Real Color Wheel
|
Maui artist Don Jusko, paints only on Location without black pigment. Here is how you can do it using his original Real Color Wheel that is based on element crystal colors and the way they get dark. The RCW aligns the colors of elements in crystals to chemical and vegetable color pigments, also RGB tint colors, YMCK colors and stage lighting. The Real Color Wheel will show you which colors are true elemental complements, for mixing and painting natural shadow colors on location without black. |
Type any search word you are interested in researching in your browsers Edit>Find to jump to each instance in that page.
The Maui On Location Galleries, in a new window giving
painting tips.
the Computer Coloring pages, new window.
and the Resources and Link page, new window..
For the list of hard to remember spelling words and proper names included in this color course, open this radio pop-up window link below.
Links to my paintings separated by mediums. New window.
The Tree of Links
in a new window giving all new windows for all links in this course. Very handy :)
|
Email me, if you are on line. Complete Site Map Index of all links in a new window. 1 MILLION B/C 1 MEDIUM DEVELOPMENTS 4 PAINTING SUPPORTS 8 PRIMING GROUNDS 9 --- ADHESIVES FOR GROUNDS 9 --- BODY ADDITIVES TO GROUNDS 10 --- COLORED GROUNDS 11 --- ISOLATING MEDIUMS 11 THINNERS AND ADDITIVES TO MEDIUMS 12 --- NATURAL EMULSIONS 13
WATER BASED MEDIUMS AND GLUES 16 [5] WATER BASED MEDIUM, EGG AND EGG TEMPERA 18
--- LIME FRESCO 19 MEDIUMS, TURPENTINE AND OIL 23 --- WAX MEDIUMS 26 --- AMMONIA AND WAX 26 CASEIN TEMPERA EMULSION 29 MEDIUMS ALCOHOL BASED 30
ROCK AND MINERALS MAKING COLOR 34
SEA MINERALS AND ROCK 35 --- SANDSTONE 35
LAKE MINERALS 37d --- BORAX 37e
ORES OF COLOR 40 --- ANTIMONY 40
COLOR ORES 44 --- B/C MINING 44 --- COLOR, CHEMICAL, CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY 46 --- ORE'S COLOR REACTIONS TO EACH OTHER, IN PIGMENT 52 ---- ANTIMONY 52
COLOR IN CRYSTAL, INDEX OF CONTENTS 57 --- CRYSTAL TERMS 58 STANDARD COLOR IN ORE AND MINERAL GLOSSARY TERMS 59 CRYSTAL ORE AND MINERAL CHEMISTRY, DEFINITION, TERMS, GLOSSARY 60 --- COLOR WHEEL IN ELEMENTS AND CRYSTAL 64 --- CRYSTALS, LIGHT AND COLOR TERMS 66 CRYSTAL_CHROMATE-ELEMENTS, COLOR PRODUCING 68 --- ELEMENT, SYM., NO., S/G, DESCRIPTION 69 --- MINERALS AND ELEMENTS IN COLOR CRYSTAL COMPOUNDS
73
---- 00, DIAMOND 73
---- 02, CHALCOPYRITE 73
OXIDES, HYDROXIDES 75 ---- 12, CUPRITE 75
---- 23 HALITE 77
---- 26, MALACHITE 78
SILICATES 80 ---- 37, DIOPTASE 80
---- 62, TURQUOISE 86
SULFATES 88 ---- 72, GYPSUM 88
CHROMATES 88 ---- 75, CROCOITE 88 MOLYBDATES 88 ---- 76, WULFENITE 88 TUNGSTATES 88 ---- 77, SCHEELITE, 88
TWELVE STANDARD [Crystal/Artist's Real Color Wheel] COLORS IN MINERAL
COMPOUNDS
--- MINERAL ELEMENTS IN CRYSTAL, COLOR CHART 90 --- CENTERING COLOR ELEMENTS 94 --- ELEMENTS, QUANTITY LIST 96 B/C PALETTE 97 --- WHITE 97
INDEX OF PAGES FOR CHAPTER 22, 102 COLOR-IN-B/C-HISTORY, MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS 103 --- EGYPT 103
SOUTHERN-AND-EASTERN-ASIA 122 --- PERSIA 122 --- INDIA-AND-SOUTHERN-ASIA 126
CHINA 133 --- SHANG DYNASTY 134
JAPAN 139
Begin painting Course HISTORY OF ARTISTS, PIGMENTS, COLOR THEORY AND TECHNIQUES 144 --- 30,000 B.C. TO A/D 79 144 --- -A.D. 79 POMPEII TO A/D 1500 148 --- AD 1500, THE ARTISTS' TOOLS OF TECHNIQUE 161 --- 1577-1897, ART, ARTISTS, TECHNIQUE, THEORIES 162 --- 1881, METHODS OF MAKING PAINT, VARNISH-AND-INKS. 163 --- THE FIRST AND LAST PUBLIC STANDARD OF PIGMENT COLORS FOR ARTISTS, 1886, GERMANY, STANDARD OF PIGMENT COLORS 172 --- A CRYSTAL COLOR WHEEL EXAMPLE 193 --- 1996, COLOR THEORY 1950 CHAPTERS-30-40 ARE PAINTING CHAPTERS 196 30/ CLEANLINESS IS NUMBER ONE 197
32/ ACCURACY OF LINE IN DRAWING, HORIZON, TRIANGULATION, 4 POINT PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTIONS, 203 --- PLACING THE IMAGE 205
33/ EDGES, CONTRAST 213 --- SKY, EARTH AND SEA GRIDS 215 34/ mini INDEX, CONCENTRIC RINGS OF DISTANCE, SURFACE GRIDS, AERIAL PERSPECTIVE 216 --- CONCENTRIC RINGS AROUND YOU 217
35/ THE ARTIST'S REAL COLOR WHEEL [RCW] 221 --- THE LIGHT AND PIGMENT COLOR WHEELS USE THE SAME COLORS 222 --- PRIMARY, PIGMENT, THREE COLOR WHEEL 222
CONVERSION OF LIGHT TO PIGMENT 226 --- TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE, PIGMENT TERMS 228 --- COLOR IN ELEMENTS 231 PIGMENTS IN OIL 233 --- -THE BUYING ORDER OF OIL COLORS 235 MEDIUMS. ACRYLICS 243 WATER COLOR PIGMENTS 244 LIME FRESCO 246 RAINBOWS AND SPECTROSCOPES 248 --- MEASURING LIGHT WAVES 248 --- LIGHT TERMS GLOSSARY 250 PRISMS 253 ---- PRISM, TOP VIEW 254
RAINBOW'S 262 --- -RAINBOWS POSITION 263 SUMMERY AND ORIGINAL THEORY 265 LIGHT AND SHADOWS 266 PAINTING AT NIGHT 265 THE COLORS OF WATER 269 --- -WATER GRID 269
39/ HUMAN BODY PROPORTIONS 272 --- -HEAD 272
THE FIRST OF FIVE GALLERIES. 150 paintings with "how to" tips. New Window --- 40/ TECHNIQUE 280 --- WATERCOLOR PAPERS 281 ALOHA TO ARTISTS, FRIENDS AND PEERS 284 INTRODUCTION 286 COMPUTER COLORING PAGE 288
|
End of the INDEX, starting art in the beginning.
|
4000 B/C: Boiled tree-sap, called pitch, was distilled into turpentine as a paint thinner for the resin paints, also, alcohol was fermented as a drink and as a thinner for the alcohol based paints, from another tree-sap. The third type of tree-sap that I'll talk about made a water based paint, all three were known and used around the Mediterranean Sea area. Clay, with it's high silica content was distinguished from mud and pottery was fired melting the silica. The firing divisions according to heat intensity are: DRY = leather hard. EARTHEN WARE = heated red hot, 500°. STONE WARE = heated over 1800°, copper cyan colored frit glaze was heated 1500° to 2600° in Egypt. PORCELAIN = heated 3000°, China was first to do this. Egypt's first Kingdom reigned. Their mastaba shaped tombs were positioned as a compass, like all later pyramids the entrance faced north. They had watercolors and lime paint using tin based colors, and made plaster by heating limestone or gypsum; adding alum made a harder cement. 3000 B/C, The Third and Forth Dynasties had their Capitol in Memphis, they had developed to the "high-art" stage, and were pouring perfectly life like gold sculptures. 2700 B/C, The Pyramids of Gizeh were limestone, cut with bronze metal saws. This limestone
powder is chalk or calcium carbonate. Gypsum is Hydrated calcium sulfate, a light spar. Heated
gypsum makes plaster of Paris also. The limestone crystal the is softer of the two. Calcine them and
it they would have made dry cement. Gypsum makes the harder more waterproof cement.
