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| Pigments can be divided into two broad classifications, natural and man-made products. Many painters have rued the day that the long established natural colours were replaced by synthetic pigments. Their opinion being that the modern upstarts are immature youngsters. Needless to say the supporters of the man made colours cannot understand this clinging to the old ways and believe the newer materials are far superior in their properties. |
| As is so often the case, the truth lies somewhere in between these two opposing stands. Yes, some man made colours have excellent light fastness properties when compared to the earlier natural pigments. |
| An example is the modern synthetic Cadmium Reds which are far superior to the old natural reds. No, this doesn't apply in every case e.g. the old yellows are not surpassed by the man made vegetable yellows. Incidentally the technical term for a colorant losing its colour is 'fugitive'. |
| Many of the earliest colours known to man had some quite strange origins: - |
| Genuine Indian Yellow was produced from concentrated cows urine which was mixed with mud and transported to London for purifying, tyrian purple was made from the Whelk crustacean, Sap Green from the Blackthorn berry and Sepia Brown from the dried ink sac of squid. These make the production of modern colours in high tech. Sophisticated chemical plants seems rather mundane by comparison. |
| We will spend some time covering pigments in detail as from the viewers point of view they are the most important component of any paint. |
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| Lead white was the first pigment in this group and had excellent opacity and brushing properties. Its toxic nature was however a major drawback and it was replaced by the safe Zinc white. While this was quite good, attempts to use ground poultry bones and egg shells gave low quality white pigments. Calcined oyster shells were more successful. Currently Titanium dioxide is almost exclusively used for the production of white pigments. |
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| It seems logical that the very first pigment used for cave paintings would have been soot from a caveman's fire and this partial decomposition of organic material continues today in the production of Lamp Blacks. Cruder production techniques in the Middle Ages resulted in the pigment being contaminated with grease and fat. The modern blacks are basically just the same sooty carbon materials but significantly refined. Thankfully the Ivory black, which was produced from elephant tusks, is out of favour. |
| Incidentally a true black i.e. one which absorbs equally all colours of the visible spectrum is very difficult to produce. All blacks tend to have a red, blue or green undertone where that swavelength is not 100% absorbed and is most easily demonstrated if two black cars, from different manufacturers are spotted parked side by side. |
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| The original grey pigments were produced by the partial combustion of wood in the same fashion that charcoal was produced. Willow is known as the optimum choice of material. However an artist should remember that mixing base pigments on his palette will produce all of the grey shades he will ever need. The mixing of white and black with tints of other shades is so simple and satisfying that it can be difficult to understand why pre-mixed greys are purchased. |
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| Originally and still produced from natural materials occurring in the soil. Essentially oxidised iron or rust, but modified naturally by the addition of other naturally occurring compounds. |
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| Again composed of naturally occurring materials such as the Malachite (copper carbonate) ore or Verdigris, also copper carbonate but produced when the metal is exposed to moist air. A particularly hazardous green pigment was Emerald Green which is known to have caused the death of many artists. |
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| Yellow Ochre was suitable as yellow in early painting although much ingenuity took place to produce a bright yellow shade which could imitate gold in manuscript illustrations. These tended to have limited success and permanence and have been replaced by the modern synthetic pigments. |
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| Realgar was the first orange pigment used but being chemically arsenic sulphide must have been the cause of the short life span of many an early artist. Thankfully no longer used and replaced by the modern Cadmium Oranges. |
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| Since earliest times red pigments have steadily been replaced by superior materials currently using completely synthetic colorants. The earliest reds were made from natural ores such as Cinnabar, mercury sulphide. This had such good properties and was so rare that its price rocketed in value and it became a commodity in a similar fashion to gold or silver. Some success was made in replacing the ore based reds with colours derived from wood, resins and insects. |
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| Although available 5000 years ago the pigment Blue Frit was the first synthetic pigment being produced by the Egyptians from ground down blue glass. This gave the paint a shimmering effect much like the modern automotive metallic paint finishes. |
| In due course this was replaced by ultramarine which was extracted from the semi-precious stone Lapis Lazuli which is a form of sapphire / calcite modified with three minerals sodalite, lazurite and hauyne. |
| In more recent times, again the synthetic colours have taken over from the natural materials, examples being the Prussian and Phthalocyanine Blues. |
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| As mentioned earlier the first purples were produced from the bodies of whelk using an abdominal gland. You will imagine how many whelks were required to produce even the smallest amount of colour and therefore how expensive that colour became. Vegetable purples became popular due to their greater availability and reduced cost. The advent of industrial chemistry produced commercial purples from coal tar raw materials and these remain in use to the present day. |
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| Mention has been made above of the dangers which some of the traditional pigments, and therefore the subsequent paints, posed to artists. Rightly so current paints have to meet quite stringent legislation to protect the applicators of paints and people who may come into contact with painted articles. A group of elements termed the Heavy Metals of which Tin, Lead, and Mercury are examples are toxic to the human body. However there is an additional complication in that their effect is cumulative i.e. the body does not excrete them as part of the normal bodily functions and they consequently build up. For this reason strict limits are given as to the heavy metal content of all paints. |
| A current concern is the release of the solvent carrier of paints into the environment although artists only contribute a fraction of those produced by industrial painting processes. A DIY enthusiast may find that a headache occurs after using gloss paint, this can be due to inhaling the organic solvent fumes. Many paints have been developed which use water as the solvent thus avoiding this problem. However generally the resulting paints properties are not as good with regard to weather resistance due to the use of water soluble resins. |
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