Your Casein Questions

When I try out a new kind of paint, I like to use a super-limited palette, as I did on this painting of a historic wooden boatbuilding shop. (Watch on YouTube)

Yesterday I invited you to ask questions about casein, and they were great ones. Here are some answers.

Paint
Elo Wobing: Can I ask why you choose this medium over other water soluble painting mediums? Specifically, why not use acrylic paint which is also water soluble with opaque and transparent qualities?
Elo, Yes, you're right, acrylic is very similar. The stronger emulsion strength of acrylic paint makes is preferable to casein if you want durable impastos. The kind of acrylic I do use from time to time is Holbein Acrya Gouache (which is really acrylic). The thing I like about casein is the weaker emulsion, which keeps the paint from being sticky or gummy as it's drying. Casein flows more readily off the brush than does acrylic.

J. Oates: I am curious too as to why you choose casein over gouache. It is not as readily available as gouache in the UK, and so not easy to try.
Good question. Casein and gouache are very similar, so the lessons in this video apply to both media. I reach for casein when I want a fuller bodied paint, and it's less expensive per cc so I can use it more freely. It also has a more closed surface when it dries, meaning the paint won't be reactivated by a later wet stroke. Gouache is better than casein for fine detail, and gouache offers more color choices, and generally heavier pigment concentration.

Matt Dicke: Do you have a preference of Gouache or Casein as an alternative to oil? There are many times when dealing with solvents is not possible and having a water based medium that has a similar feel and handling to oil is needed?
I would say that casein has more body than gouache, and in that sense, it feels more like oil. Maybe it's also that the paint tubes are the same size as oil, and I use plenty of paint when I'm using casein. Casein doesn't really have the impasto quality of oil, though, and neither does gouache. Also, neither gouache or casein has the transparent deep darks of oil. They both dry light in the darks, and that takes some getting used to.

Gary: Is it advisable to order an additional, larger tube of Titanium white with the casein sets? In some media (acrylic gouache) it is difficult to paint opaquely without it.
Yes, I think it's a good idea to have one of the larger tubes of white. I go through two or three times more white than any other color.

Keita Hopkinson: From your experience, how fast does casein dry... (whether a wash, or opaque passages)? Thanks much!
Since it's an aqueous medium, drying time depends on the heat and humidity, as with watercolor and gouache. It will dry to the touch anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or so. Casein is unusual in that the proteins in the milk emulsion continue to strengthen after the paint has dried to the touch, so after a few days or weeks, it will be tougher than paint that has just dried.

Matthieu Kiriyama: I wish I could put my hands on some casein paint, but it doesn't seem like they're available here in Japan (A set of 6 colors from Richeson sells for a hefty 100 to 180 dollars on Amazon). Is Richeson the only manufacturer you know of that I could look into? I understand that milk paint is a popular medium for painting furniture, but not every brand is suitable for fine arts? (I have the same problem of not being able to buy your new video with Paypal the way I did on Sellfy before.)

Richeson is the only manufacturer of tubed artist grade casein that I'm aware of. They bought the Shivá company, and make the same paint under the two different brands. If casein is not available in your area, no worries. I would substitute gouache or Acryla gouache. Here's a previous post about gouache materials. And sorry about the Paypal issue. I've been having difficulties uploading the files to Sellfy and Cubebrush, but I'll keep trying.

Color Palette
Koushik: 1) How do you pick a limited palette a priori? For instance, in the painting at Lowell's, you picked a very low chroma yellow palette (with black literally being the cool color). Do you decide up front which gamut you're going to use, pick suitable primaries, then interpret things within that range? As in, you could just as well do your fall Wyoming painting (Torrey creek) using say, a strong blue, a cool red and a muted yellow (like ochre)? I'm just asking because I'm trying to understand how you fix your color gamut without any pre-mixing by limiting your pigment choices.
Good question. I don't follow any set rule. I'm usually pretty intuitive about palette choice. But as I think about it, there are three common circumstances that determine my decision of a given limited palette.

