Pigment

The coloring component of paint, derived from either natural or synthetic sources. When mixed with binders it becomes paint, ink or crayon, etc. Pigments, as opposed to dyes, are insoluble and impart their color by staying on the surface. Pigments can be derived from a multitude of sources including vegetable sources from wood or flowers, animals such as beetles and cuttlefish and unnatural sources created in chemical laboratories. How ever it is made, pigment serves one purpose, which is to provide the color for all painting mediums. Earth Colors that are made from natural materials are often named from specific localities such as French Yellow and Burnt Siena. Red Iron Oxides were among the earliest pigments used for visual art. To be usable for artists, a pigment must be finely ground enough to pass through a screen of 325 meshes to the inch, and must meet standards of brilliance, clearness, color strength and inertia so when mixed with other colors, no harmful effects occur. Sources: Roger Dunbier, PhD, Essay on Mediums; Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; Kimberley Reynolds & Richard Seddon, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms" <br><br>Finely powdered color material which produces the color of any medium. Made either from natural substances or synthetically, pigment becomes paint, ink, or dye when mixed with oil, water or another fluid (also called vehicle). When pressed into wax it becomes a crayon, pencil or chalk.Related resources: Pigments through the Ages. Chalkboard&#39;s article on characteristics of common pigments. Chalkboard is produced by Ralph Larmann, a member of the art faculty at the University of Evansville, IN. Also see alizarin, antimony, azurite, binder, brown, cadmiums, chrome yellow, cerulean blue, chroma, cobalt, colorant, color wheel, copper resinate, Egyptian blue, emerald green, encaustic, feather, fluorescent colors, fugitive, green earth, grind, Indian red, Indian yellow, indigo, intarsia, jewelry, lead tin yellow, lemon yellow, madder lake, malachite, Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), mortar and pestle, Naples yellow, ochres, orange, orpiment, permanent, Prussian blue, purple, realgar, sepia, siena, smalt, stain, triturate, ultramarine, umber, verdigris, vermilion, viridian, white lead, yellow, and zinc white.