Page 4 - Pigments
Pigments are the colorants used in paints, inks, plastics, fabrics, cosmetics, and food. By mixing pigments with a binder you can create your own acrylic, oil, tempera, watercolor, and other paints and inks.
Natural iron oxide pigments, or iron oxide earth pigments collectively referred to as iron oxides, comprise both oxides and oxide hydroxides of iron. Hematite (α-Fe2O3) is the most common iron oxide in red earth pigments, and the iron oxide hydroxide goethite (α-FeOOH) is the most frequently found iron compound in yellow earth pigments. Umbers are brown earth pigments containing both oxides of iron and manganese...
Fluorescence is a phenomenon where a substance absorbs light at a specific wavelength and then re-emits the light at a longer wavelength. This re-emitted light is known as fluorescence. Fluorescent pigments are substances that can fluoresce and are widely used in various applications, such as in art, science, and industry.
Fluorescence occurs when a molecule, called a fluorophore, absorbs a photon of light at a specific wavelength and then re-emits the light at a longer wavelength. This process is known as fluorescence and is caused by the movement of electrons within the fluorophore.
Fluorescent pigments are made up of a variety of different compounds, such as fluorescent dyes, fluorescent inks, and fluorescent plastics. These pigments are used in many applications, including art, science, and industry.
There are several types of fluorescent pigments, each with its unique properties. One type of fluorescent pigment is called a “dayglow” pigment, which...
Lead sulfate (British spelling, sulphate) formed the basis of several white pigments that were made on a large scale in the 19th and 20th centuries and sold under a variety of names, such as "Patent White Lead," "Non-poisonous White Lead," "Sublimed White Lead," etc. Some of these pigments did not consist entirely of lead sulfate but contained other minerals, such as zinc oxide, barite (barium sulfate), magnesia (magnesium carbonate), etc., in varying quantities...
Teresa Oaxaca has been using transparent pigments for about a year and a half now, and a blog post of this nature has been on her to-do list ever since. Seldom very popular (unless the paint tube is labeled the ever famous "transparent oxide yellow"), little known and less understood, most people question why someone would want to go to the trouble of producing, let alone painting with a weak pigment. In the age of cadmium and other bright hi-keyed pigments, earth colors have come into question. Why not mix it down? Why settle for a lower chroma...
It is no coincidence that the palette in the self-portrait by Michael Sweerts is practically identical to the palette described in detail by Roger de Piles in his 1684 book Les Premiers Elémens de Peinture Pratique. Sweerts was a contemporary of de Piles, and it appears that his palette was laid out in the manner practiced throughout western Europe in the 17th century...
This is a tutorial on preparing the grinding tools and dispersing pigments into the water to make your water-based paint. This technique can be used to prepare dispersions of pigment in water to be mixed with gum arabic solution for watercolors, egg yolk for egg tempera, casein solution for casein paint, animal glue for distemper, and use in fresco painting. The same technique can be used to disperse pigments in preparation for making pastels and pigment sticks...
The palette described by Roger de Piles in his seventeenth-century painting manual, Les Elémens de Peinture Pratique, describes a pigment in French, brun rouge. What is brun rouge? Are there modern substitutes? It is easy to mimic a hue with a combination of pigments, but much more difficult to imitate the undertones and nearly impossible its consistency in paint. The latter can only be done successfully using the same pigment, at least as far as we can determine from literary sources...
In his book, Les Elémens de Peinture pratique, Roger de Piles describes a typical flesh tone palette of the 17th century. On this palette is a dark yellow color, stil de grain, a lake pigment made with unripe buckthorn berries...
A paper by scientists at the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute exposes long-term problems with zinc white in oil paint. The report “The Chemical and Mechanical Effects of Pigments on Drying Oils” describes the highlights of a 28-year study on the stability and strength of oil paint films. The results reveal important implications for artwork made with artists’ oil paints containing zinc white...
How Fred Wessel uses Rublev Colours, Aqueous Pigment Dispersions made by Natural Pigments, and dry pigment powders in his tempera paintings. The dispersions eliminate the step of dispersing pigments in water, allowing him to spend more time at the easel and less with the muller and grinding surface...
At one time in history, the English word pink referred to a yellow color. There is no satisfactory explanation for why the word pink meant a yellow color. There is speculation, owing to its greenish-yellow tone, that it is derived from the German word pinkeln, translated in a dictionary of 1798 as ‘to piss, to make water.’ The color most often known as Dutch pink was ‘a yellow lake prepared from Persian berries or quercitron and used chiefly as an artist’s pigment,’ according to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, under the definition of Dutch pink....
Asphaltum and bitumen are broad terms for many substances based on high-molecular hydrocarbons. From the viewpoint of current art historical research, bitumen represents a large group of organic substances, which consist of an indefinable mixture of high-molecular hydrocarbons. Bitumen either occurs naturally or is obtained from the synthetic distillation of petroleum. Depending upon its place of origin or technique of manufacturing, bitumen possesses a composition of different characteristics...
