Uncover the Amazing Origins of Paints and Pigments

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1. Earth Colors: The Oldest Pigments in the World

The oldest “palette” was the ground itself. Prehistoric artists dug up iron‑rich earth to make ochres and umbers, mixed with fat, water, or tree sap.

Ochres (yellow, red, brown)
Iron oxides in the soil create warm yellows and reds that you still know as Yellow Ochre, Red Ochre, and similar earth tones. Heating these earths in a kiln deepens the color, turning raw sienna into burnt sienna and raw umber into burnt umber.
- On your palette: look for earth colors such as “Yellow Ochre,” “Raw Umber,” “Burnt Umber,” and “Burnt Sienna” in your oil, gouache, or watercolor range.
  → Oil colour – Burnt Sienna
  → Watercolour – Yellow Ochre
Named after places
Many earth pigments still carry geographical names: umber (Umbria), sienna (Siena), Verona green, terre verte (green earth). These were once literally dug from those regions.
- On your palette: Bohemian Green Earth” is fantastic for underpainting skin or subtle landscape greens.
  → Oil paint – Bohemian Green Earth

These colors are stable, lightfast, and gentle mixers — perfect base tones for landscapes, portraits, and underpaintings.

2. Stones and Minerals: When Color Was Worth More Than Gold

As civilizations grew richer, artists looked beyond the soil to dazzling minerals and semi‑precious stones.

Ultramarine: Lapis Lazuli from “Beyond the Sea”

Ultramarine was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan and imported to Europe via Venice. It was so expensive that patrons sometimes specified in contracts exactly how much could be used, usually reserved for the robes of the Virgin Mary.

Historic facts:
- Name from Latin ultramarinus – “beyond the sea”.
- For centuries it was literally more expensive than gold.
- A synthetic version was finally invented in 1828, making it affordable for all artists.
On your palette today:
- “Ultramarine Blue” is still a core color in every serious palette — intense, slightly reddish, and perfect for skies, shadows, and glazing.
  → Suggest: Ultramarine Blue oil colour
  → Suggest: Ultramarine Blue watercolour pan

Malachite and Verdigris: Ancient Greens

Malachite, a green copper carbonate, was ground to make one of the earliest green pigments, especially in Egyptian art and medieval manuscripts. Verdigris, a man‑made green from copper exposed to vinegar fumes, was once the brightest green available but tended to darken over time.

On your palette today:
- Modern “Olive Green,” “Viridian,” and various “Phthalo Greens” are the safe, stable heirs to these historical greens.
  → Gouaches – Pernament Green
  → Oil – Viridian

These mineral and copper greens gave artists new ways to paint foliage, fabrics, and luminous drapery — and you still build on that tradition.

3. Colors from Living Things: Plants, Trees, and Insects

Before synthetic chemistry, many vivid colors came from plants and insects. These were mostly dyes rather than true pigments, often bound to a substrate (a “lake pigment”) for use in paint.

Reds: Madder, Brazilwood, Kermes, and Cochineal

Madder root (Rubia tinctorum) produced deep reds and pinks known as Rose Madder or Turkey Red, used for textiles and painting.
Brazilwood gave bright red and purple hues by oxidising its dye.
Kermes (Mediterranean scale insects) and later cochineal (Central and South American insects) produced intense scarlets and crimsons, used in luxury cloth and artists’ lakes.
With the Industrial Revolution, these organic reds were replaced by synthetic pigments like alizarin (the coloring principle of madder, first made synthetically in 1869) and later modern reds such as quinacridones and cadmiums.
On your palette today:
- When you use “Chinese Vermilion,” “Coral Red,” or “Madder Deep Lake,” you’re often using descendants of madder and cochineal, designed to be more lightfast and reliable.
  → Oil – Madder Deep Lake
  → Oil - Coral Red

Exotic Yellows and Oranges

Indian Yellow was reportedly made from the urine of cows fed on mango leaves, producing a glowing transparent yellow.
Orpiment, a brilliant arsenic sulphide, and realgar, its orange relative, gave bright but highly toxic yellows and oranges.
Plant‑based colors such as weld, turmeric, and saffron added yellows and yellow‑oranges to textiles and sometimes to artworks.
On your palette today:
- Modern “Naples Yellow Deep,” “Helio Gen. Yellow Middle,” and “Brilliant Yellow Deep” are designed to give similar luminosity without the toxic or cruel origins.
  → Gouache – Yellow Nickel
  → Watercolour – Cadmium Yellow Lightest

4. Purple Revolutions: From Shellfish to Chemistry

True purple was once rarer than any jewel.

Tyrian purple came from Mediterranean murex shellfish. Tens of thousands of snails produced just a small amount of dye, making purple more expensive than gold and legally reserved for emperors and high clergy.
In 1856, William Henry Perkin accidentally created the first aniline dye — “mauve” — while trying to synthesize quinine. This synthetic purple caused a fashion craze and launched the modern dye industry.
Soon other synthetic colors followed, such as fuchsine (magenta) and cobalt violet.
On your palette today:
- “Manganese Violet,” and “Cobalt Violet Hue” are direct descendants of this 19th‑century color revolution.
  → Oil – Cobalt Violet Light
  → Watercolour – Cobalt Violet Deep

5. The Age of Synthetic Blues and Greens

After indigo, lapis, and Egyptian blue, the 18th–19th centuries brought a wave of new synthetic blues.

