Preamble
This is the thirty-seventh 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!
Blue Pigments - Part I
Utramarine is the standard blue color in artistic use. The best quality of ultramarines as made since 1826 are identical with native lapis lazuli for all practical purposes.
Lapis lazuli in its natural state, with pyrite inclusions (specimen from Afghanistan).
Composition: Primary - Lazurite. Secondary - a mixture of other minerals, often including pyrite.
They have the same chemical reactions and are indistinguishable from each other, only upon microscopic examination, when the difference in crystalline structure is immediately apparent. The principle defect to be taken into account in the use of ultramarine is its extreme susceptibility to bleaching by even minute amounts of mineral acids; hence, it has never been used in the fresco palette.
Base Historic Fresco Pigments.
Like most other high-temperature furnace products, it is otherwise of great permanence. When ground in oil, ultramarine normally has one of the worst painting consistences of any of the pigments, and tends to make paints of erractic and usually stringy nature. It is therefore diluted with waxes and other stablizers by some makers of tube color, who require all their paints to have the same butterfly plasicity.
The tube stock of ultramarine acrylic paint.
Artists who grind their own oil colors find, however, that they are able to paint with colors which are not quite up to this standard. Furthermore, ultramarine in oil is of a hue, which is seldom employed full strength. It is almost always used as a tinting color in mixtures with whites, yellow, etc., that tend to impart a normal consistency to the mixtures.
Artist grinding an oil color.
Ultramarine was the most precious of artists' materials from the Middle Ages up to the early 19th Century. Although azurite, blue verditer, and other unsatisfactory blues were augumented by smalt in the 17th century and Prussian Blue in the 18th entury, the invention of artificial ultramarine was one of the major events in the history of artists' materials.
The history of the color 'Blue.'
Its invention was the result of intensive chemical research following the accidental observation of a mysterious blue color encrusted as an impurity in furnances where soda ash was made. Since then it has become a moderately priced article of large-scale use.
Engraving depicting the production of sodium carbonate and ammonia soda processes at a factory.
The above drawing featured a charge from a revolving black ash furnace at the maletra factory in Rouen, France.
True cobalt blue (that is, Thénard's blue which is named after named after Baron L. J. Thénard) is one of the more expensive colors and in cheaper paints it is universally replaced by a cobalt shade of ultramarine.
Baron L. J. Thénard.
Utramarine is satisfactory for many practical painting purposes, and need give the artist no concern, as it is reliably permanent a pigment as can be desired, except in case of fresco painting, where the genuine Thénard's blue must be insisted upon, because of the previously mentioned effect of atmospheric acid on the color of the imitation cobalt. The color of the imitation or ultramarine cobalt, however, is never an exact match for the true cobalt blue, especially in undertone; it is an approximation rather than a close match. The pigment listed as cobalt utramarine (Gahn's blue) is not always available and its name may be used to designate ordinary imitation cobalt blue.
Note: Gahn's blue was an unstandardized commercial name that has been used for Cobalt ultramarine, Cobalt blue, and imitation cobalt blue. The name originally was given to an inferior grade of cobalt blue made by a process developed in 1777 in Germany (Mayer 1969).
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 thirty-seventh 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!
Blue Pigments - Part I
Utramarine is the standard blue color in artistic use. The best quality of ultramarines as made since 1826 are identical with native lapis lazuli for all practical purposes.
Composition: Primary - Lazurite. Secondary - a mixture of other minerals, often including pyrite.
They have the same chemical reactions and are indistinguishable from each other, only upon microscopic examination, when the difference in crystalline structure is immediately apparent. The principle defect to be taken into account in the use of ultramarine is its extreme susceptibility to bleaching by even minute amounts of mineral acids; hence, it has never been used in the fresco palette.
Like most other high-temperature furnace products, it is otherwise of great permanence. When ground in oil, ultramarine normally has one of the worst painting consistences of any of the pigments, and tends to make paints of erractic and usually stringy nature. It is therefore diluted with waxes and other stablizers by some makers of tube color, who require all their paints to have the same butterfly plasicity.
Artists who grind their own oil colors find, however, that they are able to paint with colors which are not quite up to this standard. Furthermore, ultramarine in oil is of a hue, which is seldom employed full strength. It is almost always used as a tinting color in mixtures with whites, yellow, etc., that tend to impart a normal consistency to the mixtures.
Ultramarine was the most precious of artists' materials from the Middle Ages up to the early 19th Century. Although azurite, blue verditer, and other unsatisfactory blues were augumented by smalt in the 17th century and Prussian Blue in the 18th entury, the invention of artificial ultramarine was one of the major events in the history of artists' materials.
Its invention was the result of intensive chemical research following the accidental observation of a mysterious blue color encrusted as an impurity in furnances where soda ash was made. Since then it has become a moderately priced article of large-scale use.
The above drawing featured a charge from a revolving black ash furnace at the maletra factory in Rouen, France.
True cobalt blue (that is, Thénard's blue which is named after named after Baron L. J. Thénard) is one of the more expensive colors and in cheaper paints it is universally replaced by a cobalt shade of ultramarine.
Utramarine is satisfactory for many practical painting purposes, and need give the artist no concern, as it is reliably permanent a pigment as can be desired, except in case of fresco painting, where the genuine Thénard's blue must be insisted upon, because of the previously mentioned effect of atmospheric acid on the color of the imitation cobalt. The color of the imitation or ultramarine cobalt, however, is never an exact match for the true cobalt blue, especially in undertone; it is an approximation rather than a close match. The pigment listed as cobalt utramarine (Gahn's blue) is not always available and its name may be used to designate ordinary imitation cobalt blue.
Note: Gahn's blue was an unstandardized commercial name that has been used for Cobalt ultramarine, Cobalt blue, and imitation cobalt blue. The name originally was given to an inferior grade of cobalt blue made by a process developed in 1777 in Germany (Mayer 1969).
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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