Saturday, July 31, 2010

Color pigments

As an artist, I love experimenting with specialty paint and intense pigments. Everybody knows that original art carries a truer, deeper, more luminescent pigment than any print or reproduction ever produced. The artist paint is expensive, made by having some kind of a medium immersed with variety of pigments. In the past artists have mixed their pigments that many times come in a powdery form and have risked their health and well-being. Today, we are lucky to have a wide range of availability of premixed paint.

Have you ever desired a specific color art and was wondering why is it so hard to find? For one, most artists having financial difficulties tend to compromise when buying their paint colors. Burgundy is for example 2-3 times cheaper than Maroon pigment. On the list of expensive ones are Teal, Deep Red, some interference and metal pigments like gold. Generally speaking the more toned down the color looks, the less expensive the paint. Whites and grays tend to be inexpensive as well as black. The more you move into cadmium based spectrum (intense yellow, orange, red), the more expensive the paint. The reason: different pigments are being used in producing different color paints. The higher the pigment price, the costlier the paint.

Therefore, when artist prices their work, they not only price in the work and canvas, but also what kinds of paints were used in the project. No two pigments are the same, and some paint costs a lot more than other. I've bought jars of paint that cost couple hundred dollars. Since I am very generous in my applications, the paint goes quickly, very quickly.

Did you know this? Different paint colors have vastly different price points. Find me a true teal piece of art, or a rich red piece, and I'll tell you that it must be expensive.