►Introduction
►Nomenclature
►Color
Index
►Quality
Introduction
Pigments
have been used for as long as humans have walked the earth. Carbon
black is most likely the oldest. It was used to create artwork
that adorned many a caveman's humble abode. We know of three real
periods of advancement in pigment development. The first was the
Bronze age, which brought cinnabar for reds, orpiment for bright
yellows, lapis lazuli for deep blues, and malachite green. These
wonderful colors were used in the renaissance masters works.
The
industrial age of the 1800s brought synthetic pigments. As a
chemist, I'm proud of my forefather's work. These pigments include
the chromes (red, green, etc.), lemon yellow, the cadmiums (red, yellow,
etc.), alizarin crimson, the cobalt's (green, blue, violet, etc).
The
synthetic mineral salts of the 1800's were added to with the organic
pigments of the 1900s. These include the phtalo's, azo's,
anthraquinones, quinacridones, and a multitude of other names given to
us by IUPAC (chemist org that decides how to name chemicals). I
still get giddy when I end up making one of these pigments in the lab.
Although it seems like chemists love long names, we don't really like to
write them, so we make up short common names to use.
Nomenclature
So what's in a name? I don't know either.
You'll find that although there is a standard nomenclature, most artist
and vendors don't use them. Typically the common names are used.
Who came up with them? I'm sure someone knows, but I don't and you
probably don't care. Also, just to confuse you, many of the names
on the tubes and their contents don't necessarily match. I have
two tubes of Permanent Green by Winsor and Newton that have
different pigments even though their catalogue number is the same.
I suggest you get to know the colors you like by their composition, or
at least keep the spent tube until you purchase the new one to make sure
that the contents are the same. As we'll discus later, just
because the color of the paint coming out of the tube looks the same,
doesn't mean that two paints with different pigments will mix the same
with other colors. I've had this occur in class when students
purchase the "same" color from different companies or purchase a "hue"
in place of a color. When the student mixes two colors together
they get a different color than the rest of the class. Sometimes
it's pretty surprising.
Pigments
are either inorganic (minerals or salts) or are organic salts that are
not soluble in the vehicle in which they are suspended.
Inorganic pigments are either mineral or are
created by chemical processes. Organic pigments (organic salts)
are either created historically from plants or animal
remains/excrement or in modern times from chemical processes.
Thank goodness for chemistry otherwise we might be painting with
processed cow urine. The pigment imparts paint characteristics for
that color, such as transparency, opacity, tint strength, texture and
consistency of the wet paint.
Since I just rattled off a few terms, let's define them.