Tricks & Tips: R&F Pigment Sticks®

We checked in with printmaker and visual artist Kate Collyer to find out the answer to a useful question we hear around the studio.

I've worked my way down to a small piece of R&F Pigment Stick®, can it be used?

We all end up with bits of R&F Pigment Sticks®. This is a perfect opportunity to use a brayer to maximize the luscious paint you can no longer hold in your hand. Spread out these small pieces of Pigment Sticks® on a paint palette or piece of vellum with a palette knife or spatula. This will get the Pigment Stick® to the consistency of tube paint or printmaking ink. You can add some R&F Blending Medium to add body and transparency to your spread Pigment Stick®, or oil painting mediums such as linseed oil to make the paint more fluid. Now you can roll out the paint with your brayer for a number of traditional printmaking techniques.

You can roll it directly onto a linoleum block or paper lithography and hand print it using a spoon or baren to press your print on your paper. When using Pigment Sticks®, paper choice is important. You can coat any paper with encaustic medium and then print. This will prevent the oil in the Pigment Stick® from bleeding into the fibers of the paper. You can also use sized papers such as Arches Oil Paper, which is pre-coated for oil-based media.

Kate Collyer demonstrating linoleum block printing with a brayer and R&F Pigment Sticks®.