Painting with casein, Samuel Coleman, John Molnar, unknown ancient Egyptian artist, Harry Anderson, Gustav Klimt, Jane Fisher, Len Guggenberger, John Berkey, Walker Moore, David S. Costanzo, Anthony Martino, James Gurney, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alan Bray, George Mclean, Colin Campbell Cooper
Casein (pronounced "kay' seen") is a h2o based paint in which the binder is the milk protein of the aforementioned name.

Casein is one of the least familiar of the h2o based painting mediums available to gimmicky painters, even though it'south one of the oldest painting mediums known. Casein's utilize can exist reliably traced back over 9,000 years, with bear witness of the formulation in cave paintings, and examples have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs from several thousand years agone.

At that place is new evidence that casein as a binder for paints may have been present in the oldest known examples of human use of painting materials, recently analyzed traces preserved in caves in Southward Africa from 49,000 years ago. (For reference, the oldest known examples of human writing — i.due east. language, not merely numbers — are only about 5,000 years sometime.)

Casein has a varied history, frequently used as an underpainting for oils and achieving its greatest modern popularity equally a stand-alone medium in the mid 20th century, when it was popular with illustrators for its quick drying time, workability and like shooting fish in a barrel-to-photo matte surface. Like its gum arabic based cousin, gouache, the utilize of casein by illustrators was largely eclipsed by acrylic, which quickly dries impervious to water and subsequent applications of paint layers.

Casein has been in use as a decorative paint for furniture and other items, where is is generally referred to as "milk-based paint"; I'thousand not sure if the conception is different from the artists' paint. Casein has also been used equally a ground for oil paints and for silverpoint cartoon; the folder itself is a glue, used in undiluted form to gum article of furniture.

Casein has an interesting place in the spectrum of artists' paints. It nigh closely resembles gouache as an opaque water based medium that dries to a cute matte finish. Like gouache, it changes value somewhat — generally lightening — equally information technology dries. This can accept a little getting used to and information technology can have multiple layers to produce satisfactory darks, but I find that more than than offset past casein'due south other qualities.

Casein is more than full-bodied than gouache, and can exist used a bit more thickly (though non in heavy impastos similar oil). This makes information technology a little more similar oil in terms of scumbling and creating interesting surface textures, and information technology can be particularly appealing to oil painters who want the speed and convenience of an culling water based medium.

Casein besides has a especially nice characteristic of flowing off the brush, and can exist applied to a smooth and even flat color surface, much like gouache.

Some have said they're not fond of the olfactory property of casein paint, but others, including myself, discover information technology quite pleasant. Your mileage may vary.

Unlike gouache and watercolor, which can always exist reactivated with water (either an advantage or disadvantage, depending on the creative person's needs), casein eventually dries to a surface more resistant to h2o.

Varnish can be applied to paintings that have stale for ii weeks or so, either matte or glossy, the latter application bringing out the darks and giving the painting a look closer to oils. Care must be taken, though, not to disturb the surface when applying the varnish; and spray varnish is often recommended. Y'all'll discover more than detailed information on some of the sites I'll list below.

Similar gouache, casein is beingness "rediscovered" by gimmicky artists, and appreciated for its unique characteristics. It is particularly suited, I call back, for plein air painting.

"True" casein must be made up frequently past the artist, as it goes off in a twenty-four hours, or 4 or v if refrigerated.

Modern adoption has been greatly boosted by the availability of casein emulsion, a formulation of casein and drying oil that does non readily spoil and is available in tubes.

To make "true" casein, vinegar is used to separate out the liquid whey, leaving the curdled milk protein — essentially cottage cheese. This is dried and ground to a powder for future employ or used immediately, and usually mixed with water and ammonium carbonate or articulate liquid ammonia (though there are other formulations using lime or borax). The consequence is a milky fluid into which powdered pigments are mixed to make paint.

Already extracted and stale casein powder can be purchased from suppliers like Sinopia, Kama Pigments or Earth Pigments (recipe here).

The tube casein seems to have most of the wonderful working qualities and beautiful surface appearance of the fresh made version, and is certainly an easier approach to the medium.

Casein emulsion tube paint

Jack Richeson & Co. is the most prominent provider of commercial casein paints, having bought the "Shiva" line and name from the previous manufacturer. Their casein emulsion paints are available through the majopr online art supply houses, though I understand that they may be hard to find exterior the U.S.

Plaka, past Pelican, is some other brand of casein based paint, that I know is at least available in the United kingdom, though it may exist aimed somewhat more at decorative artists than painters.