The
base to height ratio of the pyramids of Gizeh are eleven to seven, it took ten thousand men working
twenty years to build. It was finished with a covering of polished limestone that the Romans later
removed for their own buildings. I can't find the proof, but I think the top quarter was sheathed in
gold leaf. Copper, at that time was more valuable than gold, and they did have all the gold :)
2500 B/C "The Seated Scribe" [2l" high] was carved in limestone and painted, by a slightly lesser artist. There was trouble in the air and the Semitic Assyrians were rising in power. Resins continued to be developed based on turpentine and alcohol, sandarac (sandracca) resin, pine seed oil, castor oil and oil of spike were developed in Morocco, Africa. Lead is mined here also, to make the first protective seaworthy paint. Lead pigments containing sulfer would not mix with tin based colors. The Paint Wars were starting.. Heating galena, the lead ore, leaves behind the sulfur-lead pigment white lead, which can be heated higher into yellow, orange, red and brown lead colors, they all dry fast, red lead dried the fastest. Tin was Egypt's choice of metal pigment and the two would not mix. Mastic resins from pine trees in Spain and France made distilled turpentine and pitch resin paints. The pigments of the time were the native iron oxides deposited in clay, and the lead colors. Egypt and China had larger selections. It's hard to tell who had the first vermilion, France or China, probably China, since they were more into mining. Stick-lac was cultivated in India from the lacquer-secreting insects, depositing their lacquer on trees. Their nests were made of wax, which was also used for their textiles. Colored alcohol based tree saps and plants were also cultivated for use on cotton, hemp, linen, felt and wool products. Egg and casein mediums, from domestic farm animals were used in the Baltic Sea area, where linseed oil would later be first used as a painting medium. 1800 B/C- Minoa was a Pre-Greek Aegean Sea culture, that followed Egyptian art, and significantly advanced architecture. Homer said there were ninety cities on Crete. The Temple of Cnossus was three or four stories high, with drainage piping and flush toilets. 1500 B/C- The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt founded the city of Ammonium two hundred miles east of Memphis. Here was the world's only supply of ammonia, from the remains of a long extinct mollusk. A shrine was made there to their god Ammon. Ammonia made wax and oil water soluble, wax soap paints were developed, it dried insoluble to water. The Egyptians loved paint; it must have been a colorful empire. 1400 B/C- Babylonia had trees and not much rock for building. Their art decorated the mud and clay brick structures with tile. One found tile that I know of was colored Naples Yellow. 1300 B/C- Hypostyle Hall, the Temple of Amen Ra in Karnac, Egypt was completely decorated with wax-based paint, as was everything Egyptian. There were gold stars on the blue ceiling, it was simple and massive, devout in their grand style with beautiful columns. 1257 B/C- The Temple of Rameses II at Abu Simbel, Egypt, [now drowned behind the Aswan High Dam] was also massive at 119'x65', stiff, and meant to impress. Their period of "high-art" had clearly passed. 1100 B/C- The Greeks were entering the Peloponnesus and started the First Dark Age; this period would last until 500 B/C, ending with Doric architecture. The Doric Tribe was one of the three that invaded Greece. Homer is alive and writing. 800 B/C A Sumerian Palace of Sargon, in Khorsabad, had a ziggurate temple on top, the glazed tile facade went from white at the base, through black, scarlet, blue, orange, silver with gold at the top. It could be seen for twenty miles in any direction. THESE MESOPOTAMIA BUILDERS INVENTED THE TRUE DOME; vaulted chambers were covered with great tapestries, this was their art, painting neglected. They furthered the arts of astronomy and writing, they invented cuneiform, a wedge-shaped alphabet that is the basis of all Western writing. 700 B/C The Etruscans are using turpentine, mastic, egg, wax soap, wax encaustic, and sandarac (sandracca) as their painting mediums. 400 B/C Theophrastus described refining clay pigments by settling them in water. 200 B/C Roman sculpture had achieved the high-art standards. The chronological date list will continue later. Continue now. |
Return to START.
PAINTING_SUPPORTS
|
ROCK AND MUD: Walls were the first supports, paintings still exist today after twenty thousand years of protection deep inside ancient caves. PAPYRUS: Papyrus is soaked, pressed and dried strips of pith, it's a member of the sedge family. Papyrus was once abundant in Egypt and used by the Greeks and Romans as paper. PAPER: Paper is made of wood, cotton and linen, linen is best, but cotton will do. Cotton paper is called rag 100%. The paper is glued throughout with an animal size, this is called vat sizing, and it is to be preferred. The papers I've found best are; a new paper called Twinrocker, Whatman, Strathmore, Lanaquarelle, Fabriano, Winsor & Newton, D'Arches and Waterford. They are all pH neutral, vat and surface sized. WOOD: Wood is a classic support, today a good grade of plywood or hard pressed masonite will do. Use 1/8 in. or 1/4 in. mahogany or birch for pictures up to 22 x 30 in. and 1/4 in. for pictures up to 3 x 4 foot; larger panels should be braced from the rear. FLAX LINEN: Linen makes the best and strongest canvas, today we have no hemp canvas, but it is making a come back. It used to be the strongest and best. COTTON: Canvas can be used as a support, up to 3 x 4 ft. SAILCLOTH: Cotton sailcloth makes an excellent canvas. HANDKERCHIEF OR AEROPLANE LINEN: This linen is good for small work and can be glued to wood for larger works POLYESTER: Probably will outlast any other cloth, except Kevlar and Tyvek :) ANIMAL: The best animal glue is rabbit skin glue, don't boil it. Casein is good if you use a stiff support, casein is skim-milk curd that dissolves in ammonia. ACRYLIC: Acrylic Gel is a good adhesive medium for grounds and acrylic painting. VEGETABLE RYE: Paste is an adhesive, add ten percent alum [by weight] to glue to make it insoluble in water for tempera or, better still, add one percent of formaldehyde which is an anti-fungicide also. A layer of whole egg will improve a ground by isolating it from the paint. BODY-ADDITIVES-TO-GROUNDS
CHALK- Chalk is calcium carbonate, marble dust or neutralized plaster of Paris. Make it by adding water, drying it, adding more water and drying it again and again until it's neutral to the tongue. A small quantity of skim milk is good in chalk grounds. GYPSUM- Hydrated calcium sulfate, is light spar. It is dense and can be applied with a wide putty knife, that's the best way to apply a ground. Heated gypsum makes plaster of Paris. KAOLIN CLAY- Kaolin is decomposed feldspar. As it retains moisture too long, chalk is better. BARYTA WHITE- This is a heavy spar with very little coloring power, usually it's a pigment additive. Barite is crystal of barium sulfate, called heavy spar. Barite is a non-metallic mineral crystal mined in England, filling the cavities in limestone. As barium it's an extender in lead based and cadmium paints. TESTING THE GROUND- A good ground will not crackle when pressed form behind, oil should not change its color, and the ground should have an even sheen to it. BODY COLOR FOR GROUNDS- Titanium plus zinc white mixed are best but not as opaque as lead and zinc. Apply the mixture to a dry, small to medium, lightly stretched canvas support with out soaking through it. Pre-sizing will save time and money, spatula applying is always the best way to go. Larger sizes should stretched and primed flat, off the stretcher bars. COLORED-GROUNDS GLAZING THE GROUND- This method is called imprimatura, it reduces the absorbing quality of the ground. The Renaissance used this method as the middle tones of the picture, using the colors red, yellow and green earth, green earth was especially good because it was so transparent. SOLID COLOR GROUND- Bolus grounds were toned red, brown or gray, as Rubins, Van dyck and Rembrandt used. Egg tempera, lead or zinc white, was the first color down on the colored ground; it was like laying out a painting on a blackboard with chalk. Glazes colored the painting and egg tempera white highlights were put in last. ISOLATING-MEDIUMS ISOLATING-MEDIUMS - Mediums that don't mix or disturb the current painting medium, like damar and turpentine over tempera or egg over oil or shellac and alcohol lac over either. Theophilus Presbyter, in the 12th century, recommended cherry gum as a medium and at the same time as an intermediate layer for oil glazes. Collectively, fruit tree gums were called "cerasin". THINNERS-AND-ADDITIVES- TO-MEDIUMS WATER: Delutes or thins; gum, glue, paste, egg, casein, lime, acrylics, wax-soap