To lose weight due to subcutaneous fat, and not due to water and muscles, you need to eat right and exercise. It is important to understand that fat loss is a long process that requires discipline and consistency. And no matter how much we want to lose weight quickly, it will not be possible to deceive the body, and harming ourselves is easy. So let's burn subcutaneous fat wisely!

Many people do the first and very important thing - they greatly reduce their diet and switch to a low-calorie diet of 500-1000 kilocalories. At the same time, they still manage to carry out.

Thus, the components of physical activity for fat burning will be:

• to prevent loss of muscle mass;
• to improve aerobic endurance and fat burning;
• to increase calorie consumption.

A series of exercises on simulators, or with a kettlebell, for which the body takes energy from working muscles without the participation of oxygen. This is well-known strength training in gym, where, after completing the approach, you rest, and then return to the exercise.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adults should do moderate-intensity strength training at least twice a week.

It is optimal to do 3-4 workouts per week. Beginners can start with two workouts, and increase their number as they get more practiced.

Such workouts can be performed on or with your own body weight. Aerobics includes running, walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, and a range of group activities.

According to the WHO, adults need to do 300 minutes of aerobic exercise a week. And according to the American College of Sports Medicine, weight loss requires 225 to 420 minutes of aerobic exercise per week. The minimum amount of cardio per week is 150 minutes.

Aerobic training can be done after strength training - 20-30 minutes, and on a separate day - 40-60 minutes.

This is the activity that will allow you to spend more calories -, housework,. People who lead a sedentary lifestyle will greatly benefit from short 10-minute breaks for simple exercises during the work day.

1. Do strength exercises 3 times a week;
2. Work out the muscles of the whole body in training;
3. Do aerobics after strength training and / or on separate days, but leave 1-2 days a week for a complete rest from training;
4. Add cardio to the indicated norms gradually. This way you will maintain a little training stress, which will allow your body to burn more calories;
5. Your body gets used to the loads, so strive to surpass yourself in every workout;
6. The duration of strength training should not exceed 60 minutes. After the first hour of classes, its effectiveness decreases, concentration of attention worsens, the risk of injury increases;
7. Always control your exercise technique. Proper technique is much more important than weight on the bar and movement speed.

The weight loss industry is rife with pseudo-scientific revelations revealing “facts” about how to get rid of excess weight.

We have already considered the assumption that training on an empty stomach helps to lose weight. We also recently talked about losing weight traps. Now I wanted to discuss another popular opinion: you need to run (or do any other cyclic aerobic training) for more than 30 minutes, because it is only at the 20th minute that fat begins to burn.

The desire to discuss this point arose when preparing material for an article on marathon races and how6 how to provide yourself with “fuel” for long-term physical activity.

So, let's repeat the wording of the myth: "To burn fat, you need to run for more than 30 minutes, because only at the 20th minute the body's glycogen stores are depleted and subcutaneous fat begins to be used as fuel."

First - a little about fuel. When we eat any carbohydrates, whether for a long time or not, they are converted into glucose, which is supplied with the blood stream to the liver and muscles, and there it is stored in the form of glycogen for energy stores. Glycogen is the primary source of energy for muscle contraction and for maintaining the body's own activities. Glycogen is easily converted into ATP energy molecules both in the presence of air and in the absence of it. For us, this means that glycogen provides energy for both strength training and long-term aerobic training.

Subcutaneous fat is also used as a fuel, but only as a result of oxidation, that is, in the presence of oxygen, that is, with a power load, it cannot be used directly as an energy source.

Since it is easier for the body to use glycogen than to oxidize fat for energy, it is consumed first. Hence the myth: you must first use up ALL the glycogen, and then the fat will start to burn, and this will happen about 20 minutes after the start of aerobic training ...

Sounds logical, no matter how few facts about our physiology.

Let's start with the most “disappointing”: using all the glycogen is not so easy and the matter is not limited to 20 minutes.

