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December 15, 2005
Pigments Behaving Badly, trouble with colours.
The Further Adventures of J. Palette Esq., Buccaneer
Pigments vary from natural earths to chemical compounds, so different colours behave differently – and some behave quite badly it has to be said.
Burnt Umber, about as earthy as you can get, is a coarse paint, prone to foul language and other vulgarities, but it dries like a silk scarf in a warm wind. In fact Burnt Umber dries so fast it speeds the drying of other colours when mixed with them. For this reason it’s called a siccative. Burnt Umber will dry in the course of a day whereas Prussian Green takes about four months to dry. So unless you’re planning on a World Cruise between sittings, avoid Prussian Green.
Some colours are opaque and some are transparent, this speaks for itself. The transparent colours are used to create a sense of depth, where the light falling on a painting goes through the transparent paint and strikes an opaque layer which reflects it back through the transparent colour again. The result is almost, but not quite, exactly the same as being under the bedclothes at night when you’re supposed to be asleep with a torch and some toffee wrappers.
The other thing you need to take into account if you want to keep your palette healthy and out of trouble is: tinting strength. Some pigments are very strong, others are weak. Some you can trowel into the Flake White and it just knocks it off white, others you only need a tiny scrape and a full rich colour ensues, and then you have Prussian Blue. Open the top of a tube of Prussian Blue in the next room and before you know it the palette, the painting, the walls and the hand towel in the downstairs toilet are all PRUSSIAN BLUE.
Posted by john at December 15, 2005 01:22 AM