and water varnish. TURPENTINE: Thins oil, alkali, alkyd oil, resin, balsam and wax; I don't use petroleum thinner or paraffin wax for painting. Oil of turpentine absorbs oxygen while drying, mineral spirts only evaporate, and petroleum will not dissolve damar. Damar is our friend... we need it. The new alkyd paints don't use turpentine as a base. ALCOHOL: Thins shellac, stick-lac and sandarac (sandracca), "the spirit of wine" paints. Of the two types, de natured grain [ethyl], and wood [methyl], methyl is the more powerful solvent. SPIKE: Thins spirit paints, spike is made from the ancient Mediterranean scrub plant found around Morocco, today it's called the Lavender Plant, "Lavendula Spica". SPIKENARD: Thins spirit paints, spike-nerd or Oil of Cajuput, is the ancient East Indian "Nardostachys" plant. CASTOR OIL: Dissolves spirit paints and makes them flexible, it is nondrying in its mass state. Castor oil comes from the seeds of the "ricinus communes" plant. AMMONIA: Thins wax-soap, casein and water-varnish. Ammonia water was called the "spirits of hartshorn". NATURAL-EMULSIONS EGG: Egg's emulsion balance can be changed by mixing it with either more water or oil. CASEIN: Casein will emulsify with balsams, mastics or any water-based paint or emulsion, oil will emulsify with casein but turns yellow in time. OTHER-MIXED-EMULSIONS GUM: Gum will emulsify with balsam, mastic, wax-soap, and oil. PASTE: Paste will emulsify with balsam, mastic, wax-soap, and oil. GLUE: Animal glues emulsify with balsam, mastic, wax-soap, and emulsify very well with oil. WAX-SOAP: Wax-soap emulsifies all of the above... the Byzantines added gum... and Reynolds liked to add Venetian turpentine. I think it's great by itself. I did a test on glass with a palette knife, the paint was 3/8" thick and dried insoluble to water in one week. Try that with oil paint. The only problem I saw was it could be scratched with my finger nail, wax is pliable, balsam or resin make it harder. I added poppy oil to a batch in a humid area, [Nahiku, Maui] and it stayed wet for two weeks, gum didn't do any better. There is a medium I couldn't find any reference to, and it seems a natural. An Indian artist would have used it in their paintings, because they had all the raw materials, the cultivated stick-lac insect with the wax nest, and an alkali, borax from Tibet. The two will mix together and form a water based emulsion, as adding ammonia to shellac it will make a water varnish. SYNTHETIC-MEDIUMS Synthetic paints were born in 1900. Germany made the first acrylic paints and we got them in 1930. Plexiglas is solid acrylic. Water based acrylics are made by polymerizing the acrylic monomer by emulsification. These are great paints that dry insoluble to water, however, smooth blends are easier made with thin washes over dried paint. Mistakes are corrected by over painting with white, twice, to get back to pure white, before repainting. This must be done because the new acrylic colors are not very opaque and show under colors. Pencil lines will also show through, it is better to draw with a non-waxy chalk and brush off the residue with a feather duster. Then, paint in the outlines with a light ultramarine blue, or yellow where appropriate. Remember, the outline belongs to the object behind. Contrast of color and value separate the objects, not their outlines. Alkyd resins are polyhydric alcohol with polybasic acid. These alkyd modified resins dry faster than natural oils, turpentine based "Liquin" is an alkyd resin. They mix well with normal oil paints and speed drying. CATALYST-AGENTS These catalyst agents cause a chemical change within, by their addition to a different substance. ALUM Alum is a double sulfate of aluminum and potassium. It's used to temper dried paints and grounds, making them insoluble to water, but not impervious. It will act as a mordant to set dyes and harden plaster like cement. Brown beeswax can be whitened by boiling it in alum water. AMMONIA Ammonia is a suffocating pungent gas, compounding nitrogen and hydrogen, soluble in water. Ammonia is an alkaloid compound that transforms shellac and wax, making them water-soluble. When the gas escapes the dried ammonia they again become insoluble, as in cera colla painting. BORAX Borax, like alum, is an alkali, in ancient day's it was called "tin-cal", a Chinese word.
Borax is found in landlocked lakes in Tibet and in the Dead Sea, where it was gathered and used in
India as a textile mordant and in Egypt as a flux ingredient to make frit, an isolated copper
pigment in glass. It was also used to make a water varnish from stick-lac, the alcohol based tree
sap pigments could also be made water soluble in a borax solution.
FORMALDEHYDE Formaldehyde is a gas, usually sold in a forty percent solution of water, called formalin. It
hardens proteins like rabbit skin glue and stops mold and fungus, it's also used as a
preservative,
GUMS Gums are hygroscopic, they will always absorb water unless it's tempered with alum or a 4% solution of formalin; formalin is a 37% solution of formaldehyde available at your drugstore, sometimes :) Gums will emulsify with oil, balsams and resins. They are more painterly than egg emulsions alone. Here's a good recipe for a gum emulsion, 5 parts gum, 1 part stand oil or sun thickened linseed oil, 1 part damar resin and 1 part glycerin. The glycerin will improve the brush quality and act as the preservative. ARABIC Gum acacia - the best is from Africa. SENEGAL French, it's the hardest gum and best for water colors. KORDOFAN An ancient gum from Sudan. CHERRY One of the many fruit tree gums, almond, fig, peach, apricot, plum, they are all similar and mix well with egg and casein. TRAGACANTH Comes from the astragalus scrub in Asia-Minor, it's used as the binder for pastels. SARCOLLA An ancient gum made from the astragalus sarcolla plant of Iran, it's similar to gum arabic and best for gum tempera. PASTE Vegetable glues are starch pastes, rice starch makes the best glues. Others are; potato starch, wheat starch and rye starch, They all can be emulsified with oil, balsams and resin. Vegetable glues give very bright gouache-like tones and have no effect on pigments. Starches set free by the addition of an alkali like ammonia become insoluble in water when dry. Vasari and Plenderleith talk of bookbinders' boiled paste. GLUE Glues are used either hot or cold; hide glues are protein, chandrin, which is the adhesive, and glutin, which is the gelatin. Hide glues are used hot; most modern polyvinyl acetate glues are used cold. Glue paintings should be sprayed with a 4 percent solution of formalin to harden it or given a glaze with mastic varnish or better. GELATIN: Gelatin is an edible glue, made from delicate animal tissues. It contains more glutin, preferably it's used with egg, gum or wax soap. PARCHMENT: Cooked lamb and goat skin was the support used for miniature paintings. COLOGNE: Animal leather glues emulsify with fatty oils by adding it to egg or wax-soap; it works better than gums. Cologne glue with kaolin clay cover best. RABBIT: Rabbit skin glue is the best gesso glue. BONE: Bone glue is inferior to hide glue. FISH: Used cold, hide glue is more durable. GLYCERIN: Has oily properties, is water or alcohol soluble, and will absorb moisture from the air. [5]-WATER-BASED-MEDIUM,-EGG-AND-EGG-TEMPERA
Egg yolk contains albumen [water], egg oil [nondrying] and lecithin [emulsifier]. Egg yolk itself is a painting medium, it bleaches white in sunlight. Mix egg yolk and water 1:1 to dry pigment, 1:1:1. Egg, unvarnished looks like gouache, it's a flat finish. Egg and egg emulsions dry hard, elastic and more resistant than oil color mediums by themselves. Oil of cloves, one drop per egg, will preserve a sealed wet egg, kept cool for one year. The icon, painted on wood was the next medium after fresco. In Byzantium, after a ninth-century council had confirmed the defeat of the Iconoclasts and made it safe to paint in the less durable egg, the style spread over Northern Europe and stayed in Russia for eight centuries. Egg without the addition of oil is called distempera, this was a preferred style from Giotto [1266-1337] to Botticelli [1444-1510], The addition of alum to the egg made it waterproof. Giotto also added cherry gum to make it more fluid, acting as a preservative as it was slightly alkaline. The support was wood or linen primed with gypsum or chalk. The ground had to be kept very clean because the thin medium shows through colors. A poor ground could be improved by a coat of egg and lime white before painting. Sandarac (sandracca) was a good hard, final varnish. Today, damar will do the job. When egg white is used, it's called glair medium and was used
like ink on illuminated manuscripts in the 5th century, and as a size for gold leaf. Egg white and
alum make a good bodied paint medium, capable of making very opaque strokes.
