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3 Pigments You Shouldn’t Use (and One You Should)
If you’ve taken up watercolors, you’re surely familiar with the popular colors of today: the Cadmium Reds and Yellows; Hooker Green, Sap Green, and Viridian; Cobalt, Cerulean, Prussian Blue, and Ultramarine. There are a few colors you don’t hear much about anymore. Why don’t people use them?
Green Bice (above)
Also called Verditer, meaning green of earth, Green Bice is a pigment made by treating copper nitrate with calcium carbonate. As you can see, the result is a rich blue-green pigment. If it’s ground finely, like the one I bought, Green Bice becomes more of a lush muted green when diluted and applied to the page. Green Bice is a synthetic version of a pigment based on Malachite, a mineral that is mainly a carbonate of copper. Green Bice was widely used in oil paint in Asia and Europe for hundreds of years.
Why you shouldn’t use it: Genuine Green Bice is not very widely available, and maybe for good reason. I ordered some and discovered that it takes a lot of work to get a decent amount of pigment into the brush. It’s a lovely color, but as a guest in a palette of modern pigments it stands out in its stubbornness.
Vermilion
Vermilion was originally also called Cinnabar, another name for the mercury sulfide from which it is made. Vermilion was widely used in Ancient Rome and in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. It has been found in stone age ruins and in China since at least 5000 B.C.E. It was the primary red pigment used by European painters from the Renaissance until the 20th century, when it was replaced by a synthetic pigment called Cadmium Red.
Why you shouldn’t use it: As you might already know, mercury sulfide is highly toxic. Fortunately, Cadmium Red is a good substitute—and far less dangerous than real Vermilion.
Chrome Yellow
Chrome Yellow was synthesized in the laboratory as a pigment starting early in the 1800s. By the end of that century, Vincent Van Gogh and other artists were using Chrome Yellow. In addition to its use in art, Chrome Yellow was used as a color for school buses and small aircraft.
Why you shouldn’t use it: Not only does Chrome Yellow contain lead, it also contains…
