Saturday, January 13, 2024

Pigments for Water Color [1]
Art Resource

Marie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the twenty-nineth 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!


Introduction
Although any and all of the pigments in this post and following posts may be used, many will be found to be superfluous on a working palette. While painters will naturally have their preferences for specific pigments, some pigments, although definitely separate colors with varying properties, are so closely related to each other than more than one will seldom be required in the same pictiure. The families and groups have been printed on the same line.

Pigments for Water Color [1]
None of the pigments which contain lead or other substances which are chemically affected by exposure to atmosphere may be used. Families or groups have been printed on the same line. An sterisk (*) denotes lesser-used pigments.

White
(i) Chinese white (zinc white).

Zinc White


(ii) Titanium oxide (Titanium pigment).

Titanium Oxide


Black
(i) Ivory Black. Lampblack. Mars Black.

Ivory Black


Red
(i) Cadmium light.

Cadmium Light


(ii) Alizarin Crimson.

Alizarin crimson


(iii) Pure iron oxides (Indian red, light red, Mars red).

Pure Iron Oxides


(iv)*Cadmium medium, deep, and maroon.

Cadmium Medium


Yellow
(i) Cadmium, pale.

Cadmium Pale Yellow


(ii) Cadmium medium. Cadmium deep.

Cadmium Deep


(iii) Cadmium orange.

Cadmium orange


(iv) Mars yellow. Ochre. Transparent ochre. Raw Sienna.

Mars Yellow


(v) Cobalt yellow. Hansa yellow.



(vi) Strontium yellow.



Blue
(i) Ultramarine blue (all shades).

Ultramarine Blue


(ii) Cobalt blue.

Cobalt Blue


(iii) Cerulean blue. Manganese blue.

Cerulean Blue


Green
(i) Phthalocyanine green.

Phthalocynine Green


(ii) Viridian

Viridian


(iii) Chromium oxide.

Chromium Oxide


(iv) Green earth.

Green earth


(v) Cobalt, turquoise, and ultramarine greens.
Ultramarine Green


Violet
(i) Cobalt violet. Manganese violet.

Cobalt violet


(ii) Mars violet.

Mars Violet


Brown
(i) Raw umber.

Raw Umber


(ii) Burnt umber.



(iii) Burnt sienna.

Burnt sienna


(iv)Brown madder.

Brown Madder


(v) Burnt green earth.

Burnt green earth


Conclusion:
The weak or low tinctorial permanent colors, such as green earth, ultramarine ash, ultramarine violet etc., are more useful in water color than they are in oil, and some painters make continual use of them; but they are held to be unnecessary by the greater number of water-color painters.

Some of the highest grades of Vandyke brown are light-fast; these may be used in water-color painting where bad properties of this color which have caused its failures in oil have no significance.

Payne's gray, in the highest-grade prepared water colors, is a permanent pigment valued as a useful and convenient color by some painters, but considered unnecessay by others who prefer to make such mixtures in the palette.

For gouache (opaque or impasto water color) the same palette is in use, but when used full strength the transparent pigments will function as body colors and exhibit their top tones. Their undertones will be brought out when they are mixed with a considerable amount of whites, but the color effects of several will be different from those they exhibit in transparent water color.

Cobalt violet often contains arsenic and should be considered poisonous; some of the other chemical colors are not without a harmful effect. In working with a water color, one must not moisten brushes with your mouth. Special care should be taken in the selection of pigments for children's use.


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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