Extraction from the rare semi-precious gem stone is labor intensive & time consuming. Lapis Lazuli is also a much more expensive pigment so it is misleading to label Synthetic PB29 as Lapis Lazuli. It also contains iron pyrite crystals that can give it a slight ‘sparkle’. For details, The Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO): Ultramarine Blue, Synthetic.Īlthough Lapis Lazuli (after purifying) and Ultramarine Blue are essentially the same chemically, Lapis Lazuli is the natural mineral source and has different working properties. Its particles are finer and more regular in size and shape than the natural ultramarine pigment. Synthetic ultramarine was discovered in 1826 in France by Jean-Baptiste Guimet and sold commercially in 1828. For details, The Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO): Ultramarine Blue, Natural. Preparing the pigment was a time-consuming process. Natural ultramarine blue pigment is the ground, separated blue particles (Lazurite) from the gemstone Lapis lazuli. The pigment was available to artists by 1724 and was extremely popular throughout the three centuries since its discovery.” It’s an Iron-hexacyanoferrate accidentally formed while experimenting with the oxidation of iron. It has very high tinting strength but is only fairly permanent to light and air. A short description: “Dark blue, called the first of the modern pigments. Pigments Through the Ages: Prussian Blue. The Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO): Prussian Blue The Color of Art Pigment Database: Blue Pigments The pigment is alkali sensitive, and therefore cannot be made in an acrylic emulsion.” The Milori Blue variety is typically what makes up today’s Prussian Blues. Also known as Chinese Blue, Berlin Blue, Paris Blue, Steel Blue, Iron Blue, Bronze Blue, Paste Blue, and Milori Blue. It was invented accidentally by the Berliner Diesbach in 1704, when he was trying to create a Florentine Lake. If you need blue in your paintings, you’ll probably need ultramarine too.įrom the article, “Some Historical Pigments and their Replacements”: “Prussian Blue is of significant importance in the art world as it is known to be the first man-made pigment. Prussian blue inclines toward green, whereas ultramarine inclines toward purple. Prussian blue is quite different from ultramarine, so would not make a good substitute for it. If I ever do another moonlight scene, it might be good there. I have several tubes of manganese blue, but very seldom do I see a need for it. I mix them with greys made with white and black, or just bone black, and then they harmonize better with the other colors. The ones I find myself using most are cobalt blue, cerulean blue, and ultramarine blue (red shade), but rarely do I use any of them straight. What blues to use depends on what you want to paint. Greys made with black and white read as if they were blue in a picture whose dominant colors are yellow, orange, red, and brown.Ĭolor harmony is easier to achieve when grey represents blue in a painting with warm (yellow, brown, orange and red) dominance. If I’m painting in multiple layers, I most often underpaint the areas that are to be blue in greys made from lead white and Mars black, and then only bring blue into it in the final layer over the dried grisaille. It’s very rare that I would use any blue at full chroma except for small accents because it tends to disrupt the color harmony and “jump out of the picture.” High-chroma blues are beautiful from a decorative standpoint, but they tend to “jump out of the picture at you,” meaning they can disrupt color harmony if they are used any more extensively than minor accents.įor the first layer in my own work, any blue I use will be mixed with lead white and Mars black or bone black (aka “ivory”) black, with the blue paint generally no more than 50 percent of the mixture.Ĭobalt or cerulean blues are the most lightfast blues, thus I’d favor them if they would work with the overall color scheme. This usually involves adding a bit of blue to a larger quantity of grey made from white and black. On the subject of blues, in my own work I find it necessary to mute them in the interest of bringing them into harmony with the other colors. Virgil includes ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, and cerulean blue on his portrait palette when there’s a sky in the background to paint.
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