I’ll try to write a post, I’m afraid (what’s the “afraid”, I’m sure!) That everything won’t fit into one, like “How it’s done” or “How it works” by analogy with How It’s Made on the Discovery channel. I want to tell you about how color is made, and to be precise, what makes paint colored.
Not about the whole spectrum, of course, but its main colors are red and yellow with all sorts of shades.
Disclaimer. I have conceived this post for quite a long time and the photos were taken just over a year ago. It took some time to write the text itself and its design, then business-concerns distracted me, and only now I am ready to put it on the network.
Some photos may leave much to be desired, but I was not on a tour there, I work there, and thanks to the supervisor who allowed me to take it all. Although the workers looked very suspicious of what I was doing, so I was not able to photograph their soulful faces. :)
In fact, the concept of "color" is something ephemeral, something that our eye sees and characterizes objects as well as their shape and size. But we cannot feel the color, taste it or smell it. Therefore, the result of the production process that I want to talk about is a powder pigment, which, when added to white paint or transparent plastic, will make them colored. For example, here are product samples where our pigments are used. 
Bars familiar to us from childhood watercolor paints- this is actually the same pressed and packaged pigment and it could be a product of our enterprise if we supplied it to retailers.
Our company also produces dye - a dye for clothes from blue to purple. This is the dye that, for example, makes overalls navy blue or purple. And once we still made “blood”, the paint that is used in movies and theatrical productions.
Preparing this post, I realized that I have a little problem with terminology. In English, this all sounds natural, but in Russian - not quite. The word “pigment”, which most accurately characterizes what is obtained at the last stage of production, is a little jarring to me, and even more so the word “color”, familiar to many born in the USSR. Therefore, in addition to “pigment”, I will use the word “paint”, because it doesn’t matter what you get dirty with ink, water-based or oil paint, or, on the contrary, prettier using lipstick, nail polish, eye shadow and blush. After all, this colored paint who left her mark on you.
To be honest, how colored paint is obtained from different powders and liquids, I don’t know, it’s clean water magic chemistry. But the components used are quite diverse: liquid and solid, in barrels and bags, toxic and deadly poisonous, from near and far abroad: caustic soda, hydrochloric and acetic 92% acid (recall that the concentration of vinegar essence that our mothers and grandmothers used to pickling cucumbers, was only 70%) and a lot of other things:
Rosin, which, as I understand it, gives the pigment brightness and shine 
The initial ingredients are poured in a certain proportion into small tanks (tanks), ... 
Where water has already been poured, and mixed. 
If necessary, in order for a chemical reaction to take place, the mixture is heated with steam or cooled with ice. We make ice ourselves in the so-called ice-house, which stands on the roof, and it pours down to the floor, where they make paint, ... 
And then, along a conveyor with screws (as in a meat grinder) and a system of dampers, the ice enters the desired reservoir.
Ice is flakes, not cocktail cubes, as one might think, and it cannot be used in drinks, although it is sometimes desirable, especially in hot weather. 
After that, the components fall into the main tanks, which occupy two floors 
Four tanks are used for yellow paint, two for red, one for clothes dye, and one more for treatment (correction, treatment) of water that remains from the production process to an acceptable pH value so that it can be returned to the city at the sewage treatment plant .
This is a top view of one of the tanks 
And this is from below 
The diameter of the tanks is 3 m, the height is 4.5 m. Let's look inside one of them 
Operators control the whole process using touch-screen (I looked into the dictionary to find out that in Russian it is called “touch screen”). 
Ready liquid pigment... 
Pumps... 
It is pumped into the presses, for each color of paint its own, respectively 
The main purpose of the press is to separate the flies from the cutlets, filter out the actual pigment itself and make something more or less solid out of the liquid, the so-called press-cake.
The press itself consists of hollow plates with holes for pumping paint between them. 
Special filters are put on each plate... 
Which allow you to filter the pigment diluted in the liquid.
