Saturday, October 7, 2023

Classification of Pigments - Part II [1]
Art Resource

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the twenty-sixth 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 another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have 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) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.

To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.

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 (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or 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 and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!


Classification of Pigments - Part II [1]
Lakes
A lake is a pigment which has been made by precipitating or fixing a dye upon an inert pigment or lake base. The process may be compared to that of dyeing cloth and a high degree of skill is required to produce good results.

Madder Lake Pigment Extract
Genuine Madder Lake Pigment extraction.

Lakes are made in a great range of hues and strengths. A toner is an organic pigment in its most concentrated form, containing no inert pigment; for satisfactory performance in artists' colors it often requires added inert pigment to contribute bulk to the paint and decrease excessive tinctorial powder. Alumina hydrate is the usual base for clear, transparent lakes such as glazing colors, in printing inks etc.; while blanc fixe is the best base for those to be used in heavy paints, where more body or opacity is required.

Alumina Hydrate
Alumina hydrate (Al(OH)3)

Blanc Fixe Powder
Blanc Fixe Powder (Barium sulfate - BaSO4).

Cheaper lakes, less clear in tone, are made on clay, barytes, etc. Green earth is valuable as a base for green lakes, as it is a species of clay which has a strong power of absortion for dyes. A lake is also occassionally made with a colored pigment as a base; for example, Tuscan red, a pigment made for industrial use, is made with alizarin on and Indian red base.

Tuscan Red
Tuscan red is a red color close to brown. HEX Code: #66424d.

The dye stuffs used are synthetic products, although few of the older extracts of vegetable and animal origin still survive for some special purposes - usually only because of their low cost, for lakes made from modern organic colors are generally superior in every paint requirement to those obtained from the natural coloring extracts. The term comes from Indian, lac, which is described under shellac. Scum or sediment from dyers' vats, called lacca and consisting of dyed particles of shreds, fibers, dust, and other impurities, were collected and used as a pigment in Italy in early times.

Shellac Flakes
Natural shellac flakes.

Reduced or Let-Down Colors
Commercial pigments are supplied for some industrial purposes in grades known as reduced or let-down colors. As a general rule they are condemned for use in artists' paints; none but the purest, most concentrated grades available should be selected for use in permanent painting.

A reduced pigment is not ordinarily diluted with an inert filler by the simple admixture of dry powders, but the inert material is usually introduced during the 'striking' of a batch in the wet stage, thereby producing such an intimate mixture that the product has a brighter and less muddy tine than it would have had if the filler had been merely sifted into or ground together with the finished dry color.

Raw Sienna
Raw Sienna - fine pigment for creating handmade watercolor, oil paints and ink.


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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