Are there good affordable oil paints (or can I make my own with pigment and tung/linseed oil)?

Jan 14, 2026 20:15:52

One of my history classes will be learning about the Renaissance, and I thought a fun way would be to do an oil painting. BUT, the school doesn't have oil paints, and I don't have enough at home to use for 24 students. Plus, I wanted to have a more traditional palette with colors that the painters likely would have had back then. My questions are these:

Jan 14, 2026 20:30:51

I don’t know the time frame you are working in. If I was in your position, I would contact the paint manufacturer for a donation. Trust me, they have seconds. Proceed with the concept of infecting young minds with the hobby of painting and positive vibes for the company.

Over the years I have gotten for myself or others AEDs, vehicles, power tools, and one Viking 6 burner kitchen range.

Jan 14, 2026 20:35:32

I was having similar questions while building out my van... I wanted something non-toxic, easy to work with and affordable. I ended up purchasing 100g of concentrated pigment from Earth Pigments and mixing it with linseed oil and river clay that I sifted, dried and sieved. The color came out as a rich deep teal, and the application was super easy. You can adjust the color by adding more or less pigment, but I found it was forgiving enough that I just eyeballed my proportions when making subsequent batches. I also found that the river clay wasn't necessary, so for the simplest approach you could just mix pigment and linseed oil and start painting! Also - 100g was more than enough to cover a large wall and some cabinetry in my van (~40sq ft) at a pretty rich ratio of pigment to linseed oil.

Attached is a picture of the final product - you can kinda see the striations of the wood beneath the paint, but I find that I like that look!

Jan 14, 2026 21:18:19

s ritter wrote:I was having similar questions while building out my van... I wanted something non-toxic, easy to work with and affordable. I ended up purchasing 100g of concentrated pigment from Earth Pigments and mixing it with linseed oil and river clay that I sifted, dried and sieved. The color came out as a rich deep teal, and the application was super easy. You can adjust the color by adding more or less pigment, but I found it was forgiving enough that I just eyeballed my proportions when making subsequent batches. I also found that the river clay wasn't necessary, so for the simplest approach you could just mix pigment and linseed oil and start painting! Also - 100g was more than enough to cover a large wall and some cabinetry in my van (~40sq ft) at a pretty rich ratio of pigment to linseed oil.

Attached is a picture of the final product - you can kinda see the striations of the wood beneath the paint, but I find that I like that look!

I love Earth Pigments! I've used it to make milk paint and watercolors in the past (I literally just made some watercolors with it a few hours ago), but I've never made oil paints. How did you mix yours up? The videos I see on making paint always say I need to use a muller and grind the paint to thoroughly mix the paint. But, I mix all my watercolors by just putting the pigment and water+gum arabic+honey together in my watercolor tray, and then I mix it with my brush. Do you think I could do that with oil paint, too? I'm sure it won't be "perfect" like professional artists use...but my watercolors are nicer than anything I've ever bought, and they aren't mulled.

Also mixing the pigment with oil in class will let the kids see how it's done, too! But....oil is thicker than water, so I'm not sure how it'll work. How did you mix yours?

I absolutely love the color you achieved on your wall. It's so lovely!

Jan 14, 2026 21:20:27

John F Dean wrote:I don’t know the time frame you are working in. If I was in your position, I would contact the paint manufacturer for a donation. Trust me, they have seconds. Proceed with the concept of infecting young minds with the hobby of painting and positive vibes for the company.

Over the years I have gotten for myself or others AEDs, vehicles, power tools, and one Viking 6 burner kitchen range.

Sadly, I need it by next week, which is when we're starting the unit. (I know, I know, I should have figured this out months ago, but I'm teaching 4 different courses, and I'm designing all the curriculum, slides, and activities for each. There's too much to do, and not enough time to do it!)

Jan 15, 2026 10:04:30

I love Earth Pigments! I've used it to make milk paint and watercolors in the past (I literally just made some watercolors with it a few hours ago), but I've never made oil paints. How did you mix yours up?

I just used a little whisk and a cup! It mixed up pretty easily, I think you might even be able to do it with just your brush... I was making 8-10 oz batches at a time just refilling my cup and mixing in some new pigment as it emptied.

& I totally agree - my paint wasn't professional grade, but worked beautifully for my purposes and I thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating it!

Jan 15, 2026 10:09:19

Paul rubens brand is affordable here, but comes in big sets. The per tube price was good.
There doesn't appear to be any filler, but it is a bit greasy. Good for painting without medium, and can be "dried" by putting the paint on cardboard for a short while first.

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