An average adult with a complete diet accumulates about 500 grams of glycogen, which gives about 2000 kcal, an athlete can accumulate about 1200 grams of glycogen, which corresponds to 4800 kcal. For 20 minutes of jogging, you can spend, well, maybe 100-200 kcal. It is clear that you will not be able to use up all the glycogen soon, especially if your diet contains an order of carbohydrates.

But even if we assume that running for three hours a day is not a question for you, you still need to deal with the actual burning of fat. As a fuel, not directly subcutaneous fat is used, but droplets of fat located in the muscles. In order for fat droplets to be transferred to the muscles for energy synthesis, it is necessary ... all the same glycogen, because this process is quite labor-intensive. It turns out that when glycogen stores are depleted, fat will generally cease to be consumed.

Nature arranged us so that we could use energy reserves as efficiently as possible.

If there is enough oxygen in the muscles, as is the case with aerobic training (read - running and the like), then the use of glycogen will occur along with the use of fat, unfortunately for many - in fairly small quantities.

Get the same benefits of aerobic exercise in the form of developing endurance and improving the cardiovascular and respiratory systems is not difficult: about 20 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic training per day is enough.

How to make the body burn fat, not muscle. Cardio workout - The best way for burning fat, but if not done correctly, not only fat, but also muscles will burn. Below you will learn how to burn fat, not muscle, with cardio. How to burn fat and not lose muscle - what you need to know Most people trying to lose weight use stupid diets and exercise systems that do not allow you to burn fat and maintain muscle. This makes them look worse, after which all the fat comes back in a larger volume. Strengthened cardio exercises with the use of special supplements really protect your muscles. The only way. There will be no effect without drugs. If you're doing cardio to burn fat, use 45-60 minute easy workouts or 15 minute hard workouts. Ignoring carbs between workouts or in the post-workout period is the worst thing you can do to your body. “Cardio does not burn fat. Muscle burns fat” - John Meadows How to make the body burn fat, not muscle Every time people start losing weight, they start doing all kinds of stupid activities that completely prevent muscle growth. They lose weight at the expense of both fat and muscle mass. Thus, they get rid of not only fullness, but also the harmony and smartness of their own body. They are not just becoming slimmer, they are proportionally decreasing, without improving their body qualitatively. Their body begins to take up less "space", the scale says that the weight is really coming off, and the doctors are congratulated for their success in achieving a "healthy" weight. And in fact, in most cases, such people do not look better. This is exactly the moment that no one pays attention to. Maintaining muscle mass should be your top priority when losing weight. Loss in muscle mass is unacceptable. Muscle loss threatens unaesthetic appearance after losing weight and, moreover, the lack of developed muscles will interfere with further loss of fat mass, because it is the muscles that are responsible for burning fat. 5 kilos of muscle burns 50 kcal every day, even if you are at rest. So, having lost 5 kilograms of muscle, you will easily lose the opportunity to get rid of the daily 50 kcal per day and 350 kcal per week. If the goal is really important to you, then even such a small loss can affect the result. There is also the issue of insulin sensitivity. If you have developed muscles, then your insulin sensitivity will be smoothed out thanks to the muscles. Developed muscles have more insulin receptors - it is the muscles that are most sensitive to insulin. That is, everything you eat will be processed in the muscles and can no longer be stored in fat. The more muscle mass you have, the more intensely you can train, the more calories you will destroy during training. From this it becomes clear that during the diet it is imperative to take care of the state of the muscle mass, this is vital! Next, we will look at the most typical mistakes those who are trying to lose weight. 1. Heavy Cardio This is exactly what everyone starts with in the morning and was popular in the early days of bodybuilding around the world. And it only works if you use performance-enhancing drugs for your body. Such drugs help maintain muscle mass and help in getting rid of fat. But for someone who denies such drugs, enhanced cardio is a direct path to muscle loss. First of all, cortisol levels are elevated in the morning (the supply of cortisol is exactly what gives your body the strength to wake up in the morning and start the working day with energy). If you don't eat, your cortisol levels may even rise slightly. And if you also start cardio training, then the level of cortisol will simply skyrocket. And this is a direct path to muscle loss. In addition, after such a workout on an empty stomach, you will get such a steady level of cortisol that it will be very difficult to lower it during the day (especially in a state of calorie deficit while dieting). Thus, all day you will lose muscle. It's not that I'm for or against cardio. For some, it's a way to get super slim. But for most, this method does not work. Well, to everything else, enhanced cardio exercises only