HOW? I feel like admitting right now that, although I researched this HOW? section as thoroughly as I did my whole book, I personally am no pigment or paintmaker… Yes, of course, I’ve tried my hand at both, but compared to some out there who have made that, if not their whole life, at least…
Category: Hues in Tubes; everything you have always wanted to know about PAINT without daring to ask the shop assistant
Some pigments are powerful, some are weak
WHICH?PIgment Characteristics Finally, some pigments are powerful, and some are weak and having said that, I’ve said it all. Unlike the total neophyte I was at the time, she who went to her first oil painting class with a mishmash of damaged tubes and samples given to her by reps (I had no intention of…
Some pigments are coarse and gritty, some are fine and silky
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics What makes a good paint is very subjective. It has to please first the colourman making it. Secondly, the artist using it. It’s a bit like food… the chef might like it, and the client not. Or the client might find it perfectly delicious while the chef is, in fact, a bit disappointed…
Some pigments are opaque, some are transparent
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Where goes the white when melts the snow?Shakespeare (perhaps) A long time ago, I read that titanium dioxide is entirely transparent. Only when ground, as the crystals get smaller and light scattering becomes more intense, slowly but surely do we begin to ‘see’ the pigment as white, until… we don’t! Keep grinding titanium…
Some pigments are glossy, some are matt
WHICH?PIgment Characteristics “Might’nt shiny black and matt black have different colour names?” mused Ludwig Wittgenstein in his Remarks on Colour. (But they do, dear Ludwig… just check above image!) And yet, open jar after jar of dry pigment and see for yourselves. As luscious as they are, all of them are totally matt. For sure,…
Some pigments are clean, some are… dirty? muddy?
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Well, actually, forget just for this once my comparison to school kids… paint can be dirty business, yes! But pigments? Pigments are always clean. Of course, Colour is discussed here, but the confusion exists. When painters and paintmakers talk of a “clean” colour, they usually refer to the fact that it hasn’t been…
Some pigments are cool, some are… hot?
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Despite hot chilli, pimiento, sharing pigment’s Latin root, in my opinion, all pigments are pretty cool. I know not of a freezing process, although pigments are often rid of impurities in successive cold-water baths, yet cold or cool, in reality, they will never be… All these ‘temperature’ terms—even a ‘burnt’ one doesn’t count!—do…
Some pigments are heavy as nightmares, some light as dreams
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics There is a famous question every kid in France has heard in his childhood, which goes thus: What is heavier, a kilo of feathers or a kilo of lead? The kid (not quite aware of the difference between weight and volume, which at five is quite understandable) usually answers lead. What’s weird is…
Some pigments are toxic, some you should even eat… or inhale!
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Some pigments are toxic, even today, and when I mocked requests for “natural” pigments, I honestly didn’t mean to trivialise the efforts of those who carefully advise us that Cadmiums, Cobalts or lead-based paints can be dangerous to ingest—possibly even to touch. If paints based on these pigments are still around, despite their…
Some pigments are thirsty, some are hydrophobic
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics Some pigments are thirsty, they are not going to turn into paint before they’ve had their fill of oil… and some. Lamp Black might be the worst offender if offence there is. This is why comparing quality between brands, as is often suggested you do by comparing pigment concentration like so, could give…
in bed with mona lisa 