WHICH?Pigment Characteristics I need to address permanence here, a term not entirely synonymous with lightfastness in the paint world, although UV deterioration is an aspect of it. But, permanence needs a minute’s attention because if some pigments are friendly to other pigments, some are dangerous company… To and by itself, a permanent paint should experience…
Author: stillatthecentre
My passion for the moment is centered on art materials.... who does what, how well they do what they do and what goes into all these adult lollies in which you can indulge without putting on the slightest weight! I also enjoy meeting artists who have a special way of using their materials... travelling around the world and meeting all these creative and dedicated human beings.
Some pigments are lightfast, some are fugitive
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Lightfastness! Don’t we love the word nowadays? Every company assures you of it, and most painters question it too. They have perhaps not even given a thought about their art surviving into the next decade—forget century—but in our precarious world, it has become the #1 quality of a paint, it seems. Hence one…
I had picked black… (Part II)
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics (I feel like giving you a warning that this section is for those really interested in that stuff!) Equipped with an understanding of their chemical nicknames, let’s now go back to the four black pigments/paints commonly found in art stores: Carbon and Lamp Black, Ivory and Bone Black, and tackle the four characteristics…
Some pigments have code names, some are N/A or N/R
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Bless consciousness, for making blue different to me than it is to you.Maria Popova It was meant to be a quick one here to explain what last week’s PBk7 business was all about, but there’s so much noise out there regarding naming colour that I thought I’d expand on this confusing issue just…
I had picked black… (Part I)
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics “What, you haven’t any ivory-black on your palette? If you think you are going to make black with blue and red, I can’t have you in my class. You might stir up trouble with such ideas.” Fernand Cormon I had picked black. Both because there are only a few black pigments available to…
Some pigments are natural, some are synthetic
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics In my hippy-happy store in Byron Bay, Australia, I regularly get a request for “natural” pigments, to which I sometimes reply cheekily: do you mean natural as in made from arsenic? mercury? copper? lead? or perhaps sulphur? These have all been used to make pigments and are found naturally on the planet! But that’s generally…
Some pigments are organic, some are inorganic
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics In the elitist Art Pigment Club, all members, whether pigments or lake pigments, belong to two categories. The idea being, probably, that you don’t mix with the wrong crowd, as these refer specifically to the pigment’s origin, regardless of its structure or chemistry.You are either Organic or Inorganic and either Synthetic or Natural….
This said… there’s indigo!
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics This being said… there’s indigo! As you might know, indigo is a plant, but there are more than 750 species of indigofera shrubs, herbs, and even trees, so it might be just a little challenging to identify, although, of course, if you crush a few leaves in your hands, these will turn… blue!…
Secondly, some pigments are pigments, and some pigments are dyes
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Did I mention that pigments are small particles (practically) insoluble in either oils, resins or water? Of course, I know I’ve just said this, but as you’ll now hear—and although that’s virtually their only common denominator—even that is not always accurate. Because some artists’ pigments are not pigments, they are dyes… in disguise….
Firstly, some pigments are pigments we can use and some are pigments we cannot…
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Firstly some pigments are pigments we can use, and some pigments are pigments we cannot use (to make paint.) This being said, I am not here to restrict your creativity or imagination. If, in the steps of artist Amikam Toren, you wanted to make a statement, pulverise your teapot to shards, mix the…
in bed with mona lisa 