Page 7 - Pigments

The revival of traditional art styles and techniques has burgeoned into a full-fledged Second Renaissance. And this re-awakening has sparked a renewed interest in the colors used by the great masters of the past. It was thus inevitable that someone would produce the traditional pigments in watercolors...

Finding and collecting earth pigments can be both an exciting and rewarding endeavor. Collecting pigments from the earth can be done causally as you drive through the country or with much planning and preparation to identify and collect specific mineral pigment types. This is the first article in a series on finding, collecting, and preparing your earth pigments...

Paint pigments are much more complex today than in past history. They are mixed with other materials or coated to give visual shifts or other active color effects. To gain an appreciation of color theory and the problems of color matching, it is essential to consider the physics of sight in some detail. Before continuing, though, some background knowledge is required...

Step-by-step instructions for painting portraits using earth pigments which lend themselves to making flesh tones. Some of them even look just like flesh colors right out of the tube without your having to mix them...

The technique followed by painters in medieval Western Europe to prepare and paint tempera panels and that used by painters in Russia of the same period are closely allied. However, there are some differences in the process, from the preparation of the panel to the final varnish. These differences are interesting to note and can provide some insight into the technique and process used by the earliest Byzantine artists to make panel paintings...

In the previous article of this series, we introduced the idea of collecting your pigments in the article, Pigments from the Earth. In this article, the second in the series, we will discuss the processes involved in preparing the samples of soil you have gathered—grinding, sifting, washing, drying, mulling, and storing the pigment...

Thanks to developments in chemistry over the past 300 years, painters today have hundreds of pure and permanent colors from which to choose. Although fewer pigments were available to painters of Medieval Europe, they had minerals, earth, plants, bones, shells, and insects, and they knew how to transform these into pigments. The question arises whether the extensive range of modern synthetic pigments provides artists of today with anything superior to the natural and artificial pigments used by Medieval and Renaissance masters. Working with natural pigments may offer a renaissance in our understanding of color language. This article discusses what the unique properties of natural mineral pigments can offer to contemporary painters...

Roger de Piles (October 7, 1635–April 5, 1709) was an art critic, theorist, and collector whose significant contribution to aesthetic theory rests on his Dialogue sur le coloris ("Dialogue on colors"), in which he initiated his famous defense of Rubens in an argument started in 1671 by Philippe de Champaigne on the relative merits of drawing and color in the work of Titian. In 1668, he published an annotated translation of Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy's De Arte Graphica that greatly influenced the aesthetic discussions of the day. De Piles later published several painting manuals that became essential resources for oil painters in the following centuries. The following is a translation by the editor of chapter 4 (incomplete) of Roger de Piles' Les Elémens de Peinture Pratique....

Terra-merita is a vegetable color produced by the decoction of an Indian root (Curcuma longa). This reference (Osborn 1849) describes the pigment produced from the plant known in culinary as turmeric. The yellow-orange extract is prepared from the root of the Curcuma longa plant by drying and powdering, then by solvent extraction, typically with ethyl acetate. The resulting powder is 18 times stronger in the essential ingredients than is the common spice, which is simply a powdered form of the dried root. Curcuma longa extract is a polyphenol that is oil-soluble in its natural state. The extract is without flavor and aroma. It readily colors any substance if there is oil present...

Lead white is the most important white pigment used in painting throughout history. It was known to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans and commonly used in the preparation of ointments and plasters, as well as cosmetics. It was first identified in literature as a pigment by Pliny, who mentions it, among other colors, as used by the ancients to paint ships...

Calcite is a naturally occurring calcium carbonate mineral in rocks such as chalk, limestone, and marble. These rocks are the primary sources of the extender pigment. Its whiteness, softness, and fine-grained nature make it an ideal white pigment, both abundant and easily processed. Chalk is relatively transparent in most paint media and is often used as an extender of other pigments and employed with animal glue as a ground for painting...

Dive into the vibrant world of Renaissance art through the lens of Peter Paul Rubens' distinctive color palette. This article unveils how Denman Ross adapted these historical hues for the modern artist, bridging centuries of artistic innovation. Explore the synthesis of color theory and practical application that can enrich your artistic practice. Click to discover the secrets behind achieving the lush vibrancy and dynamic warmth synonymous with Rubens' masterpieces...