Ten Tips for Using Milk-Based Paint
Plus, the making of “Colebrookdale Railroad” for Paid Subscribers.
Casein—a milk protein which can be used as paint—dries quickly to an insoluble, matte finish. Here are some tips for using casein paint as I did to capture the historic rail cars and station at Colebrookdale Railroad, Boyertown, Pennsylvania.
(This article is partly free; my paid subscribers will see behind-the scenes images with further explanation and a video following the break.)
Tips for painting detail with casein
Keep your ferrule dry. The metallic tube that binds the bristles of a brush to the handle is called the ferrule. When painting fine detail, be sure to dry your ferrule constantly by rolling it on a towel; otherwise a water droplet may suddenly run down onto your delicate brushwork.
Rest eyes and stretch. Meticulous painting is hard on the eyes and body. Roll your eyes to the sides, up, and down. Focus on something in the distance. Drink water, and stretch your arms and back.
Chop and stir. Thoroughly mix the paint to an even consistency by chopping and stirring with the bristles, to avoid inconsistent, watery, and/or chunky mixtures.
Twist and roll. Turn and roll the brush on the palette, coating and filling the bristles with an even paint consistency to get full, rich color. A backwards pull while twisting can wring paint out of the bristles until just the tip is loaded for making fine marks.
Test your brushes. Springy, flowy, bristly: find out the qualities of your brushes and how to take advantage of their different properties.
Wash with soap! After each session, thoroughly wash the casein out of your brushes with soap until the suds run clean. Casein is harder to wash than watercolor, gouache, or acrylic. Do not allow casein to dry in your brush.
Premix enough. When painting a larger passage such as the sky, make sure you premix enough paint. Casein has a value shift when drying, and it will be difficult to make a perfect match if you run out of a color.
Use a little… “kiss.” Casein dries fast! If you need very little, try just “kissing” the palette surface with the residual paint at the opening of the paint tube, rather than squeezing a glob of paint out. It may be enough.
Mist it! Have a fine spray misting bottle handy to prevent palette drying.
Put a lid on it. When stepping away from your palette, mist the colors then invert a small plastic take-out container over your paints to help preserve them.
I created the painting Colebrookdale Railroad especially for a joint exhibition (The Art of Berks History) between Art Plus Gallery and Berks History Center in southeast Pennsylvania. My goal was to celebrate the history and craftsmanship involved in both the initial construction of the Colebrookdale station and rail cars, and ongoing maintenance and restoration efforts.
The Exhibit
See Colebrookdale Railroad and many more paintings of historically significant sites in the Art of Berks History exhibit, now through November 15, 2024, at the Berks History Center in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Behind-the-scenes
Paid Subscribers and currently-enrolled students can see some behind-the-scenes painting process photos and explanations below the paywall. If you’re not a paid subscriber, it only costs $5 a month to “buy me a coffee”—giving you access right now to every article and feature on Artist’s Cheat Sheet, while providing access to the newsletter for all—regardless of ability to pay.
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Drawing. The process of painting Colebrookdale Railroad began with a research visit and photography in October, 2022. Two years elapsed before I made this careful line drawing on a gessoed cradle board using a mechanical pencil.
The vanishing point (toward which z-axis horizontal lines converge) is identified in this stage (dot on the lantern globe near the picture’s center).
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