worsen the situation. The ideal period for really effective cardio training is the post-absorption state. This is when you don't feel hungry, but not when you're digesting the food you've just eaten. This is the period of time when nutrients are in the bloodstream, which triggers the processes of fat breakdown and calorie burning. Think for yourself, if you do cardio on an empty stomach, then the breakdown of fat over the next 24 hours will be at an extremely low level. This is due to the fact that the metabolism during the day is kept at a high level - this causes fatigue during the day, especially if you are on a diet. The level of activity during the day instinctively decreases. Increased cardio loads provoke catabolic processes in muscle mass. Cardio on a full stomach is also far from the best. best idea. This leads to a slowdown in the process of splitting fats and increases the oxidation of glucose, not to mention the fact that the majority of people find it difficult to cope with energetic loads in the process of digestion. Best time for cardio loads, this is the period when the body completely absorbs nutrients before the start of exercise. Unfortunately, with solid food, the process of digestion is delayed for a much longer period. And each person digests solid food in their own way, depending on weight, age, type of food and time of day. This is where liquid nutritional supplements and medications come to the rescue. You can drink them and immediately start cardio loads, without thinking about the negative effects and getting the maximum positive result from cardio loads. Such drugs also increase the level of metabolism in the body, helping to become slimmer and improve the quality of results. One serving of such a cocktail 20 minutes before the start of the workout will be enough. Bottom line: we avoid increased cardio loads if you want to get rid of fat and not lose muscle. The only harmonious way is to use liquid nutritional supplements to maintain muscle tone. The effect of such a drug will continue for the next 24 hours and after training. 2. Using light weights for more sets In order not to lose muscle mass, you must constantly maintain or constantly increase your level of strength. If you manage to hold more and more weight, then you really manage to force your body to maintain its power. Your body will see a vital need for increased power if you regularly push it to deal with more and more difficulties. As soon as you reduce the weight you lift, the body will immediately feel that there is no special meaning develop further and gradually begin to reduce muscle mass. Muscles just need tons of calories to feed them. Mistake number two - increasing the number of repetitions in one set. Many believe that this will make the muscles more defined. True, they do not know that with such an approach it is basically impossible. To get more defined muscles, you must first get rid of fat while maintaining muscle tone. Therefore, the less weight lifted, the less benefit it brings to the muscles. Of course, you will lose calories by increasing the number of repetitions, but this approach only focuses on fat loss, and not on the development of muscle mass. Increasing the number of repetitions in an exercise is justified only if you have just trained thoroughly with a heavy weight. However, at the same time, you can slightly reduce muscle mass - when you change the weight of the projectile from heavy to light in exercises, you significantly weaken the recovery process. And with reduced calorie intake, in addition, muscle recovery does not work as it should. Regression during training leads to regression in muscle development. Moral of the story? During the diet, it is worth maintaining a diet that will support the growth of your muscles. And stop "pulling" light loads. Focus on the tedious but rewarding process of pumping up the good old fashioned way, increasing and increasing the weight. 3. Moderate intensity, monotonous, non-developing cardio loads If you nevertheless entered cardio exercises into your weight loss schedule, then you have two radically opposite options: low load (walking) or serious, intense load (sprints, interval cardio training) . The first type of exercise that most people like to use when losing weight causes a spike in cortisol levels in the blood. This type of activity only stimulates the release of cortisol and keeps it at this level for a whole day. Low-intensity cardio - an hour-long walk in the park or something like that - won't be intense enough to stimulate cortisol production, so it doesn't even count. Such walks have a relaxing effect, in which cortisol levels do not rise and even fall slightly. High-intensity cardio can lead to an "explosion" of cortisol in the blood. But even if the intense load is not high in duration, then there will be no such effect. The bottom line is that either 45-60 minute light workouts are ideal, or high-intensity workouts lasting 15 minutes or less. That's the advantage of adding weight when doing exercises - five minutes and an intense exercise is completed! This activity will even help build some muscle! 