EGG-TEMPERA
TEMPERA'S ARE EMULSIONS, water and oil plus the stabilizer. The first tempera was made about 1000 A/D, first with mastic, then linseed oil. The ratio's went like this; one part egg, one part mastic or oil, OR, two parts egg, one part oil, one part mastic. More egg made it water based, more oil made it oil based. Later sun thickened oils or stand oil were used. Most liked to use Strasbourg turpentine [balsam], today we have to use Venetian or Canadian turpentine because no one imports Strasbourg to the U.S. except http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/ OIL OVER EGG TEMPERA Van Eyck [1390-1441] became very skilled at this technique, painting in water based egg tempera, then glazing with oil and balsam, going back to tempera for details and glazing again, Giovanni Bellini [1430-1516], in his life time went from egg tempera to oil. LIME_FRESCO
Here is a page with finished buon frescos with my painting procedures. LIME is the oxide of calcium [CaO], calcined limestone or quicklime. Limestone and gypsum both make plaster of Paris if heated. 4000 BC
After slaking lime, remove all the slaked water off of the top. This is clear lime water. The longer you wait the harder the sediment lime compacts it's self, but it will never dry under water. Lime and water don't mix. Lime that has been heated or calcined and had all the water removed from the compound it is very porous. When the grain of lime reaches it's total absorption capability the cell is very close to the weight of water and only the weight of the lime crystal will cause it to precipitate. The lime is heavy compared to the water molecule and it will sink, but slowly. Quicker as time goes on because the lime is contracting As it sinks and compresses with other lime . The lime crystal will dry in the water up to the point of squeezing it out, it takes time. It changes from a thick yogurt after 4 months to like 70 degree F. butter after 24 months. Two to four month old slaked will not hold any more water and has cast out some water becoming heaver and sinking faster. Slaked lime sinks quickly. Out of the water it could shrink more and faster. Dried lime re-crushed sinks fastest but looses it's bonding power and it's alkalinity. At this point it makes a good white pigment. Egypt made the first cement, firing their plentiful limestone and adding clean sand. This natural limestone is calcium carbonate. Burning gives off carbonic acid gas or carbon dioxide, leaving caustic lime. Add water and you make slaked lime or calcium hydroxide. This is the mural material, add silica sand or crushed marble or, as the later Italians did, add some volcanic ash. A good grade of volcanic ash came from Pozzuoli, it was light, fine and had rough edges), this will make mortar. Slaking gives off heat and water, the top layer again absorbs carbonic acid gas from the air and forms a film of carbonate of lime, on top of the lime water solution called calcium hydrate. Limestone that contains clay slakes very slowly. The best lime has been burnt over wood, coal would give off sulfuric acid and make gypsum, that would damage pigments. Lime plus hydraulic clay set too quickly for murals, but would work for dried secco paintings. The best lime has set for two to twenty years, after removing the top layer of crust, the calcium hydrate can be mixed with different proportions of water to form "milk of lime" and "lime wash". Clear "lime water" is made from settled milk of lime and is an excellent medium for fresco. Thin lime paste mixes with skim milk, casein, resin varnish, egg and glue. They are all used in secco painting and in stucco luster, the imitation marble. The "Athos Book" Hermeneia of Dionysius the painter's handbook from Mount Athos Greece [Greek-Byzantine], said to add fibrous materials as oakum, chopped rope, calves hair and straw to prevent cracking. Clay causes cracks in mortar, sand is best, granite powder should be used in the final coat or powdered limestone. What we call Cement is hydraulic lime, Portland Cement contains 75 percent caustic lime and 25 percent clay, clay contains gypsum, the addition of sand makes concrete. GYPSUM is sulphate of lime or hydrated calcium sulphate or light spar, heated, slightly burnt (calcined) gypsum is plaster of Paris. Alabaster is a granular gypsum, and kaolin clay is decomposed light spar. Heated gypsum forms a sulfur dioxide gas and sulfuric acid. MORTAR is sand and lime mixed 3:1 in the rough coat, 2:1 in the second coat and 1:1 in the last top coat layer called in Italian, intonaco. Marble meal is best in the top coat for a whiter painting surface. A good "secco" ceiling fresco will measure from 1/4" to 1/2" thick, let the final coat set for a day. Then, scrub off the skin of carbonate of lime and apply some lime-wash, paint onto the wet or dry lime-wash with paints ground in skim-milk casein or lime milk. Very fat lime plaster with too much lime, cracks easily. This secco paint may include lime-water, casein, glue or egg. Casein will increase the weather resistance as will egg yolk with alum. The total thickness to should be about 1 to 1.5 inches thick. Pompeiian walls were 3" thick,
and could be painted on for up to two weeks wet, joins went unseen if they were necessary. Here is
Doerner's advice on preparing a surface for fresco. On a thoroughly wet wall, apply the roughcast,
make it with 3 parts clean dry sand, mixed with one part lime.
Throw this on about 1/2 inch thick, the equalizing coat is applied when the roughcast no longer
indents with finger pressure or dry. This second coat can be slightly drier than the first, in about
the same thickness or less, still using coarse sand. Apply all coats from the bottom up. The third
coat is made with 2 parts finer sand and 1 part lime, this coating is thinner, perhaps 3/8's of an
inch thick. A last coat is made of 1 part fine sand or marble meal and 1 part lime. Wet and brush
this third coat with lime-wash before applying the painting layer 1/8" thick. Work this coat to
perfection, two hours per square yard isn't too long. It takes me 1 hour to do 12 square
inches.
Vitruvius described the plaster used by the ancient Pompeiians. Six coats were applied, wet on wet, the last coat was given a mirror polish with a smooth roller, They all totaled to 3" thick, skim milk was added to the pigments for additional gloss. Colors must be lime-proof, the best white is dried pit lime, wet and dried several times until it tastes neutral, or use litmus paper. This was the "bianco sangiovanni" of Cennini. Naturally this white has no binding power of its own and needs to be applied with egg or casein. Organic madder root could then be mixed in and used because the white was neutral. Yellow's were; Amberg ocher, a bright yellow that's long gone, yellow ocher, Naples yellow and native orpiment. The brown's were carefully washed iron-in-clay pigments, umber's and sienna's both raw and burnt. Red and orange's were realgar, an arsenic pigment like orpiment, magenta was madder root, painted secco with egg or casein, like the blue, lapis lazuli. It's not that lapis lazuli couldn't handle the lye, but because it was such an expensive pigment and who could afford the sinking in properties of fresco. Other blues were azurite, and light and dark frit. Cobalt native made a rose color, and burning the oxide moved the hue to blue. Green's were copper green frit, malachite and amazonite. Black's were made of carbon or iron oxide, they were applied very early on. Any color could be easily be painted over. The more coats, the more intense the color. One need not be afraid to run over outlines with local color, they can be easily modeled over as the support absorbs color. Highlights with lime cream were added last as shadows are deepened. Paint only until the plaster stops absorbing and starts setting, The thicker the mortar the longer the working time. Lime water can be painted on to increase the absorbing time and retard the setting time. Paint from light to dark to light, lights can be made from thick lime putty that will over paint any color. A lime-water damp sponge will blend large areas of newly applied color. If you get lime in your eyes, wash it out with a mixture of sugar and skim milk. Fresco should not be reworked for at least a month, apply the secco with wax-ammonia soap, egg yolk or casein and stipple in the additions. Dolomitic limestone sets slowly but dries hard, shortly after the fresco has set, use a glass roller to bring up a high gloss. DON'T TRY TO DO A FRESCO WITH COMMERCIAL CEMENT BECAUSE IT CONTAINS UNBURNT GYPSUM, SULFUR AND CLAY. pigment tests and step by step buon fresco techniques shown on paintings, in a new window. Here is my "On Line" address for the Fresco Teaching Forum opening in a new window.