As you can see in the photos above, the presses are closed, ie. the entire set of plates is pressed together under pressure. When the paint is pumped inside the press, it is in the cavities between the plates and, in order to “squeeze” it, water is pumped into each plate with a separate pump, inflating the plates so that the liquid leaves through the filters, leaving a pigment cake between the plates, i.e. press cake.
Then the press opens and the turn comes to work with the handles, when the plates are moved apart with the help of a special device and the operator cleans the filters with a long plastic spatula from the obtained “pancakes” of pigment
"Pancakes" fall on the conveyor..., 
And from there to the gas dryer 
Before getting into the actual dryer, the still wet pigment is fed into the hopper, at the bottom of which a perforated grate is installed, ... 
And with rubber rollers it is pressed through the holes ... 
And further along the conveyor to the dryer. I must say that I was lucky that at the time of photographing the bunker was empty and washed, and you can see it all. It's funny to say, but this dryer was once used to make pasta.
And this is the bunker in the process of work and the paint in it is already of a different shade 
One of the gas burners 
The flame of the burners is regulated in accordance with the required moisture content of the finished product, usually not more than 2%, and is checked automatically at the outlet of the dryer.
These are the paint granules after the dryer.
When orders are received for paints of other shades, slightly different from the main ones, all equipment is washed: tanks - with almost boiling water of a solution of caustic soda, presses and dryers - simply with water from hoses under high pressure.
For small volumes of pigment, in order to avoid the rather lengthy and costly procedure for washing the main equipment, small dryers are used, where the raw pigment is dried with hot steam, as in a sauna. 
To do this, wet pigment, which came out from under the press, with an ordinary shovel, (yes, yes, the 21st century and all with handles) ... 
It is laid on baking sheets, which are transported in packs inside the dryers. 
To be continued
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If you, as a responsible and caring parent, want happy childhood your child - add more bright colors to it. And start the comprehensive development of your child, study science from the cradle, read useful books, walk and travel. On the pages Merry Science you will find a lot useful information.
And today I will tell you how to make safe ECO paints for your child at home. I assure you that the paints according to my recipes are no worse than branded, expensive counterparts. And do not even doubt the safety and environmental friendliness: the basis is only natural ingredients that you can buy in your favorite store. Well, are you ready, then meet.
The largest selection of homemade ECO paint recipes for your child
How to make finger paint for your child in 10 minutes
And let's talk, for starters, about paints for the smallest - FINGER
Prepare at home safe and bright colors simply.
Save the recipe so you don't lose it.
DIY bathroom paint recipe
Paints for drawing in the bathroom today are decently expensive and not everyone can afford. And from paintings painted with paints, for example, of Chinese origin, you will have to get rid of for a long time and purchase expensive cleaning products for this. So, if your child loves to paint in the bathroom, I invite you to write down a simple recipe and make DIY paints with your own hands.
For thicker paints that your child can use with their fingers instead of a brush, put all the ingredients except the dyes into a saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat and turn off immediately. Such paints do not spread.
How to make volumetric paints for children (Puffy Paints) with your own hands
Have you already painted with Puffy Paints with your child? I hope you and your child enjoyed this intumescent paint. If you still don’t know how to make these push-up paints from simple ingredients and delight everyone interesting drawings… Welcome to my mini master class.
To draw with these paints will turn out only with cotton swabs. And this is a new, unique experience. Draw and color large coloring pages. And in order for the colors to rise, send your work of art for 30 seconds in a microwave oven at power. Or 2 minutes in the oven. Set the temperature controller to 180 degrees. Be careful, make sure that the sheet does not turn over and the paint warms up on all sides and swells well. And after a couple of minutes after cooling, the paints will become solid, voluminous and will not crack.
Let me tell you how to make do-it-yourself body art paints
An interesting, bright, exciting and mega creative activity for your children for even five minutes is body art. Don't be surprised big eyes, they say "HOW?" Easy, fun and creative, friends. Children love to draw. And they will like to paint themselves no less. Believe me. And better at the first opportunity, give your child the opportunity to rejoice, indulge and have fun from the heart. And now I will tell you a simple recipe for a miracle of paints for drawing on the body. I advise you to draw with them when you play in the children's pool or in the bathroom. Great for kids body art.
