Today I thought I would go over something near and dear to my heart, the pigments I use. Notice I said the "pigments" I use, not the "paints" I use. Why is this important? Regardless of what the paint manufacturer calls the tube of paint, it comes down to what pigment was used to make that color. After all, if I didn't know what pigments have stood the test of  time, then I wouldn't have any faith as to if my paintings are going to fade years from now. Not all pigments are created equal, and thats the knowledge I draw from when I select tube colors for my framed oil paintings.

  For instance, never is this so rampant as in  the selection of tube red-violets that are offered to artists. Alizarin Crimson for example ( PR 83:1 ), one of the classic colors of all time, will darken and fade over time, granted many decades into the future, but why use a color with doubts to it's permanence? I love this classic color myself, and was "weaned" on it like most artists starting out, but have switched to the modern equivalent Alizrin Crimsom Permanent (PR 177 ) offered by Winser & Newtons Winton line of colors. This would be a good time to tell you what I'm putting in parenthesis. This is the pigment code that you can find on the back of any professional artist tube color regardless of medium. In the first example, Alizarin Crimson, the capitol "P" stands for pigment, and the "R" stands for red, the number is the number assigned to that pigment even if it is used in another kind of paint such as auto body paint. Along with this, the "Madder" and "Lake" colors have been found to fade over a long period of time. The pigment names on this would be (PR 9) and (PR 83). Along with my Alizarin Crimson Permanent, I use Quinacridone Red (PV 19) the "V" meaning that this pigment is classified under the violet family of colors. This gives me all the range I need as far as red-violet types of color go. I like to use a large selection of colors for my framed oil paintings and I know that any tube I grab is a "winner" so to speak. 

  I got all of this information out of Michael Wilcox's book "The Artist's Guide to Selecting Colors" and I got my copy at the place most artists build their reference library from, the North Light Book Club, and their website is at :  http://www.northlightbookclub.com. This is where I found my piece of mind as far as choosing which colors I would ever want to use in my work. Please leave me a post on your thoughts on color selection and for you collectors out there, how important the permanence of any artwork is to you. On Monday, I'll share with you what I learned about the yellow pigments, take care and I'll see you then!