Page 8 - Pigments

There are many misconceptions about historical pigments and their relative toxicity, compatibility, lightfastness, and consistency in oil paint. At Natural Pigments, we try to clarify the issues and educate artists as to the facts about historical pigments through the extensive product information found on the Natural Pigments website...

Why hand mull pigments into paint? Two primary reasons for doing so are to break down agglomerates of pigment particles and disperse pigments into the paint evenly. Most artists know the need to mix pigment with a binding medium smoothly. Still, few know how breaking agglomerations of pigment particles can also improve the saturation of the paint color. Fewer still know about the possibilities that grinding pigments afford for altering the visual appearance of pigment in paint...

Each day we receive many questions about how to make paint. One question that is often asked is regarding a "formula" for making paint...

Making your own paints can be a rewarding experience. You must remember, however, that you are dealing with materials that may be harmful if not handled with care. It must not be assumed that the absence of a health warning indicates that a material is safe. All dust can be harmful if inhaled, and persistent exposure to them will at least cause irritation and possible harm to you. There is an increasing amount of information available regarding powdered pigments, but the safest way is to treat all materials as potentially harmful...

The term ‘flake white’ originated from the fact that when basic lead carbonate is made according to the old Dutch method or ‘stack process,’ it falls off the metallic pieces of lead as ‘flakes.’ This is not the case when lead white is made according to modern processes, which is the pigment type used by all artists’ paint manufacturers today...

Ackermann’s Superfine Water Colours were prepared and sold at Rudolph Ackermann’s shop, The Repository of Arts at 101 Strand in London, and also sold through print and booksellers in Great Britain. He published a list of watercolor cakes that appeared in 1801 and was appended to A Treatise on Ackermann’s Superfine Water Colours....

Harley believes that the English word pink referred to a pseudo-lake pigment, differentiating it from lake pigments, for which the English word lake described. Some of the treatises cited in another article describe depositing the dye on alum or chalk. This differs from the process used to make lake pigments, where the dye is precipitated on freshly made aluminum hydroxide. Interestingly, aluminum hydroxide is made by dissolving alum or aluminum sulfate in water and then precipitating it in a chemical reaction with an alkali, such as soda ash or pearl ash, by adding this alkali dissolved in water to the first solution. Aluminum hydroxide precipitates from the solution as a powder, gel, or horny mass, depending upon the temperature and pH of the solutions. This procedure is quite different from the treatises for making Dutch pink...

The lead white pigment used in lead white artists' oil paint (often called flake white) is a modern process of lead white with fine particle size. What is the difference between modern lead white in today's artist colors and flake white used by the old masters and artists before the 20th century...

Jacques Maroger claims that Rubens limited his colors to little more than brown, black, white, and red. He states, “But from a distance, one has the illusion of perceiving blues, greens, violets... The greatest colorists have always obtained the maximum brilliance and vibration with a minimum of colors.” We examine the palette Rubens used throughout his career in the 17th century...

We examine the nine colors on the palette of the Venetian Renaissance master Tiziano Vecellio (better known as Titian), as recorded by his pupil, Giacomo Palma...