1. One is simply what I have in my paint kit. I often bring a random choice of white plus a red, a yellow, and a blue, trying to choose a version of those colors I haven't tried in a while. That's how I recently fell in love with Perylene Maroon, and Prussian Blue in gouache.

2. Another circumstance is when I have a preconceived color (or lighting) idea and I don't care what the actual colors are in the scene in front of me. That was the case with the painting of the solar flare effect, which I wanted to look like my memory of a photographic lens flare.

3. The third circumstance is when I look at a given scene and I try to identify the main color notes that reappear in the scene or that are essential to it. I try to boil those down to about six or fewer colors and set those out as tubes on the palette. If I need a "spiker" color or "guest" color (as I call them sometimes) I can bring them in as an extra spice.

Varnish and Mediums

Garin Baker painting with me (in oil) at Lowell's Boat Shop

Koushik: 2) You mention varnish in the section on birch panels. You appear to be using some sort of brush-on varnish (made by Richeson I presume) for your finished pieces. In one of your earlier posts on GJ you've mentioned trying the Richeson varnish on paper and having it soak into the surface repeatedly. How would you varnish something that is painted on say, illustration board? Does the clear coat spray work better instead? Additionally, how long do you wait before varnishing (with either brush-on or spray)? I know the emulsion strengthens with time - even though the surface is dry to touch, Richeson says it might take several weeks before the paint film completely sets!

Yes, I was using the Richeson varnish, applied with a brush. But I have also tried Krylon Crystal Clear. Both tend to get soaked up into paintings done on absorbent paper or board, so for those substrates, it can take over four coats before you start seeing much gloss or darkening of the darks. Even if the varnish soaks in, it's important not too use too much with each application.

A surface sealed at the beginning with gesso or acrylic medium or a thick layer of casein that fills the paper's pores would allow the varnish to float on the surface more. It's probably a good idea to wait at least a week or two before varnishing. 

Margaret Berthold: I'm having trouble varnishing casein paintings on 140 pound Arches watercolor paper. When I spray on a gloss varnish, some areas remain matte and some are glossy. It's very patchy and it seems no matter how many coats I apply it won't acquire an even gloss. Would sealing the paper help? With what? Or is a different surface a better idea?
Yes, as mentioned above, if you want the glossy look of a finish, try to prep the surface at the beginning to make it less absorbent. Two things to add: don't use anything with oil on any layers below the casein, and consider leaving the casein unvarnished. The matte surface can be very attractive.

Technique

Jeff Allen: When painting the water, would the same layering technique apply as casein, paint the light 1st, then the dark?
I'm not completely sure I understand your question. Since it's an opaque medium, you could proceed in various ways—light first, then dark; or dark first, then light. Or area by area. My general approach is to wash in some light tones, work the big masses of tone and save the lightest, darkest, and finest accents for last.

John Berkey

Hypnopoodles: Do you know of any great works of art done in casein? And on another note, do artists ever work large with gouache and casein? I'm not sure I've ever seen a gouache painting spanning several feet 
John Berkey comes to mind (above). Casein has been used a lot in theatrical set painting and Medieval portable altarpieces, and in some murals, so certainly it can be used large. Below is a casein painting by Samuel Colman.

"Solomon's Temple, Colorado"
20.5" x 26" casein on canvas
Samuel Colman Jr. - 1888

 Links and resources

"Casein Painting in the Wild"
HD Digital download on Gumroad (Credit cards)
HD Digital download on Sellfy (Paypal) Buy now
DVD at Kunaki (ships worldwide) or Amazon
Casein Explorers Pack (12) (A good introductory palette that gives you pretty wide gamut.)
Casein 6 Pack (The colors I used for this painting. On its own, it's a rather muted palette. It makes a good supplement to the 12 pack.)
Casein 6-pack with travel brush set (Same set as above with the short-handled set).

