Cobalt Blue (PB28)
Long before cobalt blue there was a pigment called smalt, cobalt glass ground to a fine powder. Smalt dates back to 2000 BC. It was used mainly for ceramics in ancient Egypt and in...
Category: Colors and pigments
Madder lake
Real madder is a red dye extracted from the madder root. In ancient Egypt and in Asia, madder was used for textile dyeing. It has been used in Europe at least since the Middle...
Nickel Azo yellow (Transparent Yellow) PY150
Maybe I should admit right away: Nickel Azo yellow is my favorite among yellow colors nowadays. Previously, it had competition from Nickel Dioxin yellow (PY153) and Quinacridone Gold (PO49), but none of these colors...
Paynes Gray (mixed color)
William Payne (1760–1830) was an English artist who liked to paint landscapes with a blue-gray haze, magical landscapes with dramatic cliffs, fantastic waterfalls and dangerous forests. Everything very romantic. He used a color he...
Prussian blue (Iron blue)
Iron blue or Prussian blue is a very old synthetic pigment, it was invented in 1704, by chance, by Heinrich Diesbach who was active in Berlin which was in then Prussia, therefore the color...
Pyrrole Orange (PO71)
Pyrrole Orange is a very intense red-orange color. The pigment is not common, but only a few years ago Schmincke was the only manufacturer to have it, now there are a few more who...
What the color samples mean and how they are made
I have started by describing the properties of the colors with the help of color samples. Five different for each color. I will describe how the color samples are made and what they show....
Quinacridone Rose – PV19
Chinacridone comes in many different varieties, the most useful for the artist is probably the one who usually gets the name Quinacridone Rose. The pigment has the index name PV19 but due to its...
Van Dyke brown
Van Dyke brown is a classic color, named after the Flemish painter Anthony Van Dyck. The color is also known as cassel earth and cologne earth. The material traditionally used for the pigment is...
Manganese violet
The pigment was invented in Germany in 1868. The color is toxic, despite this it is used in cosmetics. The color is usually bluish violet, but there are also more reddish colors. It has...
