Can I actually make paint at home from plants?

Yes — simmer a husk or root, strain the liquid, then either use it as ink or fix it onto alum to get a paint pigment. Walnut husks are the simplest starting material.

Why did my berry dye fade so fast?

Many berry and flower dyes fade within years in daylight. Indigo and madder are the plant colours that hold up; earth pigments such as ochre are mineral and stable.

Do I need a special binder for watercolour?

Gum arabic is the standard binder of watercolour paint — the hardened sap of Acacia senegal trees. Egg yolk gives tempera instead, which sets rather than re-wetting.

What is the difference between a dye and a pigment?

A dye dissolves; a pigment is a solid particle. Lake pigments fix a dye onto an inert base such as alum so the colour can be ground into paint.

Natural colour, made by hand

Artganic — natural art materials | artganic.me

Paint and ink can be built from earth, bark and leaves: ochre gives reds and yellows, indigo gives blue, madder gives red, walnut husks give brown. This page answers the practical question — which plant gives which colour, how to turn it into a usable medium, and which binder to choose.

Match the material to the colour

Start from the pigment table: ochre for reds and yellows, indigo for blue, madder for red, walnut for brown. Note the lightfastness column before committing a colour to a lasting work.

Extract, then bind

A colour must be extracted — simmered, vatted or ground — and then held in a film by a binder. Gum arabic, egg yolk and oil each give a different paint from the same pigment.

Test before you commit

Plant colours vary with the batch and the light. Make a swatch, leave it in daylight for a stretch of time, and check whether it holds before using the colour in a finished piece.

Lightfastness separates plant colours: indigo and madder last well, while many berry and flower dyes fade within years in daylight.

Which plant gives which colour?

Match the source species to the colour you want using the table below.

Natural colour comes from two families of material: earth pigments, which are mined minerals, and plant dyes, which must be extracted from living matter. Ochre is an iron-oxide earth pigment and gives reds and yellows; indigo is extracted from plants such as Indigofera tinctoria and gives blue; madder root, Rubia tinctorum, gives reds through the compound alizarin; walnut husks from Juglans regia give brown.

A plant dye is not yet a paint. To use it on a surface you either dissolve it into an ink or fix it onto an inert base such as alum to make a lake pigment — a soluble plant dye turned into a usable paint pigment.

Earth pigments (ochre): grind, no extraction needed
Vat dyes (indigo): reduced to soluble white indigo before use
Root and bark dyes (madder, walnut): simmered in water
Lake pigments: dye precipitated onto alum

Samples on the bench

Each sample pairs a raw material with the colour it yields and the route used to extract it.

How natural colour was used, in order

The key terms of this guide, drawn to one scale

Pigment and dye chart

Natural colour sources: what you use, what you get, how it lasts
Material	Source	Colour	Lasts in daylight	Historical use
Ochre	Iron-oxide earth	Reds and yellows	Mineral, stable	Lascaux paintings, about 17,000 years old
Indigo	Indigofera tinctoria	Blue	Holds well	Vat dye for cloth, oxidizes in air
Madder	Rubia tinctorum root	Red (alizarin)	Holds well	Main red dye of Europe until 1869
Walnut	Juglans regia green husks	Brown	Ink, batch-dependent	Simmered and strained for ink
Gum arabic	Acacia senegal sap	Binder, no colour	—	Standard watercolour binder, Sahel trade
Egg tempera	Egg yolk	Binder, no colour	—	Panel painting before oil, 15th century
Lake pigment	Dye on alum base	Dye colour as pigment	Same as parent dye	Turns soluble dyes into paint pigments

Natural colour sources: what you use, what you get, how it lasts

Common questions before you start

Can I actually make paint at home from plants?: Yes — simmer a husk or root, strain the liquid, then either use it as ink or fix it onto alum to get a paint pigment. Walnut husks are the simplest starting material.
Why did my berry dye fade so fast?: Many berry and flower dyes fade within years in daylight. Indigo and madder are the plant colours that hold up; earth pigments such as ochre are mineral and stable.
Do I need a special binder for watercolour?: Gum arabic is the standard binder of watercolour paint — the hardened sap of Acacia senegal trees. Egg yolk gives tempera instead, which sets rather than re-wetting.
What is the difference between a dye and a pigment?: A dye dissolves; a pigment is a solid particle. Lake pigments fix a dye onto an inert base such as alum so the colour can be ground into paint.