Casein Questions

My friend Jim asked:

"We’re headed off on vacation next week. And I’m mulling over my options for what art supplies to bring. I had eliminated oils, as there’s rarely time to really paint on a family trip. So I was leaning towards watercolor, but I find transparent media somewhat limiting, so maybe I’d bring along a few tubes of gouache, too.

Then I was just touching up a frame here and the light bulb flashed on in my brain: casein! You seem to be pleased with the medium as a full-service plein air sketch medium. I’ve never used it except on frames. But I have a full array of tube colors. Have you taken casein on a trip as your prime medium? When you travel with casein, do you work on watercolor paper? Or just in a sketchbook? And what have you used for a travel palette for casein? I guess the big issue I’d be concerned with is losing quantity of dry paint on the palette. (whereas gouache can kind of be re-wet)."

What do you think? I’d really appreciate your thoughts and experience with the medium.

Hi, Jim,

Like you, I don’t take my oils traveling as much as I used to, mainly because of TSA hassles and solvent, stains, and drying-time issues. I always take watercolor and water-soluble colored pencils in my most basic belt-pouch kit (I take this kit EVERYWHERE including the opera and the ballet!), but I add gouache or casein when I want to get more involved in opaques. I like the fact that I can ramp up from drawing to drawing-and-watercolor and then to watercolor-plus-opaque. This completely bridges the gap between drawing and painting.

Casein is an older medium than oil, and I'm told Egyptians used it, and that it actually conserves better than oil--no yellowing for one thing.

I usually work in hardbound watercolor-paper sketchbooks. The paper is beefy enough to handle full wet washes. Casein emulsion isn't that strong in impastos, so if you want to work with a lot of texture you need to either preload the whites with acrylic modeling paste or thick gesso or paint on a very solid surface. Unless you really gob on the impastos, there shouldn’t be any issues with cracking or adhesion. Of course you could work on stretched watercolor paper, board, or panel.

Gouache is probably better than casein for fine detail. I think casein lends itself best to bold opaque direct handling, as with the illustrators John Berkey and Harry Anderson. Some people don’t particularly like casein because of the “chalkiness,” the shift in drying colors, the matte surface, or the general lightness of the darks, but I love all those qualities.

Casein is also a good underpainting medium for oil. If you want a more oil-like surface with casein alone, you can varnish it. You can get casein emulsion and casein varnish. I've tried varnishing it, but I think the velvety matte surface has an attraction all its own.

There’s no way to rewet the dry paint on the palette, but you can keep it wet longer if you put it on a damp paper towel. I wouldn’t want to keep it wet on the palette for more than a few hours because of the risk of mold forming.

Other issues: it kills brushes, and has some ammonia in it, so you shouldn't use natural bristles or sables, but synthetics instead.

I use a variety of limited palettes, and usually only take out about five tubes at a time, just to keep life simpler. The last time I went out I took one similar to Stobart’s palette (Titanium white, ultramarine blue, pyrrole (Winsor) red, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow light, and permanent green). Are you familiar with that one?


One last thing: it has an unusual smell which you either like or don't like, but I've discovered that the smell attracts animals. Maybe it's the milk-based binder. 

All the best.
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Here's more about the tools I was using:
I was using Richeson / Shiva casein
1/4 inch flat brush 
Moleskine watercolor notebook
Waterman Phileas red fountain pen 
Lots of info on casein at Richeson's FAQ about casein

Casein Emulsion and Varnish

Julien from France asks:
"I've finally bought Richeson casein online, still quite expensive [to import to Europe], but quite cool, actually different from gouache or Holbein's Acryla Gouache. My question is, have you used the Shiva casein emulsion or varnish, and can you use it with gouache?

First, a little background. For those who don't know, when you buy the emulsion separate from the paint, you're getting the liquid glue-like binder that holds the pigment together. Casein emulsion is a water-soluble, milk-based protein in liquid form in a can or jar. It's the same stuff that they use to formulate the paint.

Shiva is the company that originally made casein paint. The company was bought by the Jack Richeson company, which markets the product under both the Shiva name and Richeson brand, but I believe they're the same product.