4. Abrupt start and abrupt end. Losing fat and changing your body are emotional matters. After all, we want to have the body of our dreams and we want it right now! This kind of thinking leads to our fourth mistake: starting too abruptly. I have seen many people start their diet with less than 50 grams of carbs and fat per day at 1200 calories per day. Add to this, 90 minutes of cardio loads a day (and sometimes all 120) with a certain training system in the gym. Here is the “ideal” fat burning formula. Just wonderful! But how long can anyone even stand this? More importantly, how long does it take for your body to adapt? My experience is that the body will adapt to this level of deprivation and activity level for 4 to 6 weeks, and eventually fat loss will still come to a screeching halt… So what if you can endure all this for 4-6 weeks ! You will feel overwhelmed and tormented by unbearable hunger pangs with zero energy for work and normal life. In addition, there is a loss of muscle mass. With this approach, how to restore the process of fat loss? There is absolutely nothing to cut out of the diet, and no matter how much you exercise, you will not be able to complicate the exercises, simply because you will not have enough energy for this. With this approach, you can say that you are doomed. You will still lose some fat, but progress will be so slow that no other way to achieve this goal will help you. Avoid any "busting" from the very beginning. Do not go too far - use diets and a cardio system of exercises so that the fat leaves at an acceptable rate, and so that you have enough strength for training. You need to increase your strength daily. The more conservative you are in your approach to weight loss, the more problems you will have the moment the fat stops coming off. 5. Increasing training and increasing the amount of exercise When someone wants to get lean muscles, he naturally saturates his workout as much as possible with all possible exercises. As if this makes it possible to “polish” the muscles, working on it from all conceivable and inconceivable sides and angles. But, keep one thing in mind - you can't shape the muscles. Muscles get either bigger or smaller. So do not rush right off the bat - try to better develop a competent strategy. Will the muscles increase with the addition of new exercises? The answer is yes. True, provided that your body has an OVERSUFFIX of calories, and not a DEFICIENCY of calories. Calories are needed to constantly maintain muscle growth. If you are not a supporter of all kinds of stimulant drugs, then sitting on a strict diet, you are unlikely to be able to “polish” and increase your muscle mass in volume. More exercise will require more fuel. And after exercise, a person with a low-calorie diet will have problems with post-workout recovery. All this makes it difficult to maintain muscle mass. Many argue that after enhanced various exercises, their muscles look larger and more prominent. Only now they don’t realize that this “effect” is caused by swelling from the inflammatory process of muscle tissues, and by the next trip to the gym, that peak moment may come when you simply cannot take more weight or just fully complete the planned exercise. If, again, he adds diet and calorie restriction to this, then the muscles will simply have nowhere to take energy from for recovery. So, your weight loss process comes to a standstill again. 6. Getting rid of nutritional carbohydrate supplements This is probably the most common problem. Even I fell for it at the time! For a long time, carbohydrates were considered the cause of difficulties in losing weight, especially during the crazy fashion for a carbohydrate-free diet. But among all the carbohydrate-phobes, I was probably the most important. I just didn't eat any carbs before, during, or after my workout. Carbohydrate products, as well as sports carbohydrate food supplements and cocktails contain a huge amount of peptides and mineral natural substances that preserve or even increase muscle mass. Even during a diet, do not neglect carbohydrates. If, while dieting, you completely abandon carbohydrates, then fat loss is, of course, guaranteed to you. But you can forget about the restoration and formation of beautiful muscles in the post-workout period. Don't be afraid to eat carbs after your workout. They will not be postponed anywhere and will not worsen your weight loss statistics. They will only enhance fat loss, because they will saturate your muscles with more energy for exercise and increase in load. 7. Cardio before bed A common mistake that also deserves special mention. It used to be popular in bodybuilding circles. But again, do not forget that this type of training has a positive effect only when taken hormonal drugs and steroids. Without them, you will not be able to change your physiology and achieve at least some positive result. The more androgens/steroids in your blood, the less cortisol levels affect you. High levels of cortisol before bed will interfere with sleep and will disturb our sleep until the morning. It will support the destructive processes of muscle catabolism all night long. To optimize the recovery process after a workout, it is enough to simply forget about the habit of loading yourself with cardio loads at night. How to burn fat and maintain muscle - it's simple ... Don't reduce everything when strength training; Don't try to add more and more new exercises; Don't try to burn more calories by lifting weights; If you decide on cardio, then let it be short-term intense exercise or long-term non-intense exercise in the post-absorption period; Don't try to reshape your muscles when you're in a calorie deficit - the best you can do is either increase or decrease muscle size; Don't ruin a quality workout with no carbs! On the contrary, increase their consumption in the post-workout period; Be conservative and don't go to extremes in either diet or exercise. You won't last long anyway.

