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True Blue: A brief history of ultramarine

43 points by Vigier 11y ago

brobdingnagian 11y ago
nigritude ultramarine?
cactusface 11y ago
The original paint made from Lapis Lazuli is only 2x-3x more expensive. 37 mL oil: $11 synthetic, $39 genuine; 14 mL watercolor: $12 synthetic, $22 genuine http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-390-043 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-390-043 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-300-102 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-300-102 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-106-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-106-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-138-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-138-LIST
- gus_massa 11y ago
  Probably now the price of the original paint is much cheaper that 400 years ago. An interesting comparison is how many pounds of bread you could buy with the price of a 37ml genuine painting now and 400 years ago.
jarco 11y ago
And Here I was thinking this would be an awesome story about the Adeptus Astartes :(
BenoitEssiambre 11y ago
Years ago I did this somewhat relevant art experiment: http://speedanatomy.blogspot.ca/2010/01/ikleinblue-rejected.html http://speedanatomy.blogspot.ca/2010/01/ikleinblue-rejected.... http://ikleinblue.com/page1.html http://ikleinblue.com/page1.html
- conesus 11y ago
  This is magical. I'd love to see you try to submit this again. I'm at WWDC all this week and would be willing to show it to the App Store Lab, where actual App Store employees could hear your argument in person. If you want to make this happen, get the app running again and email me.
  - BenoitEssiambre 11y ago
    Thank you for the praise :D. It made me wonder if this thing would still run so I got the ol xcode project from my archives, blew on it a bit to dust it off, inserted it into xcode, pressed play and ducked (in case of an explosion). But there was not even a spark. It ran immediately, albeit with a black frame around the old iphone aspect ratio. Surprisingly, three or four clicks later I had it running full screen and even full iPad screen (which was but a dream when I made this app). There's still a few loose ends such as making icons of proper dimensions but I will email you once I'm done if you are still interested in trying to get it past the guards.
huuu 11y ago
If I remember right this is why the old painters used a red color as background and used grey on top of it. Grey on red appears blueish. So this was a cheap alternative for the expensive blue colors.

43 points by Vigier 11y ago

nigritude ultramarine?

The original paint made from Lapis Lazuli is only 2x-3x more expensive. 37 mL oil: $11 synthetic, $39 genuine; 14 mL watercolor: $12 synthetic, $22 genuine http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-390-043 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-390-043 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-300-102 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-300-102 http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-106-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-106-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-138-LIST http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-284-600-138-LIST

gus_massa 11y ago
Probably now the price of the original paint is much cheaper that 400 years ago. An interesting comparison is how many pounds of bread you could buy with the price of a 37ml genuine painting now and 400 years ago.

jarco 11y ago

And Here I was thinking this would be an awesome story about the Adeptus Astartes :(

BenoitEssiambre 11y ago

Years ago I did this somewhat relevant art experiment: http://speedanatomy.blogspot.ca/2010/01/ikleinblue-rejected.html http://speedanatomy.blogspot.ca/2010/01/ikleinblue-rejected.... http://ikleinblue.com/page1.html http://ikleinblue.com/page1.html

conesus 11y ago
This is magical. I'd love to see you try to submit this again. I'm at WWDC all this week and would be willing to show it to the App Store Lab, where actual App Store employees could hear your argument in person. If you want to make this happen, get the app running again and email me.
- BenoitEssiambre 11y ago
  Thank you for the praise :D. It made me wonder if this thing would still run so I got the ol xcode project from my archives, blew on it a bit to dust it off, inserted it into xcode, pressed play and ducked (in case of an explosion). But there was not even a spark. It ran immediately, albeit with a black frame around the old iphone aspect ratio. Surprisingly, three or four clicks later I had it running full screen and even full iPad screen (which was but a dream when I made this app). There's still a few loose ends such as making icons of proper dimensions but I will email you once I'm done if you are still interested in trying to get it past the guards.

huuu 11y ago

If I remember right this is why the old painters used a red color as background and used grey on top of it. Grey on red appears blueish. So this was a cheap alternative for the expensive blue colors.