Turpentine is the best thinner for oil paints, I don't agree with Mayer's Handbook saying that petroleum distilled paint thinner works for fine artwork, unless you are talking about alkyds. Mineral spirts work well with them. Doerner explained in his 1934 book, The Materials of the Artist, how they are unnatural with paints that absorb oxygen while drying, being refined from a nondrying petroleum oil, they only evaporate, without absorbing oxygen. Petroleum thinners are good only for cleaning brushes of the house painting trade, not the expensive brushes we use as artists. They should be cleaned in brush oil. Petroleum thinner will not dissolve the valuable damar varnish either, as turpentine does so well. Only time will tell which will yellow first, damar or alkyd oil. Two years later damar won, pure alkyd dried brown in the bottle. The current manufactures of art supplies are betting on alkyds for the artist. Here is a five year medium test. The essential oil of turpentine, is a volatile plant oil, steam distilled without pressure. Today's turpentine is very pure. The only reason to buy double rectified artist's turpentine in the small bottles is to guard against impurities. French turpentine from the maritime pine is best. The ancient oleoresin, is turpentine in its solid state, pitch or fused colophony, the residue from turpentine is rosin. Pine sap with water removed is pine pitch; more water removed is rosin, cured under natural pressure is amber. Siccatives "used by Bouguereau" are metal
salts soluble in oil. They speed the absorption of oxygen by the fatty oils, a two percent
addition to paints is all that can safely be used, and even that will noticeably yellow. The
addition of damar is a much safer practice, but that leaves you with two days drying time instead of
one. Siccatives have been used for as long as paints have been around, in the B/C era. The first
pigments, iron ore limonite, contained manganese siccatives. Green contained a copper resinate,
sugar of lead was an early drier, it's called lead acetate. Today we use a cobalt oxide and limonite
mix, to me the deep color purple is objectionable and it yellows badly. I would rather have the
clear sugar of lead or the white calcined stannum oxide, like the Egyptians used. Even white lead
oxide could be heated and saponifys clear in oil.
MAROGER listed how to make mediums of his past.
BLACK OIL is made of purified raw linseed oil cooked with red lead and adding mastic.
Now, using a Corning ware or some other such porcelain container start warming it
up. Don't let it smoke. Whatever you do, do not let it boil.
Okay. Now that everything is cooked, you have Black Oil. Just forget about this for now, you
are not there yet, I don't know why anyone would want to paint with this as it is. Now fill your jar with turpentine, which should be 40-45% of the volume if oil. This is very crucial - if it is exactly
half, the transformation will not take place. Then fill your tubes that are standing up in a jar
with the mixture and seal it tightly, and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Tell yourself what
an alchemical magician you are (I'm only half kidding) as it will transform into the Jelly. To see some photos of the process click this link.
Maroger uses the term litharge for oxide of lead. The painters lead yellow pigment is also called litharge. That would be white lead roasted to yellow. In this form it is of the orthorhombic crystal system. Yellow PbO is an orthorhombic crystal. The natural mineral litharge is red lead PbO, a tetragonal system crystal. Produced red lead is tetroxide Pb3 O4 the same as the natural mineral minium, only better. Red lead is the heated litharge transformation ingredient made from the heating process of white lead. The yellow and red lead are lower in tinting strength then the white lead. Saponifacation turns the white lead transparent in oil and even more so the yellow-orange lead called red. Black oil adds no color of it's own to pigments. Adding heat to lead white forms yellow litharge pigment early on the heat process. Lead Litharge has a early temperature of yellow. Maroger's medium uses the the lead color orange, called red lead. There is a lead heat transformation heating lead rapidly at a high temperature. This decomposes the lead and turns it into litharge. Cooking this litharge and oil mix makes it a transparent brown gel called black oil. Any lead heated in a fire will cause white lead oxide to form. Acid gas does a better job making more white oxides. Roast the white to make the colors from yellow to orange, red and brown. Lead white carbonate heats to yellow, orange, red (lead tetroxide, Pbsub3 Osub4, called minium and/or orange lead. It has low tinting strength and good body). Orange lead, called red lead, is higher in litharge oxide which is more transparent. Artists Pigments, Feller, pg 118. When heated strongly red lead decomposes to form litharge. When heated gently it turns to reddish brown then purple. That would be cuput mortum. My color wheel uses the same line of darkening as this lead oxide crystal.
The colors yellow to orange and red use the same brown as their color's hue darker hue, Burnt
Umber.
MASTIC VARNISH is made of pure gum spirits of turpentine and mastic resin tears. It can be added to Black Oil for an instant Flemish type medium. Diluted slightly with turpentine, it may be used as a final picture varnish, after the oil painting has completely dried. ITALIAN FORMULA MEDIUM combines white leaded oil with beeswax for a transparent paste which dries to a soft semigloss luster and give an opulent body to impastos. Beeswax also adds flexibility which prevents cracking. FLEMISH FORMULA MEDIUM combines oil with mastic tears, pure gum spirits of turpentine, and beeswax for a transparent gel medium. Colors have more intensely and a rich gloss finish. Theophilus Presbyter, the monk of Paderborn, [1200 A/D] wrote on oils and pigments, he knew back then that cold pressed linseed oil was good... He said the best linseed oil was from the Baltic Sea area, and freezing oil and snow together for a week was a great purifier, then sun drying the oil in a shallow lead container 1/2" high, covered, for long enough for the oil to become thick. Cennini called this the best of all oils. Stand oil is linseed oil boiled with carbonic acid and without oxygen, it dries very slowly, and is very sticky to paint with. Turpentine must be constantly be added to keep it flowing, linseed oil will keep it from being sticky, it was known of and used early in the 15th century. It can't be used alone with a drier because it makes the paint stick to itself and not what you painted it on! The separated paint looks like a sponge print instead of a layer of paint. It would rather stick to itself then to anything else. Nut oil was recommended by Heraclius and Theophilus, Leonardo liked it because it didn't
yellow as much as linseed oil, Durer and Van Eyck used it in the 1400's. It was used all through the
high renaissance in Italy, the greatest artists that ever lived used it and preferred it over all
others. Get it at
Poppy oil is a slow drying oil that seldom yellows, stays wet for ten days and wrinkles less than linseed oil. Poppy oil is pressed from the seeds of the white poppy, its major use is in the processing of tube oil colors. Castor oil has its place with lacs and spirit paints, adding 5% to shellac will make it pliable and remove the brittle quality. Lavender oil comes from the flowers of the lavender plant, spike oil, from the whole plant. Lavender oil is preferred, both dissolve mastic, sandarac (sandracca), and shellac and were used since ancient times. Oil of cloves is the slowest drying oil of all, how about a month and a half. Portrait painters find it useful, the slow one's. :) Copaiva balsam oil and copal resin both dissolve the lower layer and
really slide the paint around... I never liked the brands I tried until I tried Ron Garrett's
[ron@garrettcopal.com]; there wasn't enough control. His brand painted beautifully.