Detail of Skysweepers, painted with gouache with some acrylic medium

In answer to your question, I have only experimented a little with the casein emulsion. I don't see any reason why you can't use casein emulsion with gouache. It would make gouache behave more like casein. You could even use acrylic medium with gouache. I used to do that a lot, because I liked the opacity of gouache, but I wanted it to have the sealed surface of acrylic.

I have used the casein varnish made by Richeson, which is a liquid brush-on varnish. As far as I know, they no longer make it. I found that it doesn't work well with watercolor paper because the paper is so absorbent. It just soaks the varnish up, so it requires a lot of coats before you start getting a gloss.

But on a panel, the varnish develops gloss with just one or two coats. The varnish is helpful for bringing out the depth and richness of dark paintings. If you're using paint with a matte surface, dark passages are prone to looking chalky. I find that the matte surface of gouache or casein is better suited to more high-key palettes.

If you want to varnish a gouache or casein painting, you could use a spray varnish, but keep in mind that once you apply a varnish, the surface is closed, and you wouldn't want to paint over it again with either casein or gouache.

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Here are some links assorted casein paints: 

Titanium white  

Cadmium yellow light

Golden ochre

Cerulean blue 

Ultramarine blue 

Cadmium red scarlet 

Venetian red 

Casein emulsion 

Casein basic set of 6 colors  

Winsor and Newton gloss varnish 

Travel brush set 

Plein-air tripod

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Previously:
Your Casein Questions
Questions about Casein and Gouache

When to Use Casein vs. Gouache

The Sleepy Knitter asks: Why [would] an artist would choose casein over gouache OR gouache over casein in an individual painting scenario? If I were you and preparing my plein-air kit for the day, what would make me choose the casein kit over the gouache kit, or vice versa? I'm debating whether to upgrade my student gouache kit to a professional one or instead to buy a professional casein kit. 

Hutton Street, casein

SK, good question. Of course casein and gouache are both water-based media. Both are opaque and both dry with a matte surface. You can even use them together. But the differences are notable. 

I often prefer casein when I want a fuller-bodied paint and a more closed surface when it dries. Casein can feel more like oil paint as it comes off the brush, giving you a more buttery tactile experience. When I am in an "oil mood" I often reach for casein. 

I painted for many years in oil, but I've mostly put that medium aside because of the toxic mineral spirits and the difficulty with cleanup. Also, casein is typically less expensive per cc than either gouache or oil, allowing you to use it more freely. 

On the other hand, gouache is a great choice for its fine detail capabilities and a wider range of color choices. It generally offers a higher pigment concentration and can provide a smoother, more precise finish. Gouache is also retains its solubility even after it dries, whereas casein resists reactivation once dry. 

Finally, the aroma of gouache is negligible, while casein has a striking "cleaning-solvent-like" smell that you should test first to make sure you're OK with it. Some folks love it and some don't like it, but I wouldn't use casein in an enclosed space among strangers in the wild for that reason.

It's Casein Week, Day One

I goofed around a little with casein paint when I was in art school, but then I forgot about it. I moved on to oil, gouache, and watercolor. Fast-forward thirty years. In 2013 at an art convention I learned it was still being manufactured, so I thought I'd give it a try again.

Mountain Stream, casein, 5 x 8 inches

When I unscrewed the cap and inhaled the unique smell, the memories of my art school days flooded back.

Part of my fascination with the medium is that it's old fashioned. It was a favorite of many of the old-school illustrators I admire, such as John Berkey and Harry Anderson. Casein was popular with illustrators for the same reasons as gouache. It dries fast to a matte surface and the colors photograph well. The slight difference from gouache is that it has a milk-based binder, which seals just enough so that it won't reactivate with successive layers (unless you really scrub).

If you've been following the blog, you'll know that casein has become one of my favorite media for outdoor painting. Here's a link to all 52 blog posts tagged with "casein."

My newest Gumroad tutorial "Casein Painting in the Wild" releases today.

