Preamble
This is the fifty-third post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II [1]
Many printing inks and industrial paint pigments have the word "permanent" included in their names, and they are permanent in so far as their uses are concerned. A brilliant yellow, which will maintain its general hue on a shop sign under severe outdoor conditions, as long as the paint film will last (i.e., three or four years) that has a right to be called permanent for this use.
A badly weathered shop sign.
However, the same pigment used as an artists' paint may fade, at least enough to destroy pictorial or decorative effects, after five or six years in daylight - even in diffused, indoor daylight.
Signs of a worn out yellow oil paint on a canvas painting.
The fading of a pigment or dye on exposure to daylight is not an evanescence, or the disappearance of the substance itself into thin air, but is actually the result of a chemical change, the ultraviolet wavelengths in the light reacting with the substance or triggering a reaction, sometimes with the combination of air and moisture, the pigment changing over to a colorless or less highly colored compound. Color stability is therefore linked with chemical stability.
Factors that can impact on color stability.
Not only as regards to pigments, but also in connection with paints and varnishes, the artist should remember that his/her requirements are different from those of the industrial consumer, and that products which are in all sincerity labeled permanent are not always permanent for her/his purposes. No one expects the paints which are used in ordinary wall decoration to last fifteen years, still less, paints which have to withstand more severe conditions, such as those used in houses, store signs, and boats; yet a material which displayed defects in a work of art after twenty-five or fifty years would certainly be considered a failure by artists.
The painting above was repaired even though it was structurally sound, with no tears or holes. It was suffering from flaking paint and in some areas, paint loss, which was most urgently addressed and so it was perfectly restored.
Bleeding. An obstacle in the way of the adoption of organic colors of really superior permanence to light, is that many of them have the property of bleeding or striking through, when used with oil or oily mediums. If a coat of white paint is applied over a coat of red paint, which has this property of bleeding or striking through when used with oil or oily mediums. If a coat of white paint is applied over a coat of red which has this property of bleeding, even if the red is first thoroughly dry and hard, the color will eventually be observed coming through the white - apparently dissolving into the film of white paint, running through it in a streaky and spotty manner, or occasionally imparting a uniform pink tint to it. Some so-called non-bleeding colors are really semi-bleeding, the defect manifesting itself only after a period of years. Bleeding will never occur when insoluable inorganic colors are used and the undercoat is perfectly dry, no matter how finely the pigment has been ground. Any light-proof pigment, regardless of its bleeding or other faults when mixed with oil, may be used in pastel, where such defects are of no significance.
A bleed in watercolor is when your paintbrush touches an area that is still wet on your painting, and the color from your brush bleeds into the wet area. Many artists use this effect for their own particular artistic purpose.
Many thoroughly permanent inorganic colors, which have been known for years, have never gone beyond the laboratory stage because of economic reasons. With the development of new industrial processes, such as the coloring of lacquers and plastics, mass production of some of these becomes feasible, and occasionally a pigment of known reliability is thus made available to artists for the first time. An example of this sort is manganese blue, which was barely noted at first and some ten yearts later came into wide, general use. Many past examples of the lag between discovery and development of a pigment and its introduction to artists will be found in the general pigment list.
Manganese Blue.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
This is the fifty-third post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed all the posts in this new series below:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II [1]
Many printing inks and industrial paint pigments have the word "permanent" included in their names, and they are permanent in so far as their uses are concerned. A brilliant yellow, which will maintain its general hue on a shop sign under severe outdoor conditions, as long as the paint film will last (i.e., three or four years) that has a right to be called permanent for this use.
However, the same pigment used as an artists' paint may fade, at least enough to destroy pictorial or decorative effects, after five or six years in daylight - even in diffused, indoor daylight.
The fading of a pigment or dye on exposure to daylight is not an evanescence, or the disappearance of the substance itself into thin air, but is actually the result of a chemical change, the ultraviolet wavelengths in the light reacting with the substance or triggering a reaction, sometimes with the combination of air and moisture, the pigment changing over to a colorless or less highly colored compound. Color stability is therefore linked with chemical stability.
Not only as regards to pigments, but also in connection with paints and varnishes, the artist should remember that his/her requirements are different from those of the industrial consumer, and that products which are in all sincerity labeled permanent are not always permanent for her/his purposes. No one expects the paints which are used in ordinary wall decoration to last fifteen years, still less, paints which have to withstand more severe conditions, such as those used in houses, store signs, and boats; yet a material which displayed defects in a work of art after twenty-five or fifty years would certainly be considered a failure by artists.
Bleeding. An obstacle in the way of the adoption of organic colors of really superior permanence to light, is that many of them have the property of bleeding or striking through, when used with oil or oily mediums. If a coat of white paint is applied over a coat of red paint, which has this property of bleeding or striking through when used with oil or oily mediums. If a coat of white paint is applied over a coat of red which has this property of bleeding, even if the red is first thoroughly dry and hard, the color will eventually be observed coming through the white - apparently dissolving into the film of white paint, running through it in a streaky and spotty manner, or occasionally imparting a uniform pink tint to it. Some so-called non-bleeding colors are really semi-bleeding, the defect manifesting itself only after a period of years. Bleeding will never occur when insoluable inorganic colors are used and the undercoat is perfectly dry, no matter how finely the pigment has been ground. Any light-proof pigment, regardless of its bleeding or other faults when mixed with oil, may be used in pastel, where such defects are of no significance.
Many thoroughly permanent inorganic colors, which have been known for years, have never gone beyond the laboratory stage because of economic reasons. With the development of new industrial processes, such as the coloring of lacquers and plastics, mass production of some of these becomes feasible, and occasionally a pigment of known reliability is thus made available to artists for the first time. An example of this sort is manganese blue, which was barely noted at first and some ten yearts later came into wide, general use. Many past examples of the lag between discovery and development of a pigment and its introduction to artists will be found in the general pigment list.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