Our readers will likely notice that this recipe looks like a non-Newtonian fluid. Maybe, but we will apply paint on the body, so get ready for color mixing.
For kneading, you can use any convenient container with a wide neck. And for the brightest game, a drawer is perfect, paints from which you can scoop with a cotton swab or brush.
They are easy to wash off, thanks to the baby shampoo and the skin does not dry out, because the composition of the paints contains a baby cream. The child will like to wash himself and wash the bathroom after a mass mud.
A simple recipe on how to make stained glass paints with your own hands
Allowing children to show imagination and paint on glass is possible not only on New Year. And in general, you can paint with stained glass paints on any glass surface and even on transparent files. And it is absolutely not necessary to buy expensive kits, because you can make paints yourself, at home.
Glitter gives a special piquancy to paints. You know, the ones they use for manicures. Paints can also be drawn on a stencil. And if you draw on a file, then after complete drying, peel off the drawing from the file and glue the stained glass on any smooth surface- glass, mirror, tile, etc.
For fans of large-scale projects, I have a special offer: to make gel paints for drawing at home.
Making these paints will not give you trouble and will not take much time. Just prepare larger containers. Because it will be possible to draw on huge Whatman paper. For painting in the bathroom, these paints are also suitable, and it will be easy to wash them off. But first, paints need to be made. This is what we will do with you now.
How do you like this color option for super-scale drawing? It is so popular with us. You can add glitter and put glitter in the gel paints. Such as use the masters of nail design. Drawing begins with a finger, then the palms come into play, and then multi-colored heels sparkle on whatman paper. But our journey into the fascinating world of colors does not end there. And I made the best for last.
Do you want to write down the recipe for yogurt finger paints in your piggy bank?
The most difficult and interesting thing about this recipe is that there are no exact proportions. And these paints are the simplest, natural and safe. They are made quickly, easily and simply.
These colors are great for early development. And the drawings, of course, will be real masterpieces.
What is the use of colors? They help develop:
- fine motor skills,
- hand coordination,
- dexterity and strength of fingers,
- color perception,
- imagination,
- speech.
They also help your child develop:
- artistic taste,
- creative thinking,
- independence.
Merry Science wishes you exciting creative activities with your child. work out various techniques drawing, teach your child to mix colors, distinguish between shades and calmly create your first artistic masterpieces.
It is now impossible to say exactly when a person first used paint. Initially, the choice of colors was very small, because our distant ancestors had to use only what they could find in nature. Coal and chalk, yellow and red clay - this, perhaps, is the entire color palette of ancient artists. We are much more fortunate in this regard. A huge number of paints of various colors and shades, made on a different basis, can be found on the shelves of modern stores. Let's talk in more detail about what substances underlie the production of all paints.
What and how paints are made from
Despite their great variety, all paints are made according to the same principle. The basis of their production is mixing in certain proportions of the three main components - pigment, solvent and binder.
The basis of each finished paint is a pigment. This is the substance on which the color of the coating obtained after applying paint to the surface to be painted depends. The binders in paints are usually adhesives of vegetable or animal origin, or polymer resins. They are found in paints in emulsified or dissolved form, and when the solvent dries, they harden and form a solid film that firmly holds the coloring pigment.
The solvent is necessary to give the paint a liquid form, since in this form it is much easier to apply it to the surface to be painted. Oil, alcohol, acetone, water or complex hydrocarbons are used as such a solvent. What kind of paints are not made in our time: watercolor and gouache, oil, acrylic, enamel paints, hair dyes and fabric paints - you can list their types for a very long time. Let's talk briefly about how the most common of them are made.
Watercolor paints
Watercolor paints are produced mainly on the basis of mineral pigments with the use of any vegetable glue as a binder - dextrin, gum arabic, cherry glue. Sometimes they are replaced with glue of animal origin - fish glue or gelatin. In watercolors highest quality natural honey is added.