Here's the first trailer. (Link to YouTube) I tackle seven different painting challenges from start to finish and show you a wealth of practical tips that you can apply to other kinds of opaque water-based media, such as acrylic or gouache.

I'm told that casein is hard to find in Europe, but you can get it in the USA from Amazon. If you can't find casein in your region, no worries. You can substitute gouache or Acryla Gouache and get very similar results.

Links and resources

"Casein Painting in the Wild"
HD Digital download on Gumroad (Credit cards)
HD Digital download on Sellfy (Paypal) Buy now
DVD at Kunaki (ships worldwide) or Amazon
Casein Explorers Pack (12) (A good introductory palette that gives you pretty wide gamut.)
Casein 6 Pack (The colors I used for this painting. On its own, it's a rather muted palette. It makes a good supplement to the 12 pack.)
Casein 6-pack with travel brush set (Same set as above with the short-handled set).

The manufacturer Richeson put together the sets based on the colors I usually use. Full disclosure: I get a small percentage when you buy a set of caseins from the Amazon links above. The Richeson company did not sponsor me to make the video, nor did they review or approve the content.

If you have any questions about casein, please ask them in the comments, and I'll answer some of them tomorrow.

Questions about Casein and Gouache

Carlos Angeli writes from Argentina: "I've just finished watching Fantasy in the Wild (shared some thoughts on the blog as well), and loved it. Because there are no casein paints here in Argentina, I was wondering; if you had to go with a substitute for paintings like the ones in your video, would you go with either gouache or acrylics? 

Also, Julien in France asked on YouTube: "Richeson casein is not distributed in France yet, a bit expensive to get. Couldn't find a casein set less than 60/80€."

Gurney: Yes Carlos and Julien, it's too bad that Richeson doesn't distribute casein where you live, but gouache is nearly the same— good colors, opaque, and nice handling. I did the excavator study in gouache and transparent watercolors.

Julien: "I thought casein was more 'creamy' than gouache? I already have gouache, maybe not tested extra fine quality gouache (only white with my watercolors). In French shops, casein seems to be only a basic paint for old furnitures, as 'ecologic' way. The milk protein is only in casein isn't it? And you have both gouache and casein in the US, even if only Shiva (Richeson) seems to offer casein, no?

Gurney: Yes, casein is formulated with a milk protein for the binder. It's a bit creamier than gouache, but if you're using your transparent watercolors with gouache white, you would get more of a creamy feeling if you used tubed gouache for all the colors instead. You could also mix your gouache with a little casein emulsion or even acrylic emulsion. Richeson makes a separate emulsion product, as does Pelikan.

If you want a sealed surface when the paint is dry, you could use Holbein Acryla Gouache or any of the "acrylic gouaches", which are really acrylic paints with opaque, matte, "gouache-like" qualities. 

Carlos: "I'd like to know if you use something to protect your paintings once they're finished. I've been doing many watercolor and some gouache attempts lately and I don't know if there's a product for that."

When I was doing animation background painting, I used an aerosol product called Crystal Clear to varnish gouaches and cel-vinyl paintings. It gives them an impermeable, glossy depth that resembles oil paintings, but it makes the surface no longer workable in gouache, pencil, or pen.

Richeson (Shiva) makes a casein varnish to protect the surface and deepen the colors with a glossier finish. I've tried it, but haven't had much luck with it because it keeps soaking into the paper, even after many coats. Maybe if I used a less absorbent ground than watercolor paper, such as a gesso surface, the varnish might not soak in.

Most of the time, and especially for my sketchbooks, I like to leave the surface of gouache and casein just as it is, with a matte finish. It photographs better and it's always workable. 

Fantasy in the Wild: Painting Concept Art on Location is available in two forms:

HD MP4 video download...$14.95 from Gumroad
DVD (Region 1 NTSC)......$24.50 from Kunaki

Previously on the blog: Gouache Ingredients: Info from Manufacturers

Casein in International Artist Magazine

The new Feb/March 2017 issue of International Artist magazine has an article on casein painting with facsimile pages from my sketchbook reproduced nearly full size.

