Some Recent Experiments

One of the benefits of hand-made paint,  is the ability to customize paint any way one desires. Working with a fairly limited palette, I find myself frequently mixing the same colors in the course of a painting. Why not streamline things, by having these colors conveniently available, premixed in a tube?

 The first example was inspired by a tube of "Naples Yellow" I had on hand from Old Holland. This is not a true Naples Yellow, not even close. I found it very useful however, for painting flesh tones. Old Holland lists the pigments that makes up their colors on every tube of paint. The color in question was a mix of Synthetic Yellow Iron Oxide, and Titanium White.  My color was very similar, combining a pale French yellow ochre, mixed with white.

The next example was a different kind of experiment. My intention was to see if I could create an close replacement of Vermillion/Cinnabar, for situations where I didn't have the genuine article. The exact qualities of the color cant be duplicated so I would call this an approximation rather than a substitute.

Vermillion has the contradictory qualities of being both intense, yet capable of subtlety. This makes it excellent for the tints used in flesh tones. Cadmium red by comparison, comes on strong, yet fades much more quickly in mixes.

Modern imitations usually rely on Cadmium Red for the base color with small amounts of Synthetic Organic red to improve its chroma in tints.

My mix was a combo of Cadmiums for an orange red, with a bit of Synthetic Red Iron Oxide for earthiness. I was aiming more for Cinnabar than Vermillion. I mixed in a bit of Calcite to give the pigment some added transparency and body. I didn't have a sample of the raw pigment on hand, so the final result was based on my personal impressions of the color
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Still Life

Still Life, Objects
Oil on Canvas 9" x 12"
This painting is available. Contact me.

To inaugurate my new studio, I decided to paint a still life. I'm not really much of a still-life painter, but I thought it would be fun to follow a traditional formula. I wanted to see how a new "old" painting would look using the same pigments as the old masters.

The red in the apple is the newly finished Cinnabar. The jar was found by my grandfather underwater, it was very opaque and had a complex patina. I used Lapis lazuli, Azurite and Malachite to get the different shades. The lemon was a mix of Lead tin-yellow, and Naples yellow for the warmer areas of shadow.

Vermilion

Vermilion is a bright, intense red color that has been used by artists since ancient times. It is a color that was indispensable to the Old Masters, for its strength and flexibility.

The color that is known as Vermilion today is only superficially comparable to what was used in the past. The modern color is made from Cadmium. Real Vermilion is made from Mercuric sulfide.

The naturally occurring form of Mercuric Sulfide is the mineral Cinnabar. The majority of mercury found on Earth is in this form. It has been mined for thousands of years as a source of mercury, as an artist's pigment, and even for natural medicine!

Most cinnabar is not of high enough quality to be made into a bright pigment, so a synthetic form was necessary. Ancient Chinese alchemists developed a process to synthesize cinnabar in the laboratory, and that was the beginning of Vermilion. These methods eventually found their way to the west.

Real vermilion has developed a bad reputation as not being stable. Vermilion was often adulterated with inferior products by unscrupulous vendors. Depending on the process used to create it, synthetic vermilion will vary in its stability. Vermilion has been known to darken when exposed to direct sunlight for long periods. In general however, it has proven very stable over time.

Cinnabar is not affected by these issues, so I chose to use it as a basis for making Vermilion pigment. Chinese cinnabar is of very high quality. I purchased it in the form of small pieces and not a powder, to ensure it was genuine. Cinnabar crystals have an unmistakable greasy appearance similar to quartz.

Because Cinnabar is mostly mercury, it is important to take appropriate safety precautions while it is being handled.












An example of roughly ground cinnabar. This was washed over and over again to remove impurities. It was then dried, reground and then washed again. The jars contain the pigment in different series of being washed.












Once dry, I mixed the final color into oil paint:












Cadmium-based colors superseded those of mercury only in the early 20th century, so the majority of art created by man will contain real Vermilion. Real Vermilion is stronger and more intense than cadmium, and will tolerate more extreme color mixes without losing its chromatic purity. It also tends to be much warmer.

An example of Vermilion, from the painting Mars et Rhea Silvia, by Peter Paul Rubens.