In old books, the names of exotic dyes are often found: red sandalwood, quercitron, carmine, sepia, logwood ... Some of these dyes are still used today, but in very small quantities, mainly for cooking artistic paints. After all, natural dyes with such beautiful names are obtained from plants and animals, and this, as you understand, is expensive and difficult. But natural dyes are very bright, durable, lightfast.

It would be interesting to check. But how? The log tree grows in South America, sandalwood - in South Asia, sepia is mined from cuttlefish, carmine - from cochineal (tiny insects) ...

And yet it is quite possible to obtain natural dyes even at home, even in the middle zone of our country. And in the plants familiar to us there are coloring substances, albeit not so bright and not so persistent. Our ancestors often used them. We will also try to extract dyes from plants, and then on their basis we will prepare water-soluble paints, known to everyone as watercolors. Naturally, the dyes that we will finish should be well soluble in water.

We will prepare all dyes in the same way: grind the plants or any of their parts and boil for a long time in water to make a concentrated decoction. It should be thick enough. We do not need to extract the dry dye - anyway, we have to prepare a water-soluble paint.

A very important note: take only those plants that are allowed to be collected where you live; in no case do not tear plants taken under protection in your region or republic. And in any case, in order not to harm nature, limit the number of plants collected to a minimum.

Let's start with red dye. It can be obtained from the stem of St. John's wort (the decoction must be acidified) or from the root of the bedstraw. You may not know what these plants look like. In this case, consult a biology teacher or take some reference book or plant guide from the library; they, as a rule, give both descriptions of plants and their drawings.

Alder bark put in water for a few days, and then prepare a decoction. Again you will get red dye. It can also be extracted from the roots of horse sorrel, but in this case, do not forget to add a little aluminum alum to the finished broth - otherwise the color will be dull.

From the roots of the famous elecampane plant (it, like St. John's wort, belongs to medicinal herbs), you can get a blue dye. To do this, the roots must first be held in ammonia - an aqueous solution of ammonia. Blue dye can also be obtained from larkspur flowers and buckwheat roots.

The green dye is extracted from the leaves of the shamrock (also, by the way, a medicinal herb). Not so bright, but nevertheless a beautiful gray-green dye you will get from the leaves and stems of the cuff; before preparing the broth, they must be thoroughly crushed.

Yellow dye is given by many plants: dyeing gorse, hazel (bark), alder buckthorn (bark, leaves, berries), bedstraw (flowers). From the fruits of barberry, a yellow dye with a lemon tint is obtained.

If you boil the dry peel of onions in water, you get a brown dye of different shades - from almost yellow to dark brown. Another source of such a dye is the dry bark of the joster.

Blueberries and blackberries, as you might guess, contain a purple dye. It is not very resistant, but it may well be useful for watercolor paints. And from the stems and leaves of celandine it is possible to extract an orange dye.

How to get black pigment? Firstly, for this you can prepare a decoction of berries and crow roots. But there is another, simpler way: add iron sulfate to one of the decoctions obtained earlier. Almost all of our decoctions contain tannins like tannins (remember the experience with tea), and in the presence of ferrous salts they turn black.