It also includes the following answers to frequently asked questions:

CAN YOU VARNISH CASEIN?
Yes, but first it’s worth considering leaving the casein unvarnished. The matte surface can be very attractive, and it photographs well. The value range can be extended in Photoshop after it’s shot. You can also buff the surface with a T-shirt to give it semi-gloss. For a shinier surface and deeper darks, there are two choices. First is the liquid varnish, applied with a brush. Wait at least a week or two before varnishing. Brush it on lightly to avoid disturbing the dry paint.

A spray varnish can also work. Both brush-on and spray-on varnishes require several coats because they tend to soak into the surface, especially if the painting is done on absorbent paper or illustration board. For those substrates, it can take over four coats before you start seeing much gloss or darkening of the darks. A surface primed at the beginning with gesso, or a thick layer of casein that fills the paper’s pores allows the varnish to float on the surface more.

HOW FAST DOES CASEIN DRY?
Drying time depends on the heat and humidity, as with other water media such as acrylic and gouache. It will dry to the touch anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or so. You can slow the drying time of the paint blobs on the palette by squeezing out the tubes on damp paper towels. A spritz of water from a spray bottle can also keep it alive a little longer. Casein is unusual in that the proteins in the milk emulsion continue to strengthen after the paint has dried to the touch. So after a few days or weeks, the paint will be more durable than paint that has just dried.

PRO TIP:  GETTING THE FEEL OF CASEIN
Casein can be used semitransparently, but it has great opacity when you need it. The paint has a unique, unforgettable aroma. The milk-based binder seals each layer enough so that the paint won’t reactivate with later application. The paint dries to an attractive matte surface that photographs very well, particularly in saturated tints, which is one of the reasons it was so popular with early illustrators.

The issue has features on Linda Gendall, Geoffrey Johnson, Mark Harrison, Robert Brindley, Jacqui Grantford, David Kitler, Amanda Hyatt, and Tiziana Ciaghi.

Links and resources

"Casein Painting in the Wild"
HD Digital download on Gumroad (Credit cards)
HD Digital download on Sellfy (Paypal) Buy now
DVD at Kunaki (ships worldwide) or Amazon
Casein Explorers Pack (12) (A good introductory palette that gives you pretty wide gamut.)
Casein 6 Pack (On its own, it's a rather muted palette. It makes a good supplement to the 12 pack.)
Casein 6-pack with travel brush set (Same set as above with the short-handled set).

Linkology 
Instagram @jamesgurneyart
Twitter @GurneyJourney
Facebook JamesMGurney
iOS app GurneyJourney Blog
Pinterest GurneyJourney

YouTube GurneyJourney

Casein Questions on Open Time and Varnishing

Rollo Q asks: "I have a couple of questions about the casein. Roughly how long do you find the paint is wet (moveable rather than liftable) on the surface. Obviously I realise this must depend on climate and surface and paint thickness etc, but I've seen people call it fast drying and its hard to tell what that means (I paint in flashe vinyl which is notably slower than acrylics but faster by far than oils. Open time is 30 - 60 mins for flashe I'd guess). Also do you use an acrylic varnish? Or a resin?"

James Gurney answers: You're right, time it takes for a freshly painted area to dry to the touch depends on the temperature, humidity, wind, paint thickness and wetness, absorbency of the ground, and even the type of pigment. Cadmiums are slower drying than umbers, for example, and titanium white dries relatively fast. This pigment variable is especially noticeable on the paint blobs squeezed out on the palette. 

So how long does it take for a passage to dry? On a nice day an average paint stroke starts to set up in anywhere from a few minutes to ten minutes or so. While it's still wet you can blend all you want, but once it's dry to the touch, a stroke can go down over it without much fear of previous layers lifting or reactivating, unless the new stroke is really wet or there's a lot of scrubbing. 

