Great test samples and pics. I also found genuine lapis lazuli pretty weak. I began to feel the hype about it being so special was like that fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I’d be curious to know if there are higher grades of it, but at this point my conclusion was that it’s not worth the money based on performance. I suppose if an artist wanted to only use mineral pigments it would certainly qualify. I will use mine up, perhaps in a knife painting or something, rather than let it dry up in the tube. But I’m not likely to buy it again. I also tried their Minnesota pipestone, found it comparably weak, with no special quality that set it apart.

Painters often accuse me of being so steeped in the old, traditional, “old masters” materials that I can’t see the advantage of the new materials.

Well, this may be true in terms of painting mediums, but when it comes to some of the overrated colors of paint used by the old masters, that accusation really holds no water.:)

Some of those weak, insipid, non-lightfast, chemically reactive, oil paint pigments, actually have never held any interest for me, whatsoever.

Nearly any brand of Ultramarine Blue beats the socks off that weak, Lapis Lazuli, in my opinion. I’ve never used the Lapis, but I’ve seen enough examples to know I do not want to.

Vermilion, Lead Tin Yellow, Asphaltum, Lapis Lazuli, and a dozen other forms of traditional pigments of the old masters have, as their modern counterparts, pigments that are far superior in hue, chroma, and lightfastness, than those used by the old masters, in my opinion. One can always dull down a color, or thin it out, but when it comes in such a form in a tube, it is not nearly as versatile a color.

I have actually never even been tempted to gain access to those pigments, in the form of paint, or dry pigment, and I surely would not pay the price to gain something that is not as good as that which I can buy at the corner art store.:D

One exception, of course is Lead Carbonate paint. It provides all the characteristics of white paint that oil painters appreciate.:smug:

Just my opinion, of course, and I’m sure many will disagree.:angel:

I’ve never used the Lapis, but I’ve seen enough examples to know I do not want to.

Bill, I think you might actually like lapis if you tried it, with your glazing technique. That’s exactly what it’s really good at. Although, as I posted above, it can be easily approximated with cheaper materials.