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I've bought several hundred tubes of paint in last 20 years. I've seen artists gravitating towards more expensive paints as a sign of better pigmentation which
by fermienrico 6y ago
I've bought several hundred tubes of paint in last 20 years. I've seen artists gravitating towards more expensive paints as a sign of better pigmentation which is completely misplaced. Pricing of pigments is largely a complex equation including marketing by paint manufacturers to pose Cadmiums and Chromiums as "premium" quality paints. The truth couldn't be farther from that. Modern synthetic pigments are superior, safer and have far better lightfastness than the Cadmiums and Chromiums. Perylene red is amazing. Mix it with a dash of Titanium white and you can get very close to the opacity of Cadmiums. Mix it with Zinc white and you've got a far more brilliant red than anything else. But, Artists' I've worked with tend to gullibly gravitating towards the more expensive == better philosophy. I found this hilarious when buying paint during my early days in art world.
The quality of paint is measured by several characteristics such as pigment load, lightfastness, opacity/transparency, tinting strength, etc. Not its scarcity in nature.
- billfruit 6y agoVery insightful. Will be interested to know of your preferred 12 colour palette.
- fermienrico 6y agoI use a Yellow Ochre Light, Pthalo Blue, Titanium White, Zinc White, Transparent Oxide Red (for blocking), Pthalo Green and Perylene Red :) Although, you can just use Richard Schmid's palette, replace all the toxic junk with modern pigments and you're good to go. The thing is to stick with the palette forever for many decades so that your paintings have a cohesive harmony.
- billfruit 6y agoThanks. Only after you mentioned did I lookup Perylene Red, looks great.
- bluenose69 6y agoI notice that the Windsor & Newton watercolour series has nothing called Perylene Red, but it has a nice looking colour named Perylene Maroon that seems similar.
- throw0101a 6y agoSee: > In economics and consumer theory, a Giffen good is a product that people consume more of as the price rises and vice versa * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giffen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giffen_good
- fermienrico 6y agoThanks for educating me on this! It is super interesting that there is a formal theory behind it.
- aesthesia 6y agoThis is probably not an example of a Giffen good. Rather, it’s better categorized as a Veblen good. The increasing consumption of Giffen goods with higher prices is predicted by the standard rational-agent economic theory, and requires the good to be a dominant portion of a consumer’s expenditures. This condition is hard to satisfy, and is typically only found in situations where the price of a staple food increases. Veblen goods, on the other hand, are those that are consumed precisely because of their high price, and are not predicted by standard microeconomic theory.