How much paint would you mix into cement to color it?
I used about 1 to 4 paint to water ratio and the castings seem to be very painty (if there is a word) it has been 2 days and castings are still very soft. The color came through very bold.
I don't know what you are making but when I first started playing with concrete I asked a house painter I met the best way to color concrete. His advice: just paint them with exterior latex paint. Made sense to me! Concrete houses, exterior paint...must work! Since then, I have just made the pieces with concrete/sand mix, purchased an airbrush and compressor, and used the exterior latex paint with a little water and some bonding agent (which you should also be mixing into your portland/sand/water mix - makes the concrete very clay-like or maleable) after the pieces have cured a bit. The airbrush gives the finished pieces such a soft, realistic look. I am making leaves, elephant ears, seagrape, and if you know your colors, you can give them such a realistic look NO ONE will know, until they touch them, that they aren't real. I took a leaf to Home Depot's paint dept. and asked them to reproduce the color. They scanned it and produced a color I thought was way too pea green, however when we smeared it across the leaf, we couldn't tell where the paint was! Just as important is the undercolor, as I call it. But I digress...what color are you going for? What's your project?
I'm using a bonding agent from Home Depot. It is called "Liquid Bonding Agent." Comes in a gallon bottle and looks like Elmer's glue. I have never really measured but use about 1 part agent to 4 prts water mixed together well before adding to portland/sand mix. When painting with the airbrush it is about 1 part agent 1 part water added to the paint and mixed well. I think if I were going to paint with a brush I would use it straight with the paint. 1 to 1. As an artist friend of mine said..."that bonding agent will make paint stick to ANYTHING!"
The mfg of Hornweld is Tamms. You might want to contact them for a local source. Their site says they have other stuff for concrete, but I didn't have the time to check it out.