Indigo (from Indigofera tinctoria) was a prized natural blue dye exported from India to Europe, eventually overtaking woad.
Egyptian blue, first developed in ancient Egypt by heating copper compounds with sand and lime, is considered the first synthetic pigment in history, though its recipe was later lost and rediscovered.
Prussian Blue (Berlin, 1704) was the first modern synthetic inorganic pigment with a fully recorded history — deep, affordable, and very influential.
Cobalt blue, long known in ceramics, was formulated as an artist’s pigment in the early 19th century and became a favorite of painters like Monet and Renoir.
French ultramarine and cerulean blue added more variety of sky and sea tones.
On your palette today:
- “Prussian Blue,” “Cobalt Blue,” “Cerulean Blue,” and “Ultramarine Deep Blue” are staples for landscape, seascapes, and expressive color work.
  → Oil – Prussian Blue
  → Watercolour – Cobalt Blue Atlantic
  → Gouache – Cerulean Blue

For greens, later synthetic pigments such as viridian and chromium‑based greens offered powerful alternatives to older, unstable arsenic greens like Scheele’s Green and Emerald Green

6. Cadmiums, Chromes, and the Modern Bright Palette

With the rise of industrial chemistry, artists gained access to brighter, cleaner, and more powerful pigments.

Cadmium pigments (yellow, orange, red) are made from cadmium compounds and offer exceptional opacity, saturation, and lightfastness.
Chrome yellows, emerald green, and other new pigments helped Impressionists and Fauvists push color intensity to new levels.
Many historical pigments (like vermilion or toxic chrome colors) have since been replaced or imitated by safer alternatives, while cadmiums themselves are now carefully regulated and often offered alongside “cadmium‑free” hues.
On your palette today:
- Use “Cadmium Yellow,” “Cadmium Red,” and their modern hues when you need strong, covering primaries and secondaries.
  → Oil – Cadmium Yellow Light
  → Watercolor – Cadmium Red Middle

7. White, Black, and the Invisible Heroes of Your Palette

Not every pigment is flashy, but whites and blacks are essential to every painting.

Whites

Lead white dominated European painting for centuries but is highly toxic.
Zinc white was less toxic but brittle in oil.
Titanium white, developed as a pigment in the early 20th century, combines high opacity, strong tinting power, and non‑toxicity — it has become the standard white in most modern paints.
On your palette today:
- Use “Titanium White” as your main mixing and covering white; consider “Zinc White” or “Opaque White” when you need gentler tints and glazes.
  → Oil – Titanium White
  → Gouache – Zinc White

Blacks

The earliest blacks were charcoal from burned wood and bone black from charred bone.
Different blacks have different temperatures: bone blacks are often slightly warm; plant‑based blacks (like vine black) can feel cooler.
Artists often mix black with other colors to create deep, subtle shadows or rich neutrals.
On your palette today:
- Try comparing “Ivory Black,” “Iron Black,” and “Payne’s Grey” to see how each shifts your shadows and mixes.
  → Oil – Ivory Black
  → Watercolour – Payne’s Grey Deep

8. From Pigment to Paint: Mediums, Grounds, and Varnish

All pigments need a binder to become paint, and a suitable surface to shine.

Oil paint: pigment mixed with oils like linseed, walnut, or poppy, famously used from the 15th century onwards. Slow drying allows blending, glazing, and subtle transitions — ideal for detailed work and rich textures.
→ Professional painting oil colour set Walsh 20 featuring 36 high-quality 20ml tubes, linseed oil 100 ml, turpentine oil 100 ml and a flat brush
Watercolour and gouache: pigment with a water‑soluble binder (usually gum arabic). Watercolour is transparent; gouache is opaque, great for design, illustration, and graphic work.
→ Artist Watercolour – 24 or 36 color sets
→ Gouache set or individual colors
Gesso: a white ground made from chalk or gypsum, used to prime canvas or wood panels. Traditionally applied in multiple layers (coarser gesso grosso, then finer gesso sottile), sanded smooth for painting and gilding.
Varnish: a clear finishing coat that unifies surface gloss and protects the painting. Historically made from tree resins and oils, modern varnishes also include synthetic resins that yellow less and can be removed more safely.
→ Damar Varnish or Wax Varnish

9. How to Explore This History in Your Own Work

If you’d like to “paint with history,” here are a few simple project ideas you can connect directly to product suggestions:

“Old Masters” palette
- Earth colors: Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna.
- A strong blue: Ultramarine Deep Blue or Cobalt Blue.
- A historical red: Cadmium Red Deep or a madder‑type red.
- White: Opaque White (with Mixing White if you like softer tints).
  → Explore the bundle: Old Masters Oil Palette Set
“Impressionist” bright palette
- Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red (or cadmium hue), Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine, Viridian or Iron Black, plus Opaque White.
  → Create a bundle: Impressionist Gouaches Set
“Mineral & Earth” watercolor palette
- Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Violet, Flesh color, Van Dyck Brown, Ultramarine Blue, Payne’s Grey, Cobalt Turquoise, Azure Blue, Indigo, Ivory Black, Opaque White
  → Watercolours Metal 30x2,6ml