Flake white . . . mull your own?

[Richard Bingham]

When I was learning how to paint, Dutch Boy White Lead was still a paint-store staple, for painting houses and making putty. My dad (and many other painters we knew) liked it for priming canvas, and used it on the palette as well. When I was in school, I found two 50# tubs of it in a local paintstore on close-out. That was nearly forty years ago, and between us, used out of that stock for nearly thirty years. By then, as you might imagine, I was pretty used to it as a studio "staple".

As true flake white (basic lead carbonate) continues to disappear from common use, and as even ten years ago, the lead whites that were available were not to my liking, I began mulling my own lead white.

It's a small chore, and it does take time away from the easel, but the effort is worth it to me, and I have succeeded in replicating the handling character of the old canned lead white.

One problem is to guage the amount of material, so that you can fill a large tube without waste. I use the following proportions:

400 grams of white lead, mulled into 62 grams of black oil fills one large studio-size tube. I work the pigment and oil first with a large palette knife, then use a muller and slab. I like to have the mass set overnight, then mull again before tubing.

Whiting (calcium carbonate) can be an interesting additive for lead white, it increases transparency and promotes a loopy, ropey texture. Of course it's not necessary to mull in black oil, any good quality linseed oil will yield excellent paint.