Single Pigment Colours…

[!becca]

Alex, thank you for your flattery, and congrats on your tube of exotic black… you should also aquire Gamblins chromatic black…

Becca “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.” ........ “Not till we are completely lost or turned around... do we begin to find ourselves.” ........ “All good things are wild and free.” ........ “This world is but a canvas for our imagination.” ...... "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” Henry David Thoreau
Becca's Fine Art

[yellow_oxide]

I used to be a single pigment snob, thinking (correctly) that I’d be able to make so many more mixes if I started with each of the basic ingredients on their own instead of already and inseparably mixed, but I’m close to having at least one tube of most single pigments that I’m interested in.

Now that I’ve learned color mixing (always still more to learn though) by first becoming familiar with each individual pigment that I use I feel like it’s a really good idea to have some premixed paints that hit color goals I would try to reach anyways, so that I’m starting out at or close to what I want and only need to make minor adjustments instead of starting from scratch with every mix. Just recently I even picked up a tube of Rembrandt King’s Blue (PB28+PW6), W&N Naples Yellow Light (PW6+PY138+PO62), and Gamblin Chromatic Black (PG36+PV19). It’ll be a little while before I have a chance to use them though. *can’t wait*

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[!becca]

I used to be a single pigment snob, thinking (correctly) that I’d be able to make so many more mixes if I started with each of the basic ingredients on their own instead of already and inseparably mixed, but I’m close to having at least one tube of most single pigments that I’m interested in.

Now that I’ve learned color mixing (always still more to learn though) by first becoming familiar with each individual pigment that I use I feel like it’s a really good idea to have some premixed paints that hit color goals I would try to reach anyways, so that I’m starting out at or close to what I want and only need to make minor adjustments instead of starting from scratch with every mix. Just recently I even picked up a tube of Rembrandt King’s Blue (PB28+PW6), W&N Naples Yellow Light (PW6+PY138+PO62), and Gamblin Chromatic Black (PG36+PV19). It’ll be a little while before I have a chance to use them though. *can’t wait*

:thumbsup:

Becca “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.” ........ “Not till we are completely lost or turned around... do we begin to find ourselves.” ........ “All good things are wild and free.” ........ “This world is but a canvas for our imagination.” ...... "Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” Henry David Thoreau
Becca's Fine Art

[alhajri]

For me, it’s single pigments for clean mixes and the high chroma. But at times there are those premixes that are important like Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Sap Green, King’s Blue, Vasari Rosebud.

Kal

My Painting Blog

[Gigalot]

Alizarin crimson HUEs are, sometimes, single pigment paints. PR177 and, also PR264 for example.

[JamieWG]

Premixed paints are often called convenience colors, of which I heartily agree, there are a number that I don’t want to have to mix up myself time and again. Some of them are Utrecht permanent green and Rembrandt permanent red, titanium/zinc white, Gamblin permanent aliz crimson, etc. No doubt about it, they are pretty darn convenient.
Hey wait a minute, maybe we should start calling single pigment colors inconvenient colors!

Just for the record, Sid, I noticed that Rembrandt changed that the last time I looked. Their Permanent Red Medium is now PR255 instead of the two-pyrrole mix that it used to be, and the Permanent Red Deep is PR254. (The Perm Red Light is a mix — I think it’s PR255 + a Pyrrole Orange.)

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[Anonymous]

The mix was a little bit orange biased, so that change will probably make the Perm Red Medium it a little more orange.

[Lobke Spain]

There are practical benefits to using dual pigment colors. Cadmium pigments will most likely be banned in many regions in the near future. I hear in Europe there is a proposal on the table to ban cadmiums starting in 2015.

This leaves a dilemma for some hues. There isn’t a hue with cadmium orange properties. There’s a pyrolle and a hanza yellow deep, however, there’s no hue that is close to cadmium orange. Pyrrole is too red for most people, haza is too yellow for most people. Your best choice is picking up a dual pigment, it will give you a nice alternative.

