Swatches in four rows: earths (yellow ochre, red ochre, raw umber), ground minerals (ultramarine, azurite, malachite), dyes made into lakes (madder, cochineal, lac) and pigments made by chemistry (Prussian blue, cobalt blue, viridian).

Concept · Color in Painting

Where Pigments Come From

A pigment is a colored powder that does not dissolve in its binder; painters' pigments come from colored earths, crushed minerals, plant and insect dyes, and chemistry.

Ground minerals can keep something of the stone's color. Ultramarine is made from lapis lazuli, and azurite is a copper ore. Dyes from madder root or cochineal insects must first be made into lakes. From the early 1700s chemists added new colors; Prussian blue was among the first.

  • Read the tube: the pigment name says what is inside, and 'hue' marks a substitute.
  • Painters choose by more than color: opacity, drying time, cost and permanence all differ.
  • Several historic pigments are toxic, among them vermilion, a mercury compound, and lead white.
Lake
A pigment made by fixing a dye onto a fine, nearly colorless powder.

See

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