Venice turpentine is a superior turpentine, balsam, it's from the larch tree. Strasbourg turpentine is similar and comes from the white fir. We could make this fine medium here in the United States, but I don't think we do, Canada makes a good balsam. They're not really a thin turpentine, but a thicker and undistilled balsam, they are basically non-yellowing and have an enamel-like effect on the painting. Rubins used it 2:1 in oil, Van Dyck used it 1:1 as an intermediate varnish with egg and oils. Reynolds used it with ammonia and wax. I like balsam as a painting medium with cold pressed linseed oil and damar resin, 3oil:2damar:1balsam. It paints and glazes beautifully. Damar, Chios or Lavantine mastic, some Copals (Brazilian, Manila, Borneo), Shellac, and the ancient oleoresin are soft resins, damar makes the best natural picture varnish for wax and mastic painting, it's the hardest. Resins and balsams keep oils from wrinkling and forming a skin. Any resin or balsam or copal added to oil paints permit painting layers in rapid succession. Oil paint without resin, balsam or copal (all of which redisssolve, unlike oil) must be completely dry before a second coat is applied, or it may chip off. Because the lower level will continue to shrink at a different rate than the new upper level. Linseed oil by itself is a poor binder and allows moisture to enter. The hardest resins are succinite amber amber and hard copals. Don't use them as a varnish... they are too hard to remove and they also crack. Amber resin is very hard fossil resin, it can cause cracks over some soft paints and darkens in time, Don't bother with it, IMHO. Acrylic Polyurethane resin can be made hard or soft, the furniture industry makes a hard varnish that is water soluble, I've been using it on my acrylics as a final finish for twenty two years with perfect results, they are as clear as the day I put them on. Deft is one of several good brands you can get at any hardware store. A good choice for acrylics, oil billboards or oil paintings without added wax is this coating
by, Triangle Coating.
WAX-MEDIUMS There are two kinds of wax, those from the animal itself are called tallows, we don't use them in the art's. The second type is from the insect's nest, this is very valuable to us and has been used in turpentine based paints, water based paints and by itself since ancient times. Ancient Greece had a 3370 foot mountain that was famous for honey and beeswax, called Hymettus. The Etruscans used wax and mastic paints in 500 B/C, the Minoan's in 700 B/C and the Egyptians even earlier. It was their easel and wall media beside buon and secco fresco, they mixed ammonia with it or turpentine and mastic. Old brown wax can be whitened by just leaving thin strips in the sun, or by melting and cooling it in alum water. The second nest wax comes from the Indian lac producing insect, the laccifer lacca. It's softer and not as useful in painting, but very good in batik tapestry, they did a lot of dying in India. The third nest wax is from a Chinese insect and it melts hotter than beeswax, so it's a good substitute. This insect is cultivated on two different trees with human assistance. Clever people these Chinese. Wax dissolves in turpentine, mastic, balsam and oils, but not water or alcohol. It's non-yellowing and forms an emulsion in lye. The Greeks and Romans stored their pigments in small covered containers and called them "waxes", pigments in wax and mastic. Add a little turpentine with your brush and paint away! These ancients were pretty clever also. They painted with pure melted encaustic wax and pigment too, this was probably the wax Pliny talked about, the punic or eleodoric wax. Three times melted and cured in salt water, when this wax was applied on stone for decoration, it was called "ganosis". Traces of this wax are found on Egyptian sculptures and tombs as far back as 2500 B/C. The early Greeks, before the "Dark Ages", around 500 B/C, were fond of decorating their statues and the friezes of buildings, and probably a lot more places that were not so protected from twenty five hundred years of weather. Traces of wax were found on the Trojan Column in Rome. It was the architect's paint... wax and turpentine was the picture paint. AMMONIA-AND-WAX Ammonia, NH3, is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, a water soluble gas. Ammoniac, a salt and gum found in the Qattara Depression 200 miles East of Memphis, Egypt. Ammoniac is the remains of a long extinct insect that lived in the area. Ammonium, is the Egyptian city founded about 500 B/C, as a shrine to their god Ammon. Ammonium is also NH4, a radical that plays the part of a metal in the compound formed when ammonia reacts with acids, ammonium salts are alkaline. Ammonium hydroxide, basic NH4OH is a weak alkali. Carbonate, a salt of carbonic acid, as calcium carbonate or ammonium carbonate, made by mixing the ammonium alkali with carbonic acid. H2C03 is formed when carbon dioxide dissolves in water. Ammonium carbonate or ammonium hydroxide [common ammonia water], can be mixed with white beeswax 1:2 and boiled until the effervescence stops, stir the mix until while it is cooking and until it's cool. This will be a water soluble wax soap emulsion that will mix with pigments, casein, gum, glue, egg, gelatin, turpentine, resin, balsam, shellac or oil. The volatile ammonia alkali dissipates and the soap dries insoluble to water, like it was before you started, beeswax. Use cera colla wax to give gloss and protect secco frescos as Egyptian's did to their colored walls. Put a cap on the container and it will keep for a very long time. Grind your store bought dry pigments into it as you need them. Giotto added a little cherry gum to the mix and the Byzantine's added a little "milk of fig". This is the ancient "cera colla' paint of the Dark Ages I would like to attribute the discovery of cera colla to Egypt and their god Ammon not to Byzantium. Potassium carbonate or caustic lye soda, is obtained in the impure form from wood ashes, potash [+IUM], are all the same alkali. It will emulsify wax, but will remain soluble in water, hygroscopic. CASEIN-TEMPERA-EMULSION There are two types of casein tempera paints, both very strong glues, casein with lime is so strong that if it's not diluted very thin with 5 parts water, it could pull an old thin coat of plaster off a lower coat. Casein sets quickly, simi-mat, and transparent, all of the pigment is exposed, making a very luminous surface. Casein should be prepared fresh daily, in small quantities instead of depending on preservatives which effect there painting qualities. Lime combines with casein or egg yolk to make a weatherproof mural paint. Use only pigments that can stand up to lye, some vegetable dyes will bleach out. Start with fresh skim milk curd and add four times as much slaked lime to make a paste. This is the glue the wood workers use on furniture. This is also the casein lime medium, mix the pigments in some thin paste to paint with. Casein medium will emulsify egg, mastic, balsam and wax soap. Oil will emulsify also but will quickly turn yellow, stand oil is better suited. Casein powder is available in two types, pure dried curd, which is insoluble in water but is soluble in ammonia and mono ammonium caseinate, which will dissolve in water. If it chunks up because it's old, add some ammonia. It doesn't take much ammonia water to dissolve either fresh curd or the powdered pure curd, soak the pure powdered curd for a few hours before adding the ammonia, 1/5 its volume over moderate heat will cause the effervescent reaction. When the reaction resides the casein will be in a colloidal state, stir it until it's cool. Casein is still strong when it's water thin. Thin a shellac size to apply an intermediate sealing coat to a casein painting or it will soak up an oil glaze like a blotter. Casein and lead mix well together, combining this white with an oil white makes a fast drying white for water or oil, whichever has the higher concentration. Copper colors turn blue in ammonia. SANDARAC or SANDRACCA Sandarac (sandracca) is a coniferous resin from the Alerce Tree of Morocco, it was probably the first permanent paint, it's a hard resin. "Sandracca" as it was called in ancient times, was the term used for paint itself. It's soluble in alcohol and oil of spike, and can be made more fluid with castor oil. Sandracca was used as the intermediate and final varnish over tempera paintings at the time of Giotto, and as a medium by itself. Because it was harder, it was actually a superior paint than the softer mastics or oils, but the people liked all the combinations possible with a turpentine based paint better. Sandracca does not mix or adhere to oil,so it lost the final medium battle in the paint wars during the Dark Ages. Follow the Paint War up to today in your browsers Edit-Search and Find. Sandracca did have some early victories though, a major one was back before 1000 B/C. The Phoenician's painted their ships of commerce with sandracca (sandarac, castor oil and red lead, all available on the southern side of the Pillars of Hercules, or Strait of Gibraltar. Just across from their city-state of Gades, in Iberia, or Farther Spain, as it was later called. Phoenicia at that time was the third largest land holding state in the Mediterranean. It was really part of the second largest, the Assyrian Empire, that included Egypt and the whole Tigris-Euphrates Valley down to the Persian gulf. This was a nation of sea travelers that covered the known world. They brought tin down from England because Egypt was mined out, fine indigo cyan from India was a world seller. China showed England what could be done with porcelain, and how black a textile dye could be with their pigments. Eric The Red not only had red hair, he had a red boat to boot. Castor oil was another great battle won by sandracca (sandarac. Here's the story as Homer
told it back in 1000 B/C. The mighty Zeus had taken the shape of a swan and had a blue egg with his
daughter Leda, a very beautiful goddess. Out of this blue egg were born Pollux and Helen, the most
beautiful goddess in the world, she had a mighty fighter for a brother. Leda had another egg with
another man, King Tyndereus, and had another set of twins, Castor and Clytemnestra, who were both
mortals. Well Castor and Pollux had great times together fighting this war and that, till they both
got killed one day. Zeus allowed Pollux to share his immortal being with his brother, spending half
their time on Olympus and half the time in Hade's realm. Now there are two bright stars in the
heavens to remind us that Sandracca (sandarac) was once "King of Paint".