As a preservative for all organic matter Phenol is added to watercolors. The pigment is crushed to a state of powder, mixed with the rest of the components, a little water is added, and paint briquettes are formed from the resulting “dough”, which, after drying, are laid out in boxes.
Oil paints
Oil paints are obtained by mixing ground inorganic pigments with synthetic or combined drying oil. Such paints are suitable for painting metal and wood. Oil paints for artists are kneaded in refined linseed oil and applied to a primed canvas.
Pigment production
Let's talk about how pigments are obtained, on the basis of which all paints are produced. All pigments, depending on their origin, can be divided into two main groups - mineral and biological, obtained from living organisms.
mineral pigments
Mineral pigments primarily include: titanium and zinc white, lead and iron minium, ocher, soot, umber, ultramarine and Prussian blue.
- Titanium white, according to its chemical formula, is titanium dioxide, they are produced from ilmenite, a natural mineral containing titanium.
- Soot is obtained by incomplete combustion of ordinary natural gas in special burners.
- Minium iron, also known as iron oxide, is obtained by calcining iron salts in oxygen.
- Umbra is made from clay dyed Brown color salts of manganese and iron.
- Ochre is a natural coloring pigment, mainly consisting of a mixture of iron oxide hydrate and clay.
biological pigments
The group of biological dyes includes carmine, saffron, indigo and alizarin.
- Alizarin has a very bright orange-red color. Get it from the roots of madder dye.
- Saffron is an orange dye produced from the pollen of saffron flowers. Due to its high cost, saffron is used exclusively in the food industry, for coloring confectionery.
- Indigo is perhaps the most famous dye of natural origin. Now they have learned how to synthesize it artificially, while earlier indigo was extracted from the leaves of indigo - a plant that grows in India. A dye derived from indigo was used to dye denim in a rich blue color.
- Carmine is an extract obtained from a powder made from dried female cochineals, small insects that live on cacti. Previously, carmine was used to dye woolen fabrics red, but now it is most often used in the food industry.
In the world there are a variety of types of paints, for the most different types activities. For example, there are paints that are used in construction work, there are paints used in industry. But there are paints that are designed for artistic work. First of all, it is, of course, paints for painting. But there are other types of creativity. For example, batik. Batik is art painting on fabric, where special dyes are used. You can also mention enamels for painting porcelain, pottery, etc.
As you can see, there are really many varieties of colors. But with all the diversity, most paints have one feature in common. Any paints (except powder) consist of pigment and binder. A pigment is a coloring matter in the form of a powder, which is the basis of any paint. A binder is an adhesive that holds microscopic pigment particles together and to the base on which the paint is applied. In addition to the binder and pigment, of course, other substances can be added to paints, for example, an antiseptic. The antiseptic prevents the development of mold and bacteria in the paint layer. However, pigment and binder are the main components of paints.
The name and type of paint may depend on what substances act in their role. This is especially true for art paints. Coloring pigments are of two main types: pigments of natural origin and synthetic. Among the natural, there are pigments that are obtained from plants, insects, marine mollusks, natural minerals, various kinds clay, etc. For example, ultramarine (blue color) used to be made from a natural mineral - lapis lazuli or lapis lazuli. And the burgundy pigment was obtained from sea mollusks even before our era. This dye is called purple. In the past, it was used to dye fabrics that were very expensive due to the high cost of the Tyrian purple itself. Today, in addition to natural pigments, artificial ones are also used in the production of paints. As for binders, they can also be both natural and artificial. For example, acrylic paints are made on the basis of polyacrylates, and art oil paint for painting is made on the basis of vegetable oil.
AT fine arts artists use five main types of artistic paints: watercolor, gouache, oil, tempera and acrylic.
Watercolor paints. The composition of the binder of watercolor paints includes two main components - dextrin and gum arabic (resin of the Senegalese acacia). Ox bile is also added to watercolor, which improves the bond of paint to paper. Honey can also be added to the watercolor, which enhances the saturation of the color and gives the paint plasticity. In the manufacture of watercolors, when all the ingredients are mixed, the resulting viscous mass is ground and dried until it is hard enough for the paint to be packaged. In painting, artists dilute watercolor with water, working with a translucent solution. Therefore, watercolor paints must be transparent. For this purpose, finely ground pigment is used in their composition, i.e., very small particles of coloring powder and more binder.
