The Best Ways to Colour your Resin
You can probably guess by now that our favourite way to colour resin is with epoxy pigment pastes... but there are also a number of other colourants you can use in your resin so let’s jump into it and discuss the pros and cons of all kinds of tinters, pigments and dyes.
Epoxy Pigment Pastes: It's no secret that we loooove an epoxy pigment paste here at Drippy - it’s what we use in all of our colour palettes, workshops and tutorials and its one of the most universal kinds of pigments resin artists use to colour their resin. It's easy to use, highly pigmented (about 30-50% pure pigment!), minimally messy, and there are a huge variety of colours, finishes, opacities, and effects. The main reason we love using pigment pastes is because they are highly stable, and it almost always interacts well with resin (unless you use wayyy too much pigment) meaning it’s great for all skill levels and projects. We also love pigment pastes due to the variety of finishes - shimmer, sparkle, matte, creme, translucent... so many options!
Acrylic Paint: Acrylic paint is probably our least favourite way to colour resin, but it does have some pros! Acrylic paint is affordable, accessible, and comes in many colours and finishes like pigment pastes. However, acrylic paint only really has a pigment loading of around 3-10% meaning you won’t get super saturated, vibrant colours in the same way that you get from using pigment pastes. You’re also at risk of your resin not curing or curing lumpy if you use too much paint in your resin!!! Eeek no one wants to deal with incurable resin! That being said, playing around with acrylic paints to colour your resin can be a great way to get started and practise your resin art skills before investing in higher quality pigments
Alcohol Inks: Alcohol inks are one of the most fun ways to colour your resin – the alcohol fights against the resin creating swirls and drip patterns in the resin. The textures and patterns that you get from using alcohol inks result in unique and captivating artworks and they work well in silicone moulds. The downside to alcohol inks is that they can make the resin unstable if you use too much, meaning the resin has a really hard time curing and could stay bendy. Alcohol inks take a bit of practice but once you master them, they really do deliver!
Mica Powders: Mica powders or pigment powders are a really common and easy way to colour resin and deliver stunning results. It’s pretty hard to over-do it with mica powders too as they don’t have any liquid, oils or stabilisers mixed with them. The downsides with pigment powders are that the colour options can be quite limited and a huge majority of them have a shimmer finish to them so it can be hard to create resin artworks with complexity, depth and dimension as an all-shimmer finish can be a bit much! A lot of mica (the shimmer element) is also unsustainably sourced and abuses child labour in third world countries so it can be hard to know if the mica pigment you are using is ethical or not.
Dye: inks and dyes can also be a fun way to explore a new texture/finish when working with resin. Dyes and inks will often give a translucent finish to your resin and can look stunning if you’re adding layers to an ocean-inspired artwork as it allows the textures and details from previous layers to shine through. You can also bust into old highlighters, markers and pens and use the ink from inside.
Have you tried colouring or tinting resin with anything else? We would love to hear about what you have tried! Experimenting with new mediums and styles is such a great way to develop as an artist and find your unique style so we would encourage you to have a play around with these different kinds of pigments and find what works for you!
P.s. did you know that all our pigment pastes are Australian made synthetic pigments?! Not only are they incredible quality but they are kinder on the planet!