STICK-LAC Stick-lac, shellac or lac as it is sometimes called, is another alcohol based paint that got shot out of the saddle. It was India's favorite son. Gathered with care from the branches of a tree that housed their lacquer secreting insect, the Laccifer Lacca. They traded their wool and dyes in Tibet for borax and mixed it with water and stick-lac to make what we call today, water varnish. Yesterday I mixed it with ammonia and made this water paint that dried insoluble to water. India had some great lacquer colors also, ruby red "dragon's blood" was the sap of a tree from Singapore, damar varnish comes from there also. Damar means "torch" in Malaysian. Another sap, alcohol based paint was "Gamboge" from Thailand which is a transparent yellow quality and "Karmes". LACQUER Japan has a lacquer tree called the Rhus Verniciflua, it was used to produced the famous Chinese "Ning-Po Lacquered Boxes" that the French loved so well, they traded their lavender perfumes and called the boxes "cloisonne". LAC-AND-DYES Indian Stick-lac could also be made from the secretion of the "coccus laccae" insect that lives in the bark of the Ficus tree, it's often called shellac, it can be made water soluble by adding an alkali, then its called water-shellac. Red shellac is from East India, the red is the dye, removed by boiling in water. White shellac is made by adding potash lye or borax, as a red pigment the dye is precipitated on a clay base. It will work on dry lime secco paintings, not wet buon fresco, and in all other mediums. The mordant fixes the coloring matter, alum is the most common. Tin oxides lighten the red color toward yellow, as on the English Army coats of the 16th century. Cochineal and tin made a vermilion hue, alum would have made a more crimson color. Iron is a mordant used for dark brown and black, zinc works for yellow. TRANSPARENT-COLORS YELLOW, Imperial yellow is from the flowers of the "sophora japonica", it contains flavonal quercetin, similar to the famous Indian Yellow, both had staying power and were a golden-yellow-orange color when used full strength and tinted to a bright yellow. Yellow wood sap from the sumac tree, "rhus cotinus" works, flavone also occurs in vines of weld, from Northern India. Four other sources of transparent yellow are; safflower and saffron, the root of the "curcuma tinclora" and the husks of pomegranate with carbonate of zinc. ORANGE, henna "lawsona alba". RED, Cochineal, ground female "coccus cacti" insect, originally from Central America, imported to Morocco. Soluble in ammonia. The coloring matter is carminic acid, an anthraquinone derivative. Today this hue is rare, transparent. Karmes Scarlet is the oldest Magenta color, made from an insect found on the oak tree, it secrets an alcohol based lac and is found all over Europe. Madder root from the "rubia tinctoria" red to brown found from Anatolia to Persia. India and China use the "rubia cordifolia", which is a cooler magenta color. India exported madder, indigo, weld and Indian Yellow. Brazilwood, named the country, it's clear in wood and boiling it makes a magenta dye. To change the dye to red, you use a tin mordant, Brazilwood dye comes from the local "caesalpinia" tree. Logwood, from the "haematoxylon" tree makes hematin, boiled, it turns violet to blue-black. CYAN to BLUE, Grown in India, the "Indiagofera tinctoria" thrives in the tropical climate, the active ingredient is found in the leaves, an indol derivative is fermented from a sugar, this precipitation is insoluble in water. Alkalis dissolve it and form the sodium salt indigo white, which oxidizes into many shades of blue. Aniline blue has the same chemical composition and replaced it in 1870. This cyan blue was the most important color in Chinese rugs. |
|
PY150 dioxine nickel complex = Indian Yellow Golden.
Jute is the cheapest and most used vegetable fiber. Hemp is next. Flax linen was an Egyptian crop, so it was not used much in carpets. Cotton was grown in Egypt, India and China. Wool and fur were Tibetan, the best from Kansu. Silk started in China about 2640 B/C, then Japan and India. Silk has an affinity toward metallic salts as mordants, tin phosphate and tin silicate are the most common. Black silk uses an iron mordant. COLORS OF CALCINED (FIRED) ELEMENTS 1. Antimony = Naples Yellow
Return to START, ROCK AND MINERALS OF COLOR
1-Talc, 2 Gypsum, 3 Calcite, 4 Fluorite, 5 Apatite,
Basalt is the most common of the earth's volcanic rocks, its crystals are continuous and elongated. Basalt magma is sometimes as hard as glass, but rarely. SYENITE Syenite forms in silicate-less magma, consisting typically of feldspar and hornblende. QUARTZ Quartz is the most common crystal mineral, oxygen and silicon, it has the hardness of H7. Quartz is found in ore mineral veins and needs a hollow space to form, As rocks and veins weather, quartz is freed of it's matrix and breaks loose to form sand. Cemented sand is sandstone, intruding magma going through sandstone will again form ore and quartz. GRANITE Granite is also igneous or fire intrusive. It's composed of quartz and feldspar, Granite magma intrudes limestone or dolomite and forms marble. Marble is heat and calcium of limestone, plus calcium magnesium of dolomite, plus silica. Veins or lodes of ore in marble include, tin, copper, uranium, iron, zinc and lead. Marble is metamorphic limestone. Granite, intrudes with its hottest leading edge forming cassiterite, tin. The copper sulfides form second, chalcopyrite is the primary copper ore formed in quartz. Third would be cobalt, nickel and arsenic. Then the zinc-lead zone, with zinc sulfide as sphalerite ore, lead sulfide is galena ore, than silver. Finally, the iron rich zone with iron carbonate as siderite ore, the dominate mineral of the world. FELDSPAR Feldspar is common in granite magma intruding on sandstone sedimentary rock, it hardens into a crystal softer than quartz. Feldspar can be morphasized with pressure to a harder crystal like tourmaline or topaz. Feldspar is the second most common mixed mineral silicate crystal, made from potassium, sodium and calcium, an alumino-silicate. It contains aluminum in the ore, bauxite, clay and rock. Clay is hydrated silicates of aluminum. Potash feldspar is microdine, add iron and it's red to green, green amazonite was mined and used as a pigment on murals in 1300 B/C, in Egypt. Plageoclase feldspar is sodium and calcium. KAOLINITE Kaolinite, is clay and chalk after feldspar. Carbonic acid, is present in rainwater or vapors, this pheudomorphs the kaolinite from feldspar. Porcelain is made from kaolinite clay and is mined in Cornwall, England. SANDSTONE Sandstone is a sedimentary rock, an intact mineral of quartz sand. It's cemented together by the commonest cement, calcium carbonate. QUARTZITE Quartzite is metamorphic sandstone, an intact mineral or solution of suspended silica growing on quartz crystal, sand is broken quartz crystal. LIMESTONE Limestone is a sedimentary mineral cemented by calcium carbonate and is made of once living organisms, the dissolved mineral is calcite. In this same category of sedimented rock is salt and gypsum. Powered and heated, "calcined" limestone makes both plaster of Paris and mural mortar, we'll get to slaking lime in the mural chapter. MARBLE Marble is metamorphic or recrystallized limestone, being metamorphic is being made with pressure. GYPSUM Gypsum's are crystals of hydrous calcium sulfate, crystal deposits formed as precipitates from sea water or in limestone, These circulating waters contain sulfuric acid generated by oxidation of sulfur ore minerals. Gypsum crystals are called selenite when there clear, alabaster, when there translucent and fibrous, satin-spar, when there opaque and bendable, Gypsum heated forms sulfur dioxide gas and sulfuric acid. Heated in the presence of lead, either with fumes or in a natural combinations, will form basic lead carbonate, called lead white. Gypsum, after being heated loses most of its sulfur and becomes plaster of Paris also, lime plaster is better to paint on if you want to prolong the absorption time. HORNFELS Hornfels are a combination of clay and fine quartz sand, forming silt which makes shale. Pressure forms hard rock hornfels. DIATOMITE Diatomite is diatomaceous earth, a porous chalk like material, a sedimentary rock that forms on a sea floor or lake bottoms. It's a form of opaline silica, microscopic plants secrete silica to form hard shells of