Gouache paints. The composition of gouache paints is similar to the composition of watercolors. This is a coloring pigment, gum arabic, dextrin, gum, ox bile, antiseptic. But gouache is an opaque paint that falls on paper with pasty strokes. Therefore, in addition to the main coloring pigment, a small amount of white is added to the paint. This makes gouache opaque, i.e., gives it opaque properties. Also, for this purpose, less binder and more pigment are added to gouache.
Oil paints. For gluing pigment particles in oil paints, a binder based on compacted oil (for example, linseed, walnut, etc.), soft resins (mastic, dammar), and beeswax is used.
Tempera paints. Binder tempera paints is an emulsion, i.e. a mixture of substances insoluble with each other. Hence the name "Tempera" (from the Latin temperare, which means "to connect" or "to mix"). There are four main types of tempera paints: casein-oil, egg, wax-oil, polyvinyl acetate. From these names it is clear what the binder of each type of tempera paint consists of. It can be casein, butter, egg yolk, wax, PVA. But if oil or egg yolk are well-known components of paints, then not everyone knows about casein. Casein is a glue that is obtained from milk, or rather from cottage cheese. Casein glue is used in combination with oil in the manufacture of casein oil tempera.
Acrylic paints. The pigment of these paints is mixed with a polyacrylate binder. This binder is not natural, but is created artificially. Acrylic paints have appeared relatively recently and have a number of interesting features.
Here is the composition of paints. So when you pick up your brushes and start creating, remember what a difficult path each tube of paint went through before being on your palette.
annotation
The history of colors probably began with the advent of man. Primitive drawings made with charcoal and sanguine (clay) have survived to our time. The cave dwellers painted on the stones what surrounded them: running animals and hunters with spears. Medieval artists also prepared their own paints by mixing pigment powders and fats. Such paints could not be stored for more than one day, as they oxidized and hardened when exposed to air.
For 3 years I have been painting at the art studio with different colors: watercolor, gouache, oil paints, pastels. These paints can be bought at any store. stationery. And contemporary artists that's how they do it. But a long time ago, when there were no shops and paints were not made in factories, where did the artists get their paints? Currently, paints are made from chemical elements. Is it possible to make environmentally friendly paints?
Purpose of the study:
Find out what substances paints consist of, determine the advantages and disadvantages of “home-made” paints.
Research objectives:
1. Familiarize yourself with popular science, educational literature and periodicals on the research topic;
2. Study what substances paints consist of.
3. Conduct an experiment: make your own paints at home.
4. Compare paints made at home and bought in a store.
5. Draw a picture from the received paints.
Hypothesis: I assume that the paints can be made independently at home, but they will be different from the store ones.
THEORETICAL PART
Composition of paints
Paint is a material used to impart color.
Paints are made up of a pigment and a binder.
The pigment is a dry dye.
The world around us is colorful.
Ancient artists looked for material for paints right under their feet. From red and yellow clay, finely rubbed, you can get a red and yellow dye, or, as the artists say, a pigment. Pigment black gives coal, white - chalk, azure - blue or green gives malachite and lapis lazuli. Metal oxides also give a green pigment.
First blue paint from lapis lazuli was sold 1 kg for 600 francs. Paints from natural pigments were not only of various shades, but also of amazing durability. The Pskov icon of Dmitry Solu has survived to our time. This icon is over 600 years old and is still in good condition. The Pskov master himself made these paints. Still known: Pskov greens, red cinnabar and yellow Pskov.
Currently, almost all paints are made in laboratories and factories from chemical elements. Therefore, some paints are even poisonous, for example, red cinnabar from mercury. purple paint can be made from peach pits or grape skins.
