WHICH?Pigment Characteristics As promised, now is the time to dive into the pigments we play with on our palettes that get their hues from their chemical composition. The Cadmium family is a most interesting, if confounding, example of this. Establishing the family tree of the primo-genitor, Cadmium Yellow, was quite epic, I can tell you, and…
Tag: art
Some pigments always sit in the front row, some at the back
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics OK, we need a break from ‘serious facts’, so here’s this classification, a bit of trivia on the side. Thought I would share—not to mock—the confusion of the beginner holding his little piece of paper and desperate to find some colours on the list. I have no idea why they’ve made it so hard…
Some pigments are friendly, some are dangerous company
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…
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…
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…
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…
Pigment Characteristics (an intro)
WHICH?Pigment Characteristics I think it’s now time to introduce you in-depth to some of the kids in this class. Because, when you see them neatly stacked in similar little jars on shelves, it is hard at first to comprehend, besides their variety of hues of course, what powerful and different chemistry is sitting there looking…
in bed with mona lisa 