Paint that is newly dry presents a relatively closed surface, meaning that, unlike gouache, it resists reactivation. The strength of the paint's glue-like binder is not as strong as acrylic, which has a powerful bond which sticks hard to your palette and wreaks havoc on your brushes. Because of that weaker binder, casein techniques involving thick, textural impasto should only be painted on a rigid surface such as a panel or illustration board. 

With casein, paint that feels dry from evaporation isn't fully cured yet. The milk protein molecules keep bonding, which can take anywhere from overnight to a couple weeks. Curing time can be accelerated by putting the painting in a sunny, dry, and warm (but not too hot) location. 

After it's dried and cured you can decide whether or not you want to varnish it. Like gouache, casein is meant to dry matte, and that can look good in a light, high-key painting. I almost never varnish sketchbook paintings. Paintings with a matte surface certainly photograph well, and the digital version of a painting can be adjusted in Photoshop to give it the full range of values. The manufacturers suggest buffing the surface of a dry painting using an old T-shirt to add some semi-gloss luster to the surface.

The main reason I varnish some of my casein paintings is to deepen the darks in an overall dark painting or to protect a painting that I want to frame without glass. Dark-keyed paintings look better varnished, and sometimes varnish is needed to unify the surface sheen of the painting. You can varnish casein just as you would varnish an oil painting. The advantage of casein compared with oil for plein-air painters is that you can varnish it the same day, rather than waiting weeks or months for the paint to dry. 

I've tried various brush-on varnishes, but I've been using a non-yellowing spray gloss varnish, which works well, but acrylic gloss varnish should work well, too. 

For the varnish to work with one or two coats, the substrate beneath the paint needs to be relatively non absorbent, such as a hardwood panel or gesso-primed canvas mounted to board. I've been painting on acrylic primed canvas panels, which respond well to varnish. If the painting consists of thin casein washes on soft watercolor paper, the surface will absorb the varnish, and it will take a lot of coats before you start to get a glossy surface. After it's varnished, a casein painting can be framed without glass just like an oil.

Here are some links assorted casein paints: 

Titanium white  

Cadmium yellow light

Golden ochre

Cerulean blue 

Ultramarine blue 

Cadmium red scarlet 

Venetian red 

Casein emulsion 

Casein basic set of 6 colors  

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Casein Colors

Artists’ casein paint comes in all these tube colors.

A couple notes:

• Some people have a hard time getting darks in casein because it dries matte. If you've had that issue, you can use black or try the Shiva colors—violet and green.

• They're quite transparent and can give you deep dark mixtures while still keeping some color identity.

• If you paint on illustration board or panel, you can build up some impasto texture. It generally doesn't crack or chip unless you flex the support or really abrade the surface.

• Don't worry if you can't buy casein where you live. You can use Acryla gouache or just acrylic or gouache instead. What I like about casein is that the paint is midway between gouache and acrylic in the strength of the glue-like emulsion, not too sticky or plastic-y and not too soluble after it dries.

Here are some of your comments from Instagram:

Kristy Hall says: "Like casein better than gouache but it does have a distinctive smell!!??"

jamesgurneyart Yes, the smell can seem sort of medical. They told me it was a preservative to keep the milk-based proteins from spoiling. To me the smell evokes old-school memories of older illustrators doing demos in the 1980s, but I know it may hit others differently.

blackbirdcd "I’ve really enjoyed casein, and I’ve used it a lot for my Space Art livestream. Usually I use casein to emulate the John Berkey style (although I haven’t made my own acrylic/casein mix like he did). The Richeson/Shiva casein is fantastic. I had okay luck varnishing casein but only after applying a layer of clear gloss acrylic.

I've been using Liquitex gloss varnish, especially for dark-keyed paintings.

lorideboerdesigns "Thanks for turning me onto casein, James! You are missing a few of Richeson's newer colors, including Naples yellow, terre verte and I believe there is also now a turquoise one. I am finding that I do need to mix my own browns, as the raw umber seems like it has a bit too much green for my taste."

You're right. My chart also seems to be missing burnt sienna.

Ultramarine blue deep, burnt sienna, Payne's grey, and Permasol blue.