Dry dye cannot stick to the canvas, so you need a binder that sticks together, binds particles of dry dye into a single colored paint-mass. Artists took what was at hand: oil, honey, egg, glue, wax. How closer friend to the other particles of pigment, the thicker the paint. The density of the paint can be determined by looking at how a drop of honey, an egg, spreads on a long-drying drop of oil, which does not even combine with water, and leaves a greasy mark when it dries.
Different binders give different paints with different names.
Glue is part of the watercolor and gouache. Watercolor is a light, translucent paint that requires dilution with water. The name itself says it.
Oil is included oil paints, they are the most durable and fall on paper with bold strokes. They are stored in tubes and diluted with a solvent, kerosene or turpentine.
One of the ancient painting techniques is tempera. These are egg paints, sometimes referred to as "egg paints". More than two thousand years ago, tempera was obtained by mixing pigment with egg yolk, and eight hundred or five hundred years ago with egg white, to which fig juice, honey, or other substances unknown to us were added at the same time.
There was another paint, very resistant, but the recipe for its preparation has been lost. This is encaustic - paint mixed with wax. Figure 1 shows the Fayum portrait. This painting is about two thousand years old, it was found in a grave, we see an expressive and bright look.
At present, it has not been possible to prepare a wax-based paint.
So, I found out that paints consist of a pigment and a binder.
The process of making paints.
After analyzing the literature and articles on the Internet, it is possible to describe how paints are prepared. First, they look for raw materials. It can be coal, chalk, clay, lapis lazuli, malachite. Raw materials must be cleaned of foreign impurities. The materials must then be ground to a powder.
Coal, chalk and clay can be ground at home, but malachite and lapis lazuli are very hard stones, special tools are needed to grind them. Ancient artists ground the powder in a mortar with a pestle. The resulting powder is the pigment.
Then the pigment must be mixed with a binder. As a binder, you can use: egg, oil, water, wax, glue, honey. The paint must be mixed well so that there are no lumps. The resulting paint can be used for painting.
After finding out the composition of paints, learning about the process of making paints, I realized that I could make some paints myself.
PRACTICAL PART
Description of experiments
To conduct experiments, I had to get natural pigments and binders. At my disposal were clay, chalk and coal. I made a plan of three experiments.
Experiment plan 1
1. Purify coal from impurities.
2. Grind coal into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix coal with water.
Experiment plan 2
1. Clean the clay from impurities.
2. Grind clay into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix clay with oil.
Experiment Plan 3
1. Clean the chalk from impurities.
2. Grind the chalk into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix the chalk with the egg.
All experiments were successful, and I received black, brown and white paint. I drew a picture with brown paint.
After conducting these experiments, I wanted to try other raw materials, so I conducted a few more experiments. I mixed each type of raw material with water, oil and egg, resulting in paints of different colors and consistency.
Experimental results
Now I know what paints are made of. You can prepare some paints at home.
The resulting paints differed in consistency and quality:
Charcoal with water gave the paint a metallic hue, it was easy to pick up on a brush and left a bright mark on the paper, it dried quickly
Clay with oil gave a dirty brown paint, did not mix well with oil, was difficult to pick up on a brush, left a greasy mark on paper and dried for a long time.
Chalk with an egg gave white paint, which was easily picked up on a brush, left a thick mark on paper, dried for a long time, but turned out to be the most durable
The results of other experiments can be seen in the table.
The resulting paints have advantages and disadvantages: environmentally friendly, free, have natural colors, but are labor intensive, there are no bright colors and they are inconvenient to store.
In addition, I drew a drawing with my own paints.
So, to prepare the paint, you need to mix the pigment (chalk, coal, clay, malachite, lapis lazuli) with a binder (oil, egg, water).
findings
* The history of colors began with the advent of man.
* Paints for drawing consist of a pigment and a binder.
* Initially, earth, clay, coal, chalk, malachite, lapis lazuli were used as pigments.
* Eggs, oil, water, wax were used as a binder.
* Now paints are made in laboratories and factories from chemical elements.
* During the experiments, I managed to get paints of different colors and shades, draw a picture.
Supervisor: Tarasova Natalia Gennadievna
MOU “Initial comprehensive school №5”
Russia, Nefteyugansk