If you’ve ever walked into an art supply store, you know the thrill of standing before a rainbow of premixed paints, each one promising smooth, vibrant color right out of the tube. So why would anyone take the time—and often make the mess—to mix their own paint?
It’s a fair question. After all, we live in an age of speed and convenience. But when it comes to creating art, mixing your own colors isn't just a skill—it’s a game-changer.
Here are 14 reasons why:
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Avoid Harmful Toxins:
One of the biggest advantages of mixing your own paint is the ability to choose safer, non-toxic ingredients. Many commercial paints contain heavy metals, carcinogens, pthalates, solvents, microplastics, petrochemicals and toxic preservatives that can be very harmful to your health over time (if not fatal in some cases). By creating your own paint from natural pigments and binders, you control what goes into your materials.
Artists concerned with air quality, skin contact, or long-term exposure often turn to homemade paints using earth-based pigments, plant-based binders, or even traditional recipes like egg tempera. It’s by far a healthier way to work—without sacrificing any quality.
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Quality: By mixing your own, you can leave out all of the unnecessary stabilizers, fillers, bulking agents, solvents, heavy metal driers and additives. These are added to increase the shelf life sitting in the store for years and also to simply "make more paint" which makes more money for the manufacturer. Bulking agents and fillers are a lot cheaper than pigments. But if you leave all of that out and only use pure natural pigment and binder, your paints have an unsurpassed luminosity, depth of color, UV resistance, lightfastness, humidity resistance, and are supremely archival.
3. Cost Savings: The incredible cost savings in mixing your own paint is hard to believe given that you're actually improving the quality of your paint AND paying less. Check out this blog post that goes into the details of how much you save for each type of paint. For those first starting out it's even more affordable to start with a paint mixing kit (Natural Oil Paint Kit, Natural Watercolor Paint Kit, etc.) and then later switch to purchasing bulk pigments and binders as needed.
4. Peace of Mind: We believe that the extra step of mixing your own paint is well worth the peace of mind of knowing you are using the safest and most sustainable paint available. Parents tend to feel this the most for their children's health and safety. Our Natural Earth Paint for children contains only three natural ingredients whereas most mainstream children's paints that claim "non-toxic" on the label contain formaldehyde, petrochemicals and heavy metals. And fine artist paints contain an even more extensive list of hazardous ingredients.
5. Avoid Preservatives & Stabilizers: As soon as you have a liquid paint (versus dry) you need a preservative and/or stabilizer to keep it from going bad (bacteria / mold) on the shelf or changing (separating, thickening, drying out). By mixing your own, there's no need for preservatives, biocides or stabilizers. The preservatives / biocides are generally the most toxic part of any paint because they are designed to "kill life" or growing bacteria in the paint. When you mix your own, you don't need a very long shelf-life because you won't be storing it for many years - you'll mix and paint immediately or mix and store in your own tubes for 1 year max. And once it's on your support or surface, it will never spoil, mold or go bad.
6. Richness of Color (Pigment Load) - pigment load and color saturation is completely determined by you. You decide how much or little to add and create the richest, purest paint possible.
7. Connection to the source of your supplies: By making your own paints and choosing each ingredient, you become more acutely aware of your own process and your own materials. It creates an indescribable connection with your painting and process as you apply paint, knowing intimately about every ingredient and their source.
8. Consistency: you determine the consistency and viscosity of your paint - do you want it buttery, fluid, stiff, or thin? For example, Rembrandt preferred to mix his oil paints thin so that he didn't have to thin thick paint with a separate "medium" while painting. They were already to his desired consistency.
9. Drying Time: for oil paints, you determine how fast your oil paints will dry depending on which oil you mix it with. Linseed oil, hemp oil, walnut oil, and poppyseed oil all have different drying times and you decide which you prefer.
10. Luminosity: By hand-mulling or mixing paint, as opposed to large scale machine mixing, the delicate mixing process breaks up pigment particles irregularly, which in turn scatters light in various ways, resulting in paint that is visually brighter and more luminous to the human eye.
11. Stress Reduction: The process of mixing paint is peaceful, cathartic, relaxing and feeds the soul.
12. Sustainability: When mixing your own paint you also tend to naturally conserve materials and conserve waste. You eliminate plastic packaging and any toxic materials that would have been disposed of in the making of a manufactured tube of paint.
13. Color Control is Creative Control: Buying pre-mixed paint hues limits you to someone else's idea of color. Mixing your own allows you to fine-tune hues, saturation, and temperature to get exactly what your piece needs
14. Deepens your Connection to the Work: Art isn’t just about the end result—it’s about the process. Mixing your own paints slows you down, encourages experimentation, and invites you to engage more deeply with your medium. It’s meditative. It’s messy. And it’s part of the magic.
So, Should You Skip the Tubes Altogether?
Not necessarily. Pre-mixed paints are incredibly useful—especially for beginners or for those who need fast, easy consistency across large projects. But even if you use store-bought colors, learning to mix them expands your flexibility and opens creative doors. Many artists use a combination of tubed paints and mixed paints as a compromise to get the best of both worlds.
In the end, mixing your own paint isn’t about making things harder—it’s about making your art more yours. Whether you’re increasing the luminosity of your paintings, avoiding toxins, or simply savoring the process, nothing compares to the freedom and expression that comes from getting your hands (and palette) a little dirty.
And as a side note, I completely understand that this goes against our entire modern day culture of speed, convenience and productivity of lower quality products. But we at Natural Earth Paint are very proud to be a part of the "Slow Art Movement" - getting back to real things - our hands, our materials, our senses - and experiencing it all more fully.
So next time you reach for that tube, consider this: maybe your perfect color—and a cleaner, safer, happier studio—is just a mix away.
Ready to Learn How? HOW TO MIX YOUR OWN PAINT