Have you stocked up on enough thick multi-colored decoctions? Then let's get down to the main thing - the manufacture of watercolor paint. Its main components are dye and water, but there are other essential components. First of all, substances that bind paint to paper, such as gum arabic or wood glues, are substances with increased stickiness. Further, viscous substances are needed, they will prevent the paint from spreading over the paper, making it lie in an even layer; honey, molasses, glycerin are good for this. And the last additive is an antiseptic and disinfectant. After all, we are dealing with substances of plant origin, and they must be protected from the action of microorganisms (mold fungi, which will certainly want to feed on our paints).

If you do not have gum arabic, then it is best to take cherry or plum glue as an adhesive, smudges on the trunks that can be collected directly from the trees - this is not harmful to them. True, such glue (more precisely, gum) dissolves in water with difficulty, but if you add a little acid, the dissolution will go much faster.

For paint of each color, prepare 5-7 ml of an adhesive solution of approximately 50% concentration. Mix it with an equal amount of glycerin or about a third less honey. Phenol will serve as an antiseptic, its 5% solution called "carbolic acid" is available in pharmacies. This substance needs very little, just a few drops.

Mix all the components of the future paint. The base of the paint is ready, only the most important thing is missing - the dye. Add it last as a thick decoction, taking about the same amount as you got the base for the paint.

Here, in fact, is the whole procedure. You may be wondering why the paint is not solid - in stores it is sold in tiles. However, artists also use semi-liquid watercolors, in tubes. By consistency, they just resemble those multi-colored paints that you just prepared.

If you are going to store your paints, be sure to transfer them to some kind of bottles with tight plastic stoppers, otherwise the paints will dry out soon. And you need to work with them in the same way as with any other watercolor paints: a soft brush, thick paper... However, among the young chemists, there are certainly young artists.

Before moving on to new topic, let's give one more tip: try dyeing the fabric. Indeed, in the old days, most of the vegetable dyes were used for this purpose. Let's just agree on this: do not put good things in the dye bath (and it can serve as a bowl or basin). Experiment first with pieces of clean white fabric or yarn. And only in the event that you are convinced that the experiment is successful, take some thing - be sure to from the same fibers on which you set up the experiment.

Before dyeing, the fabric, as a rule, needs to be pickled - held in a hot solution of some salt; for this purpose, a solution of potassium alum is often taken. After holding the fabric or yarn in the mordant for several minutes, dip it into the dye broth, previously filtered through gauze, and boil in it. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give exact advice on how strong the decoction should be, because two outwardly identical plants may contain different amounts of coloring matter. So the concentration and processing time will have to be selected empirically.

Let's name a few plants from which you can get good coloring decoctions for fabric. Let's start with the already mentioned onion peel. In its decoction, the fabric will turn yellow-red if etched with alum, and green if etched with iron sulphate. Onion peel has been used since ancient times for dyeing wool and linen.

Potato leaves and stems can also be used to make dye. Their decoction will stain the fabric in a lemon color if the fabric is pre-treated with a solution of some kind of tin salt. And a decoction of the rhubarb root will give the tissue, etched with a solution of iron sulfate, a marsh color.

For dyeing wool, decoctions from the bark of trees can also be used. So, alder bark will dye wool dark red, ash bark - blue. Wild pear wood contains a brown dye (wool must be etched in an aqueous solution of some bismuth salt before dyeing). There is a gray-green dye in birch leaves, however, it is not very effective.

In the old days, rarely, but still, they dyed wool with a solution of coffee, only raw, to get green color. Try this dye too, since you need very little raw coffee beans. They must be ground and boiled with the addition of washing soda, and the wool, before immersing it in the broth, pickle in a hot solution of alum.

If this activity is to your liking, check for yourself the coloring effect of other plants in combination with different mordants. It is possible that you will find some unknown or completely forgotten combination, and the coloring will turn out to be extremely beautiful.