opal. Diatomite is a common filler in paint and paper. FLUORITE Fluorite is crystal of calcium fluoride, found in veins with the metallic ores of lead and silver, or with barite, gypsum, calestite and dolomite, or by itself. Fluorite forms a full color wheel, it's the only non-metallic element that has this capability. There's also a luminescence fluorite which emits a visible light when crushed, heated or radiated. England mines "Blue John" which was carved into bowls, cups and vases. The Chinese mined a green variety and carved statues. BARITE Barite is crystal of barium sulfate, called heavy spar, it has no coloring power by itself. Barite is a non-metallic mineral crystal mined in England, filling the cavities in limestone. As barium it's an extender in lead based and cadmium paints. CELESTITE Celestite is strontium sulfate, the ore of strontium. This strontium element supplies "the rockets red glare". HALITE Halite is sodium chloride, rock salt. LAKE-MINERALS Borax_is found in dry lakes as in Tibet, it was called "tin-cal", a Chinese word. Boron is also found in boric acid and in the mineral sassolite, mined in Tuscany, Italy. It can be found in a mineral called tincalconite and ten others. Borax and shellac form the paint called "water shellac". Boron hardens metals, and makes soaps and medicine. Molten borax will dissolve insoluble metal oxides and is the flux for soldering, brazing and welding metals. Borax powder will kill cockroaches. TRONA Trona is soda ash in its hydrous state as sodium carbonate. In its anhydrous state, it's soda ash. 1/5 soda ash and 4/5 sand quartz, make glass, with enough heat. SODALITE Sodalite is sodium aluminum silicate with sodium chloride, it forms in massive crystals, like over an acre. SULFUR is abundant in gypsum and as an anhydrite from sea water, it is also found in limestone to some extent. Sulfur was used as an insecticide in 1000 B/C, ancient Greece gathered it in Delphi, from a deep crevice exuding sulfurous gases from Mount Parnassus. Sulfur burns a blue flame and emits sulfur dioxide gas. SULFURIC ACID is sodium carbonate and is used in making glass. It was once called "oil of vitriol", a di-basic acid of sulfur made from sulfur tri-oxide. To "vitriolize", means to treat with sulfuric acid, it gives a glassy appearance to metallic sulfates; white vitriol is made from the lead or zinc ore, blue vitriol is made from copper, green vitriol is made from copperas, a ferrous sulfate, iron. SULFIDE contains the free radical or more electropositive element, it effects changes with other ores. SULFATE, to treat with a salt of sulfuric acid will make a sulfate. Lead sulfate compounds form on lead, you "sulfatize" when you roast galena, the lead ore that contains sulfur. SULFUROUS ACID is dissolved sulfur di-oxide gas in water, to form salts called sulfites. SULFITE is the salt of sulfurous acid which makes the cadmium sulfides from yellow to red. Arsenic sulfides are yellow-green, yellow, orange and red. Copper sulfides are green to blue. Lead sulfides range from white to red. Oil coal-tar colors go from hansa yellow to ultramarine blue moving around the magenta side. CEMENT CEMENT, like in Portland Cement, is made from heated gypsum, sand and alumina, the oxide of
aluminum present in clay. That makes cement hydraulic, it absorbs water and the gypsum cement sets
quickly, even under water. The addition of Alumina, present in clay, is the reason cement dries
underwater.
CEMENT FONDU is a cement with a high aluminum content, KEENE CEMENT has alum salts added and makes a very hard mass. CASEIN CEMENT, casein added to cement makes it harder and set faster. Not good for fresco, paint chips off. HIDE GLUE CEMENT Add less then one percent hide glue into the cement to slow setting from ten minutes to two hours. OXYCHLORIDE CEMENT is also called, PLASTIC MAGNESIA. It's calcined magnesite, it's calcined just short of becoming magnesia [as limestone becomes lime], and made into cement with a strong solution of magnesium chloride. This is cast stone. ANTIMONY ANTIMONY native is Naples yellow, a very early pigment replenished in the Vesuvius eruption of 79 A/D. Antimony oxide was made artificially since the early eleventh century. Antimony sulfides are found in the mineral galance stibnite, in Italy and Human, China. ARSENIC ARSENIC, Arsenopyrite is arsenic's main ore. Arsenic disulfides are red realgar and yellow orpiment, both were used in the early Egyptian days. COPPER COPPER ORE native, is brittle unless it's heated or annealed, as the ancient Anatolias did in 6000 B/C. The ancient Eskimos ground fish hooks out of this native copper. Copper pitch ore was used all through the Neolithic Period. CUPRITE is a cubic transparent ruby-red crystal, formed as a secondary mineral from exposed copper ore. TENORITE is black copper oxide. CHALCOCITE is another secondary mineral of copper, found in metallic sulfides, precipitating in still waters as a soluble sediment. CHALCANTHITE is retrieved from the chalcocite sediment, this is the basis of the ancient blue vitriol, and it made blue and green frit. Notice, it's the complementary color of cuprite. I'll point this out while proving my color theory and color wheel oppositions. ANTLERITE is copper's chief ore mineral, it's a copper sulfate. CHALCOPYRITE is the primary ore formed in quartz. CHRYSOCOLLA has a hardness of 2.5, it's a light cyan colored ore that the Egyptians wore as jewelry, they matched this color with copper and tin glass frit. Small scarabs were found glazed and considered as good luck pieces, it was a sample of the color pigment they sold on the ancient world market. MALACHITE is a secondary mineral ore of copper carbonate, a native green pigment when crushed. AZURITE is another hydrated salt of copper carbonate, this one's a deep cyan color, it was also used as a pigment all throughout the ancient years. Soak azurite long enough and it will turn green, ammonia turns copper blue. ACETATE is a salt by acetic acid or vinegar. A hydrated copper acetate was said to be the first artificial color. It was made by the Romans in 1000 B/C and was called vertigris. They would have had to suspend Egypt's chalcocite sediment in vinegar to precipitate a salt. Egypt had murals of wine harvests 2500 years earlier. I suspect Egypt made it first, before Rome, since they did so much with copper. PHTHALOCYANINE is copper with one of its atoms removed to make a non-metallic pigment. This pigment doesn't react to sulfur as metallic copper does, it's transparent and covers from yellow-green to cyan. This is perhaps the most important color ever discovered. PB60 anthraquinone is transparent muddy ultramarine blue. IRON GOETHITE is iron hydroxide crystals found yellow to brown in earthy masses, it's an ore of iron that contains the natural yellow ferric oxide pigments. IRON OXIDE ranges from white calcite, yellow ocher, sienna, red oxide, brown and green umber to black. Adding heat [calcined], brings out the red side and adds a transparent quality if silicates are involved, as in sienna. Magnesium is the purple side of caput mortuum, present in iron. HEMATITE is iron ore, heat it to 1830 degrees and get iron. Hematite naturally crushed and oxidized leaves a red streak powder that was the stone-age red and Egyptian rouge. PYRITE is iron sulfide and sulfuric acid, dissolved in water to leave behind limonite. Fifty four percent of pyrite is sulfur, decomposed pyrite is hydrated iron oxide. LIMONITE is a secondary ore of iron that forms yellow to brown oxides. This is the second bit of proof for my color theory and color wheel, CENTERING COLORS. SIDERITE is iron carbonate, going from yellow to brown. CALCITE is a native iron pigment mineral that is white. Iron will make all colors. CALADONITE is a green earth iron silicate mineral. LEAD GALENITE or GALENA. Galena is lead sulfide mineral, native, and it contains sulfur. Roasting the galena ore produces a basic lead carbonate, white lead sulfate. Also formed is a water soluble salt compound of lead arsenate. CERUSSITE is a native lead carbonate mineral, white lead. VANADINITE washes to lead vanadate, a red-orange crystal. WULFENITE is a transparent orange crystal. LEAD ACETATE is a colorless crystal formed by acetic acid touching lead, it is water soluble and called sugar of lead. Lead acetate can be used as a siccative. LEAD IS CORRODED with fumes of acetate and carbonic acid in steam. It forms a white lead sulfi |