Ocher, the oldest color
Ocher is a truly ancient pigment. Already during the early Stone Age in Africa it has been used. Archaeologists have found evidence of the use of red ocher before humans were homo sapiens 300,000…
Category: Colors and pigments
About watercolors and pigments, I describe different watercolors: history, pigments and their painting properties.
Transparent red oxide
There are many manufacturers of the paint called Red Oxide or Red Iron Oxide, sometimes with the addition of transparent to the name. Common to all of them, and even more with other names,…
Brown (iron) Oxide PR101
Brown Oxide or Brown Iron Oxide is a color that several different manufacturers have in their respective ranges. This text is mainly about the paint from Daniel Smith which has the name Transparent Brown…
Is green paint unnecessary
In many of my students’ paint boxes, green colors are overrepresented. Personally, I probably have more green colors than others. Still, I almost never use green paint to paint green, preferring to mix my…
Is blue the most important color?
When I teach about colors for the first time with my students, I usually say that the color blue is important, perhaps the most important of all. On the other hand, I have met…
Quinacridone Violet (PV42)
Quinacridone Violet is light-resistant, transparent, quite staining pink color that is very close to Quinacridone rose PV19 in hue. Like Quinacridone rose, the color is intensely colorful and loses tone as it dries. Both…
Cobalt Blue Deep (PB72 PB73 PB74)
In 1802, the French chemist Louis Jacques Thénard discovered the pigment we today call cobalt blue deep in an attempt to find a blue color that could replace the very expensive lapis lazuli. There…
