Many years ago I bought a product called Disponil from, I think, Kremer Pigment in NYC – it worked great at combining hard to wet pigments with water. I haven’t been able to find Disponil again. I now use Golden Paint’s Universal Dispersant. Am I safe in presuming that the Golden’s product is compatible with egg tempera (for pigments that resist wetting)? Any other comments on dispersants and egg tempera?
Thanks for your response, Matthew. I found Disponil much more effective with certain, especially difficult-to-disperse colors (i.e. the quinacridones; and alizarin crimson, when I used to use it, don’t anymore). Alcohol seems to work rather slowly for especially fine sized, lightweight colors. So I’d like to get my hands on more disponil, but if not possible I’m hopeful Golden’s Dispersant is suitable for ET.
Denatured alcohol is a good wetting agent for pigments that don’t readily combine with water-based vehicles, and will not adversely affect a tempera medium. Disponil is a BASF brand range of surfactants used industrially for making house paint and glues. These are not available as consumer products. Paint manufacturers often have to combine surfactants with de-foaming agents, because they may tend to lather like detergent.
I will defer to Golden on details of their Universal Dispersant, but I believe it already contains a defoamer, and is more ready-to-use than surfactants alone.
Latest Post: Varnishing a gouache on paper Our newest member: Larryhor Recent Posts Unread Posts
