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I had bought poster/water colours a year ago (because of the persuasion of our school) but never had an opportunity to use it, because my previous box of colours were what I used during the whole academic year. Now that I have free time in my hand, I want to paint some drawings I drew in my free time, and those I am currently drawing. However my paint bottles have dried up over the year. Now I don't want to simply throw away the completely filled bottles just like that.

Is there a way to recover those colours? I don't think addition of water alone would essentially help, because I had tried that when I was young with some other colour bottle, but it just made it extra watery and the vividness of the colours were lost.

Dhanishtha
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  • H Dhanishtha, Welcome to Lifehacks. You stand a much better chance finding a workable answer at another StackExchange group such as https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/ or https://crafts.stackexchange.com/. Even then, it depends on the pigment, the additives, and the kind of liquid. It could be tempera, gouache, etc. Each is different. – Stan Nov 21 '20 at 17:36
  • @Stan Hello Stan. Thank you. But I think Graphic design site is more technology oriented rather than hand-crafted things, I am not sure though. Crafts.SE looks like a usable link. I might as well try my luck there. – Dhanishtha Nov 21 '20 at 17:39
  • I hang out at Graphic Design and there are many there who still use conventional material for the effect they prefer for their style. – Stan Nov 21 '20 at 17:44
  • This is very much going to depend on what type of paints they are. if they're acrylics, for instance, there's nothing you can do to recover them; they don't so much 'dry' as 'cure', which is irreversible.. – Tetsujin Dec 30 '20 at 12:47

1 Answers1

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Start over. There's no short-cut.

Remove the dried-up colourants and grind the stuff to as fine a powder as you can.

Add the powder to the bottles. Add water, drop-by-drop mixing the powder to a paste, then to a liquid as thick as you wish according to the type of effect you strive for.

The same procedure is true if you have water colours in a tube but the tube will be destroyed removing the contents. You can get replacement tubes of tin from art supply stores with open ends that are sealed by crimping with a pair of pliers.

Good luck.

Stan
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