O. Olgin. "Experiments without explosions"
M., "Chemistry", 1986

Mankind has been drawing for more than one hundred years. This is quite convincingly evidenced by the exhibitions of museums. visual arts and rock paintings that can be seen in some of the caves.

In general, there are drawings, but where did the paints come from, especially from our distant ancestors, who left images of hunting scenes and many other not always clear images - the question is. Moreover, the answer to it, at least the first part of it, is quite simple.

You have probably noticed that some plants (berries or beets) can stain both the skin of the hands and other surfaces. Our ancestors noticed this too. In addition to vegetable paints, they had soot, various clays and some mineral pigments, in particular ocher, in their arsenal.

There was also plenty of time for experimentation, and the very first artists in the history of mankind mixed available materials with other substances and sought to make their paints as durable and resistant as possible.

To keep the paints for a long time, it was necessary to choose a suitable binder. It could be clay, animal glue or eggs. Egg yolk is still used today for the manufacture of paints as one of the binding elements of the base.

Ocher and umber were mainly used as coloring pigments. Later, with the development of metallurgy, the palette expanded, not only red and brown shades appeared in it, but also shades of green and blue.

Composition of paints

In any paint, 4 components can be distinguished:

• coloring pigment
• binders
• solvent
• filler

Each of these components affects the properties of the paint. Everything is clear with the pigment, so let's move on to binders.

As binders elements, adhesives of animal or vegetable origin, resins, hydrocarbons that can be dissolved in water or oils, hardening oils, various polymers are used.

In paints, these substances play the role of film formers. That is, when the paint dries, it is thanks to the binders that they form a strong film on the surface that retains pigments and fillers in its composition.

Solvents are needed so that the paints are less viscous, it is easier to pick them up on a brush and apply them to the surface to be painted. The choice of solvent depends on which binder is used in the paint, as a rule, water, oils, alcohols, ketones, ethers and other hydrocarbons act in this role.

Fillers are introduced into the composition of paints in order to modify their texture and haze. Also, one cannot do without fillers in the manufacture of heat-resistant paints, including those used in pottery for painting products.

Manufacturing technology

It is simply impossible to describe in detail all the stages of preparing paints within the framework of the article, but we will try to briefly describe the process of creating various colors. Let's start with tempera. These paints were originally made on a water-soluble basis, the components of which included just egg yolk. Today for making tempera paints on an industrial scale, casein or PVA (synthetic polyvinyl acetate resin) is used.

Watercolor paints kneaded on the basis of natural gum arabic - these are resins of plant origin, and honey, glycerin or sugar are used as plasticizers. That's why they write on the packages "Watercolor honey". Despite the harmlessness of the composition, you should not try watercolor: some antiseptics, in particular phenol, are also included in the composition. If it enters the body, it can cause serious poisoning. Watercolors come from China, just like paper.

Gouache its composition is close to watercolor paints. However, when dried, gouache paints lighten significantly and their surface becomes velvety. This is due to the fact that white is added to gouache, giving such an effect.

Oil paints most often made on the basis of linseed oil, less often alkyd resins are used. For the first time these paints began to be made in Europe in the 15th century, but who exactly invented them is unknown. When dry oil paints do not change their color, allowing you to achieve amazingly deep tones and shades.

natural pigments

Any palette is, first of all, primary colors. They are obtained thanks to the following pigments:

• Red: cinnabar, hematite, red ochers.
• Orange: realgar, vanadinite.
• Yellow: orpiment, jarosite, wulfenite, goethite, light ochers, light limonite.
• Green: glauconite, volkonskoite, chlorites, aegirine, augite, malachite, kerchenite.
• Blue: azurite (finely ground).
• Blue: lapis lazuli, azurite (coarsely ground), vivianite (mineral indigo), riebeckite.
• Violet: lapis lazuli (natural ultramarine, after moderate roasting).
• Red-brown: hematite, dark ocher, dark limonite.
• Brown-black: manganese oxides (psilomelane, vad).
• Black: coal, anthracite, magnetite.