Pigments
- orangeinkpot
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
I want a warmer yellow pigment for my encaustic paintings, as I am currently relying on my cadmium yellow hue oilbar, which leaves a shiny surface in the wax, which I don't always want. So I bought some pigments from Cornelissen & Son, of Great Russell Street. Working from the website's dry pigment powder colours was perhaps not the best plan - but I also ordered the had painted pigment chart, so I should be able to make a better selection next time.
Anyway, colours bought were Warm Ochre, Litharge and Terre Verte. I am not using these to make paints, so the colour is different from the hand swatches (though the Warm Ochre and Litharge, are not in the colour chart I've bought).
The Ochre and Terre Vert are a very soft powder and blended very well with the wax - the Terre Vert giving a very pleasing rich green (that it doesn't achieve as a paint pigment, being semi transparent with a weak tinting affect, apparently). The litharge has not come out at all like I was expecting. It is a lead oxide, so I have to be very careful when using, so perhaps fortunate that it has not created the perfect yellow! It is very granular, with white crystals that will probably need some pestle and mortar to make good.
Possibly if it darkens with age, the batch has simply darkened to give a very warm peach colour. As it is now encapsulated in the wax, I doubt it will lighten and I am not quite willing to leave it lying around to aerate...
The Terre Verte significantly darkens when mixed with the wax. It will be interesting to see what the opacity is if the ratio of pigment to wax is reduced and if the milkiness of the pigment becomes more pronounced.
Next step will be to reduce the pigment ratio to see what the effect is (currently 1:1, or just enough wax to encapsulate the pigment) and my search for a warm yellow continues!
