Methods for Coloring Lacquer to Make Paints and Toners

Why Create Colored Lacquers From Clear Lacquer?

Lacquer is a hard fast-drying finish that can be applied to wood or metal. It dries quickly and cures to a hard durable finish. If it's not clear, lacquer is typically black or white. By adding colorants, you can create either an opaque lacquer type paint or a transparent toner to add a pop of color!

One might ask, "Why would I even want to bother with adding pigments, tints, and dies to clear lacquer? Well, the short answer would be because you can. But seriously folks, it is getting harder and harder to locate satisfactory quality, fast-drying solvent-based finishing products. If you do find them, they are marginalized to being "specialty products" for which companies charge exorbitant prices. I always try to use waterborne nontoxic finishes when able, but sometimes, an old fashion solvent spray paint that dries completely in minutes is the magic ticket. I hope these ideas to color lacquer help you to add fun colors to your projects.

Krylon Spray Paint Before 2006

Krylon used to make an acrylic lacquer spray paint that would dry in minutes, and you could re-coat anytime. With all the regulations concerning volatile organics, Krylon changed over to alkyd enamel around 2006. The alkyds are serviceable paints, but they have application windows which make them hard to deal with. Especially with novices. With the alkyd sprays, you need to either spray the second coat within the hour or wait at least 48 hours to re-coat. A project that might need two or possibly three coats of paint could take a week or more to complete in certain circumstances. Do not get me started on applying a clear protective finish! This article is about exploring possibilities of how an artist can get fast-drying spray finished that can be recoated in a reasonable time frame.

Pigments and Dyes

Pigments are usually fine intensely colored solids that are generally insoluble in most liquids. There are two classes of pigments, inorganic and organic. Inorganic pigments usually consist of metal oxides. Tinting strength can be variable, but these types are usually opaque. Organic pigments are usually petrochemical derivatives and are usually brightly colored. They can be opaque or transparent.

Universal Tints

Universal tints are solid pigments finely ground and then dispersed into a fluid medium for easy addition to a liquid paint or finish. The fluid in which the pigments are dispersed is usually a blend of water and a glycol ether solvent with traces of surfactant. This blend ensures that these tints can be added to either water-based or solvent-based painting mediums. When you go to the home improvement center to choose a paint color, the workers use universal pigments in pre-measured amounts to get the exact color. Most paint bases have titanium dioxide white dispersed as an opacifier. The tints adjust the color of the paint to the recipe for the desired color.

Some universal tints are transparent or translucent by themselves. Adding it directly to a clear lacquer will more than likely create a toning lacquer instead of an opaque lacquer paint. This can be useful for applying a stain to wood or over an existing finish to deepen a color and/or give more depth. Although some pigments are rather opaque, others can approach transparent qualities. Below is a photo of clear lacquer with a few drops of Mixol Blue tint on some textured steel. If the pigment particles are especially fine and there is not much pigment, the look is transparent. To create a solid deep opaque color, blending more opaque universal tints into the transparent ones would be helpful. Also, adding a dry oxide pigment to the clear lacquer base in small amounts and straining before adding universal tints might be more economical since universal tints tend to be more expensive considering tinting strength versus straight pigment powder.

Solvent Dyes

Solvent dyes are a natural fit for lacquer-based colored toners because they dissolve completely at the molecular level, producing transparent, streak-free color that highlights grain, texture, or underlying finishes rather than obscuring them. Unlike pigments, solvent dyes don’t require milling or dispersion aids, which makes them especially attractive for spray toners and wipe-on color adjustments. That said, light fastness varies widely among solvent dyes. Many bright, high-chroma dyes—especially reds, yellows, and violets—are more susceptible to UV degradation over time. To protect a dyed lacquer finish, it’s smart to pair the toner with a UV-resistant clear topcoat, preferably one containing HALS (hindered amine light stabilizers) or UV absorbers. Limiting prolonged exposure to direct sunlight and building color gradually in thin layers also helps preserve hue accuracy and slow fading.

Highly soluble solvent dyes such as Solvent Blue 67, Solvent Red 122, and Solvent Yellow 82 are particularly well suited for lacquer toners because they dissolve rapidly and cleanly in common lacquer solvent systems. Ketones (like acetone or MEK), glycol ethers, and lower alcohols provide excellent solvency, allowing these dyes to reach high color strength without precipitation or haze. This high solubility translates into predictable color builds, easy tint adjustments, and excellent spray behavior—no clogging, no settling, and no muddy undertones. Blue 67 offers deep, clean blues with impressive transparency, Red 122 delivers strong bluish reds ideal for shading and color correction, and Yellow 82 provides bright, efficient yellow tones that blend smoothly into secondary colors. When matched with the right solvent balance and protected with a durable clear coat, these dyes enable lacquer toners that are both visually striking and technically reliable.

DIY Lacquer with Paraloid Acrylic Resin

If you want better control of what is in your lacquer, you can attempt to make your own. There are low molecular weight acrylic resins called Paraloids that you can dissolve in a solvent such as MEK or Toluene to make a concentrate (30% to 40% resin) that you can thin when you need to. Paraloid resins can be found at art conservation supply houses or really well-stocked artist suppliers.

There are a few types of Paraloid resin to choose from depending on how they will be used and what solvents will be used to dissolve them. Paraloid B72 is the most common and widely available. This resin can be dissolved in toluene or acetone but the solution has a high tolerance for alcohol. This could be useful if you start with an acetone solution of Paraloid B72 and want to thin it down with denatured alcohol with the goal of trying to minimize the amount of noxious solvents like toluene and similar aromatics. Paraloid B67 is a harder resin that is soluble in hydrocarbons. With a small addition of xylene (5%), this resin will dissolve in mineral spirits or naphtha. This allows one to make a colored lacquer for surfaces that could be harmed by acetone or other harsher solvents. Also, a lacquer made with Paraloid B67 can be used with fluorescent pigments since these pigments are incompatible with acetone and similar ketone solvents.