whole process with water, just like wet sanding)..... Anyway that's my thought !!!

[@sean...]

Very nice. The blackest oil paint I've made was with Black Iron Oxide.

[@chrisvighagen]

I really liked the warm redbrown black you got out of it! Out of curiosity, why not run the rough charcoal in a blender with some water or run it through an old coffegrinder to get finer particles to start with?

[@annakingsley1728]

I was going to ask the same. I got a used coffee grinder and use it to pulverize rock ( after I’ve crushed with hammer or morter and pestle ) It’s worked well for me. Very small yields tho after sifting and levitating

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

Yes that would be easier but I am sucker for painful hand work

[@magnuswootton6181]

you can use cuprite for black too!

[@aeirlynjensen]

Greetings, sir! Could you please make a video focusing on oak galls and how is iron oak gall ink made? Making the ink myself is in my plans, but there is not much information of how it is done properly. I've read through treatises focusing on this, and I think it should be done the Alchemical way because I admire Alchemy and its part in the natural philosophy.

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

I am actually picking up some oak galls later this week, so hopefully soon after I have had a play around with them.

[@aeirlynjensen]

@@TheAlchemicalArts thank you so much. Is there already a harvest of them in spring? I thought it will be in autumn

[@softandcosy]

i wonder how it would look as a watercolour :o wish you swatched the paint out after!

[@sketchbookscheming]

Interesting! I just made some homemade charcoal to sketch with. I think my next step is to try to make some oil paint.

[@flashmp3]

Have you managed?

[@sketchbookscheming]

@@flashmp3 Not yet! Still on my "someday" list, although your comment might just be the thing to motivate me 😃

[@flashmp3]

@@sketchbookscheming i tried it and love it! I encourage you ❤️

[@axeech]

Treasure of my subscriptions🖤

[@phillipstroll7385]

That looks more like vandyke brown than black. Looked okay in the end

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

Thankfully I really like Vandyke brown.

[@jayempress4203]

Meat grinder? Electric blender?

[@rajarsugumar3448]

Very nice, thank you for sharing

[@juanaguiar4852]

Could you show a way to do a white pigment?

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

I will at some stage in the future

[@nunyabiznes33]

Why not just use lampblack? Also an unrelated question, can pigments be made out of clay? Clay like, the one used for pottery.

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

I will be making lamp black in the future. No clay doesn't really work as a pigment.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@TheAlchemicalArts okay ty. I thought it's possible. Saw some dude usw mud, I guess that would just chip off.

[@sebastiaantheartartist]

I have made charcoal oil paint. It seems like it still gives of black after it has dried. It doesn't seem very stable in oil and it fluctuate quick. How to I keep the pigment dispersed in the oil for longer. And how to keep it giving off black after it dried?. Love your channel.

[@gavinjenkins899]

It's not as "cool" but honestly a straight up coffee grinder for this one is probably the way to go. Plus also levigation.

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

You're right. I am thinking about getting a stone flour mill for these kinds of grinding tasks.

[@mahmoudelbiltagy5658]

I just found your amazing channel , very useful content ..can you please tell what's the difference between manufacturing of pastel colors and watercolors..what pinders used in both ..I mean the only difference is the percentage of gum Arabic used or there are another components that exist in watercolors and don't exists in pastels ? ,, thank you 🙏

[@iangoldsmith-colouralchrom2912]

As a chemist do you know how many pigments with a blue bias require heat to produce? I’m wondering if there’s a relationship to blue and heat?

[@ianjackson5834]

would you be tempted to add some ultramarine blue pigment to it to make it black?

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

That would make it much nicer for sure.

[@jessemkahn]

that’s a fantastic muller. do you know who made it? i’m trying to find one with that straight grip.

[@bearcatben4762]

Could you try and do a synthesis of violet caput mortuum?

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

I will have a look into it but i suspect it is a name for a natural earth pigment.

[@bearcatben4762]

@@TheAlchemicalArts It is a natural earth pigment but it's like blue verditer in that you need a very certain particle size to make it the right color

[@alexanderjoe1951]

Hi My name is Alexander I am an old photographer who is trying to go back to the good old way on image making. I live in Madagascar and work in Black and white . My plane is to make slat or Gum prints using charcoal dust as a pigment. Please would your way of making pigment work for me. Thanks for your help.

[@0soinspiring694]

hey i have seen many videos on youtube about making dye from purple cabbage but my question is can you make pigment out of it . please answer .

[@ValerieHayes1]

You can make it into a lake pigment through a chemical process involving washing soda.

[@TheAlchemicalArts]

You can make a pigment from the purple dye but it wont be light fast or as bright a colour as the raw cabbage dye looks. If you wish to experiment just add some Alum to the cabbage dye and the use sodium carbonate to precipitate the pigment.

[@ryanembry9875]

Kinda looks like a raw umber

[@harshithad9316]

Greetings from INDIA, Before watching your videos, we're not knowing about pigments extraction by making a lake, that's a very work which I turn triggered us to do work on these pigments. So, if it's possible for you and time permits, we have so many questions regarding the pigments, could you please tell me your contact details ot email address. It will be very helpful for us for future works. Thank you

[@bobbyjoseph7788]

Too much talk plz stick with material their ratio step and order thk other wise good demonstration