My experience has been that dual pigment tubes mix just as cleanly as single pigment tubes, on the condition that the hues are close together. Diarylide Yellow and Perinone Orange make a lovely middle orange, extremely bright and much brighter than you could probably mix yourself, and it’s a dual pigment type of color. Of course, there are dual pigment or triple pigment colors that are made just for the purpose of making a dull color, but there’s no reason why a dual pigment color can’t be a bright and clean color, provided the right pigments are combined.

When you convince yourself that only single pigment colors work best and you can’t mix clean colors with dual pigments (completely false), you’re limiting yourself into a dogmatic way of thinking that only one way is the right way. Choose whatever works for you.

[llawrence]

There isn’t a hue with cadmium orange properties.

I agree that would be a tough one to replace. Folks in Europe, time to stock up on pigment!

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[dceska93]

To be honest, I have never given much concern to 2 or more pigments in the tube. I rarely paint straight out of the tube anyway. Green is one example that I always mix with something else for foliage etc. So, 2 or more in the tube, or it will be 2 or more on the canvas. My final product is what I am ultimately concerned about.

[FONT="Courier New"]Darren

[oilpainterforever]

I think single-pigment colors are the best, but I also think pre-mixed ones can come in handy too. Some pigments are very pricey, so mixed tubes can help to broaden your palette without going broke.

I am heading toward not using commercial paints and just making my own. The color is better and so is the oil I make myself. With no fillers and additives.
Maybe in a year I will have used up my current stock of commercial tube paints. Then “adios” to the bigshot paint companies. (Not that there aren’t some good tube paints out there, I just prefer my own hand-made ones).

[DiegoWannabe]

I generally tube my own colours (I might sometimes buy Harding or Schmincke tubes in my lazier moments) and I only use single pigment colours because I want to be in complete control when mixing them. Mixing is also an essential part of the learning process and half the fun of painting!

In short: absolutely no convenience mixtures or “hues” for me.

[Festus]

[COLOR=”Teal]When you select paint, how conerend are you whether a tube of paint contains a single pigment, or a “mix” (not necessarily a “hue”) of several pigments?

Just curious…[/COLOR]

About twenty years ago I dabbled at painting for about a year while my mother was seriously into oil painting. I think that between us we bought most of everything that was available at the time. She was able to make use of it whereas I was pretty much just hopelessly lost. On the other hand I was great at making mud. Well I have all that old oil paint (some from companies that either no longer exist or at least no longer produce oils) and . . . I never use them.

Upon returning to painting in a serious way last year I decided that I needed to use a very limited palette of colors and learn how to produce whatever I needed from them. So mostly I use single color tubes of paint and finally I am beginning to understand now and again what I need to do in order to create a — for instance — earth-tone (for want of a better term) black from Sap Green, Dioxazine Purple, and Burnt Sienna rather than have to uncap a tube of Ivory Black instead. Heck the other day I discovered that I could mix up Sap Green from combining Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow Light . . . and so I’m gradually making progress, and having fun in the process . . . :thumbsup:

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My posting nick is Festus . . . but you can call me Ron . . .

[Dcam]

“Now wait just a doggone minute….that’s not a true red, its a HUE!!!!!!!”

I’m with Bill on this one. If it looks right……

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[Delofasht]

I like single pigment colors because I can more readily understand the effects the pigment is going to give me. Then I’m balancing effects for handling purposes and not for final look necessarily. The benefits for me working with single pigment colors are too numerous to mention, but in the end if I need easy access to a specific color and it’s all tubed up and ready for me, I will use it. Even then, I prefer to know what pigments are in the tube and be able to guess at the amount of filler so I can adjust accordingly without messing up my finished look.

I’m one of those weirdos that actually reads a manual before using or doing something if I can help it. No guesswork about what could be in it, but I’ve found that now I’m really good at guessing what is in something based on look, smell, touch, and sometimes taste (wine and beer!), my sense of hearing is a bit lacking sadly (so says my wife. . . :lol:).

- Delo Delofasht

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