Preamble
This is the tenth 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
There have been one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics.
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio.
(iii) Color theories and color schemes.
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials.
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V.
(vi) Protein fibers.
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers.
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers.
(ix) Fabric construction.
(x) Techniques and woven fibers.
(xi) Basic and figured weaves.
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics.
(xiii) Napped fabrics, double cloth and multicomponent fabrics.
(xiv) Fabric finishes.
(xv) Schrinkage, durable press and wash-wear finishes.
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends.
(xvii) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link highlights the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous Art Resource series.
There are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely: (1) the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms; (2) Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff; (3) A Fashion Data Base; (4) the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins; (5) the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns; (6) Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements; (7) Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms; (8) Glossary of Scientific Terms.
Note: From time-to-time all the above data bases will be updated.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (e.g., click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or any of the other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember, these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student. Undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and whilst other parts may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). Hopefully, the trade-off between these two extremes will mean that the Art Resource posts will be useful in parts to most, but unfortunately, may not be satisfying to all!
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II[1]
There is no longer much cause to quarrel with the manufacturers of good artists' materials on the score of their prices; it is reasonable to assume that considerable expense is involved in the care and technical skill required to select the highest-grade materials and to compound them properly. Furthermore, the maintenance of stocks and the distribution of finished products will result in a higher percentage of costs in such products than in those which are consumed in greater quantities. In fact, most of the higher-grade materials which go into artists' paints are produced in quantities which are insignificant in comparison with quantities of similar products made for mass production.
Cadmium Red, for example sold for about £1.75 per tube when it was first introduced in Britain in 1919, and was used primarily as an artists' color.
Cadmium Red.
When it was found that it would be a valuable color for industrial lacquers and other products, the dry color immediately dropped to a considerable lower price, owing to mass production, and the best grades of tube colors now sell for half what they cost when this pigment was exclusively an arttists' color.
Brilliantly colored, with good permanence and tinting power, cadmium red is a familiar artists’ color, and is frequently employed as architectural paints, as it can add life and vibrancy to renderings.
However, the artists' color trade is like every other in that there is always the possibility that unscrupulous firms will trade on the reputation of fine materials and substitute inferior grades under the same name; the maintenance of high quality is entirely up to the conscience of the maker; because the majority of manufacturers have or can easily obtain technical data there are therefore few secrets in the modern industry.
An example of cadium pigments in At. Winslow Homer, "Hunter in the Adirondacks" (1892).
Ordinary house paints and varnishes are of three grades: first, the best possible products that can be turned out with reasonable allowance for availability of supplies and restrictions of distribution; second, the best possible material that can be made within a limited or competitive price range; and third, the cheapest sort of rubbish that looks and smells like paint.
There is a big difference in the quality of the color between artist grade paints (sometimes also called professional or extra-fine) and student grade paints. The biggest difference in quality of paint is the amount of pigment in the binder. If the paint is all binder and not much pigment (the expensive part) then it is weak. Artists’ paints are more concentrated and go further than student quality paints.
If a responsible manufacturer makes second-grade products, they will be careful to indicate the fact, but there have been firms, particularly jobbers and sales organizations that did not maintain factories, which sold second- and even third-grade paint advertised to compete with first-class products. It is possible for this to be replicated in the artists' supply trade. However, conditions at present are much improved due to the internet and so the standards of quality, even among the cheaper grades, are higher than they were in the recent past.
Adult Online Acrylic & Oil Painting | Northville Art House.
Recently three tubes of artists' white was examined, of a brand that is happily no longer on the market. They were sold at a low price but with no intimation that they were of students' grade or otherwise inferior to the best, and it was discovered that zinc white, flake white, and Cremnitz white apparently came out of the same tube. They were identical mixtures of lithopone, a little zinc oxide, and near 20 percent barytes ground in an oil which contained materials to give the colors an acceptable buttery consistency.
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 tenth 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
There have been one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics.
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio.
(iii) Color theories and color schemes.
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials.
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V.
(vi) Protein fibers.
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers.
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers.
(ix) Fabric construction.
(x) Techniques and woven fibers.
(xi) Basic and figured weaves.
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics.
(xiii) Napped fabrics, double cloth and multicomponent fabrics.
(xiv) Fabric finishes.
(xv) Schrinkage, durable press and wash-wear finishes.
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends.
(xvii) The general theory of printing.
To access any of the above resources click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link highlights the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous Art Resource series.
There are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely: (1) the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms; (2) Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff; (3) A Fashion Data Base; (4) the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins; (5) the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns; (6) Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements; (7) Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms; (8) Glossary of Scientific Terms.
Note: From time-to-time all the above data bases will be updated.
If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (e.g., click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or any of the other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.
The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember, these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student. Undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and whilst other parts may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). Hopefully, the trade-off between these two extremes will mean that the Art Resource posts will be useful in parts to most, but unfortunately, may not be satisfying to all!
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II[1]
There is no longer much cause to quarrel with the manufacturers of good artists' materials on the score of their prices; it is reasonable to assume that considerable expense is involved in the care and technical skill required to select the highest-grade materials and to compound them properly. Furthermore, the maintenance of stocks and the distribution of finished products will result in a higher percentage of costs in such products than in those which are consumed in greater quantities. In fact, most of the higher-grade materials which go into artists' paints are produced in quantities which are insignificant in comparison with quantities of similar products made for mass production.
Cadmium Red, for example sold for about £1.75 per tube when it was first introduced in Britain in 1919, and was used primarily as an artists' color.
When it was found that it would be a valuable color for industrial lacquers and other products, the dry color immediately dropped to a considerable lower price, owing to mass production, and the best grades of tube colors now sell for half what they cost when this pigment was exclusively an arttists' color.
However, the artists' color trade is like every other in that there is always the possibility that unscrupulous firms will trade on the reputation of fine materials and substitute inferior grades under the same name; the maintenance of high quality is entirely up to the conscience of the maker; because the majority of manufacturers have or can easily obtain technical data there are therefore few secrets in the modern industry.
Ordinary house paints and varnishes are of three grades: first, the best possible products that can be turned out with reasonable allowance for availability of supplies and restrictions of distribution; second, the best possible material that can be made within a limited or competitive price range; and third, the cheapest sort of rubbish that looks and smells like paint.
If a responsible manufacturer makes second-grade products, they will be careful to indicate the fact, but there have been firms, particularly jobbers and sales organizations that did not maintain factories, which sold second- and even third-grade paint advertised to compete with first-class products. It is possible for this to be replicated in the artists' supply trade. However, conditions at present are much improved due to the internet and so the standards of quality, even among the cheaper grades, are higher than they were in the recent past.
Recently three tubes of artists' white was examined, of a brand that is happily no longer on the market. They were sold at a low price but with no intimation that they were of students' grade or otherwise inferior to the best, and it was discovered that zinc white, flake white, and Cremnitz white apparently came out of the same tube. They were identical mixtures of lithopone, a little zinc oxide, and near 20 percent barytes ground in an oil which contained materials to give the colors an acceptable buttery consistency.
Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer, (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).
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