Casein is generally less expensive that gouache, perhaps because the binder and formulation of pigment is less plush, I don't know. It comes in large tubes of 37ml, like to oil, as opposed to the modest tubes favored for watercolor and gouache.

Casein, like gouache, is brittle when it dries, and if used thickly, should be used on a heavy watercolor newspaper, or ideally on illustration board or panel. Ampersand, which makes familiar painting panels for plein air artists, makes a line of Claybord, that they promote as existence platonic for casein and gouache, largely because the clay infused primer is absorbent, in dissimilarity to the non-absorptive surfaces of acrylic primer ("gesso") favored for oil painting. I've also been working successfully on 140lb watercolor blocks and hot printing Bainbridge Board (I utilise hot press considering I adopt a smooth surface).

To a point, casein washes up like watercolor or gouache, only because information technology hardens to a water resistant grade over time, more care must be taken to wash out brushes after painting, or keep them suspended in a brush washer. Casein is also a little rougher on brushes than watercolor or gouache, and like gouache and acrylic, it's considered preferable to use synthetics. Because of the thickness of the paint compared with watercolor, casein painters often use brushes labeled for acrylic, somewhere in betwixt stiffer oil brushes and softer watercolor brushes.

It can also be a niggling more hard to get brushes clean, I apply a little Murphy's Oil Soap, I've also heard Greek olive oil soap recommended.

Casein is well suited to be used with gouache, the one-time giving body and texture, and the latter being fifty-fifty ameliorate for fine detail and sharp lines (though casein does well on its own in that respect).

Casein is oftentimes used with other paints, notably acrylic, in which acrylic plays the office of thin, transparent application and casein provides the ability to easily create thick, opaque passages — similar to the way watercolor and gouache are often used together.

At that place is a National Guild for Painters in Casein and Acrylic, which sounds promising, but the navigation in their online galleries of competition winners is so terrible as to be almost unusable. You have to click to overstate an image in a pop-up just to run into the artist's proper name, and fifty-fifty then there is no indication of the medium. You have to either look up each artist in Google and get to their ain sites to look for the medium, or look for the winners of the "Richeson/Shiva Honour For Casein Painting" as you wearily popular-up and close, pop-up and close, pop-upwards and close, in an effort to find the few casein painters among the predominant majority of acrylic artists. Unfortunate; it might otherwise exist a good resource.

Besides unfortunate, and similar to gouache, is the dearth of data on casein utilize and painting techniques compared to other painting mediums. The Richeson site provides some information, and you can find casein mentioned in art materials compendiums, like Mark David Gottsegen'due south The Painter's Handbook, equally well as in older books on illustration materials, like Rob Howard'southward The Illustrator's Bible.

A number of artists who work in casein feature short informational pages nearly the medium on their websites, and I'll list some in my links, below. Past far the all-time source I know of is James Gurney'southward web log, Gurney Journey.

Gurney has for several years been working with casein, besides as gouache and other mediums, and has been sharing his feel and findings in the course of manufactures and short videos.

He has just released a new full-length instructional video, Casein Painting in the Wild, which I cover in a split mail service.

One of the segments of his video demonstrates painting in a very express palette of four colors, and artists who are curious about casein may want to try a like arroyo to merely endeavor out the medium.

Personally, I find casein to exist a genuine pleasure to work with. I like the way it flows and handles, the textural possibilities and the appealing color and matte surface in finished paintings.

Artists who try information technology may be surprised at how nice information technology can be to work with.

Cave walls optional.

[Annex: David Clemons, who has painted in casein for many years, has been kind plenty to add some additional data. Please encounter this mail'southward comments.]

(Images above, links to my posts: Samuel Coleman, John Molnar, unknown ancient Egyptian artist, Harry Anderson, Gustav Klimt, Jane Fisher, Len Guggenberger, John Berkey, Larry Seiler, Walker Moore, David South. Costanzo, Anthony Martino, James Gurney, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alan Bray, George Mclean, Colin Campbell Cooper)

Link: Jack Richeson & Co. casein page
Jack Richeson & Co. casein facts & colour chart PDF
Gurney Journey, general search for "casein"
Gurney Journey Casein Week One (introduction to the video)
Gurney Journey, Readers' casein questions
Artists Network article on casein
National Society for Painters in Casein and Acrylic
Spectrfix Brief History of Casein in the Arts
What is Casein, John Molnar
Nigh Casein Paint, D.B. Clemons
Working with Casein, Enquire Maurice
Paintings In Casein, David S Costanzo
George McLean: Casein and Inspiration, YouTube
Casein Painting Tips, YouTube promo for Steven Quiller video
Painting Tips to Use Acrylic & Casein Together, equally to a higher place
Casein Pigment, YouTube choice of videos