Vantablack: Can an Artist really own a Color?

According to articles by The Guardian and Quartz magazine, yes an artist can.

Vantablack is the "new black" as of 2014. It is considered to be the blackest black, as it reportedly absorbs 99.96% of all light that hits it. In fact, the science behind Vantablack was originally created by a team of NASA engineers who developed a "blacker-than pitch material to help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements" and "observe currently unseen astronomical objects, like Earth-sized planets in orbit around other stars." The black was further developed and named by the British company NanoSystems to make stealth satellites stealthier, as it is like looking into a black hole. And now the artist Anish Kapoor (you know, the guy who made the giant, reflective bean in Chicago) has all painting rights to it. As you can imagine, this has gotten a few people up in arms. According to the Guardian:

Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint [with] Vantablack.

This new black isn't exactly a paint, however. According to Quartz:

The thing to remember is that the coveted super-black substance is actually not paint but very tiny tubes composed of carbon, explains former NASA optical physicist John Hagopian, who now runs a startup developing carbon nanotechnology for engineering purposes. The super black is actually “grown” in the lab, the matte black effect coming from seeing a dense patch of these tiny carbon nanotubes which absorbs nearly all light. 

I personally am not super disappointed by the fact that I will never be able to get my hands on a black almost as black as a black hole. I mean... it would be cool, but using it seems a little too difficult for my tastes. Again according to Quartz:

For artists itching to use the scarce super-black substance, Hagopian cautions that applying the material is not as easy as picking up a can of paint. The process involves a gas mask and a special enclosure for the “complex chemical vapor deposition,” and inhaling the fine carbon-based material can be as hazardous as inhaling asbestos.

All-in-all, a black this black is pretty cool. Here is a video by NASA explaining how the black is grown (also, at the end of the video it says that they are getting ready to put this into space, but that actually just happened. Since the production of the video in 2013, the paint has been sent and used at the International Space Station):

To read more about Black pigments or just pigments in general, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.

Color Temperature: A Pigment's Tell and a little bit about Blue

The other day I was wondering what the difference was between Ultramarine Blue and French Ultramarine Blue (because that is something normal people wonder about), and I learned something new about color temperature.

99% of the time the color temperature of a paint is easy to tell, but then there is that 1%. For me, it is with blues. I forget which is which and need to look them up. Before, in my head I classified colors into how close they were to blue or orange, blue being the coolest and orange being the warmest.

The problem that I ran into with trying to decide the temperature of Ultramarine and French Ultramarine, beyond that they are both blue and therefore cooler than most colors, is that they reside on opposite sides of "true blue." Does this make the both of them warm, since they are moving away from blue? But then how does that work with cool blues? I was confused and took to the internets.

I found a lovely little post from the American Society of Botanical Artists that explained the difference between warm and cool in a way that should have been obvious.

Most pigments will either have a green or red bias, not an orange or blue bias. Those with a green bias are cool while those with a red bias are warm. Thinking of warm and cool in this way simplifies, at least for me, color temperature.

Ultramarine has a slight green bias and therefore is cool. French Ultramarine leans towards violet with a slight red bias and therefore is warm. Ta da! Mystery solved! You can read more about their differences here.

You can also read about why color temperature is important for accurate lights and shadows here and check out my main Tips and Techniques page for more information about painting.

Yellow Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Yellow

Yellow has a long and complex history. It has been the color of everything from optimism and spontaneity to duplicity and envy. Yellow was both the established color of Judas Iscariot throughout the Western Middle Ages, as well the color of the heavens, creating the golden other-worldly elements of Byzantine Art. Throughout China, yellow was the color of glory, wisdom, and the Emperor.

Yellow, right behind Black, is one of the oldest pigments. Here I will be covering the general characteristics of Yellow, the most common yellow oil paints, and artists who used them.



Top Characteristic: Due to its high reflectivity, yellow paint tends to advance towards the viewer. This can create depth problems within a work, but knowing which yellow to use when can help eliminate problems.

Yellow Ochre:  One of the oldest pigments used in art, Yellow Ochre is a warm, opaque earth yellow that creates muted tints. 

It is a naturally occurring mineral consisting of silica and clay. It ranges in hues from yellow to brown due to the iron oxyhydroxide mineral, goethite. An ideal yellow to use while mixing skin tones, it was used in cave art, by the Egyptians, and later by the Romans. 

Note: Yellow Ochre is usually listed as an earth tone; however, I like to think of it more as a yellow. 

Naples Yellow: One of the oldest synthetic pigments, Napes Yellows is a pale, not completely opaque, warm, earth yellow with strong tinting tendencies.

Originally a lead antimoniate used in Babylonian and Assyrian pottery glazes and Egyptian glass, the name now refers more to the color than a specific pigment as it is no longer made with lead. Reportedly used by Old Master’s such as Rubens for skin tones, it is essential to landscape artists because unlike other yellows, Naples Yellow tends to recede into the picture plane and not advance out.

Artists such as Vollon (below left), Alma-Tadema (below right), Bouguereau, and Renoir used Naples Yellow. 

Cadmium Yellow: A genuine single pigment color, Cadmium Yellow is a brilliant, warm, opaque yellow with a naturally muted tint.

Cadmium was first discovered in 1817 as a by-product of the zinc industry, and from the yellow comes a range of oranges and reds. It replaced the toxic Chrome Yellows and was a favorite of impressionists such as Claude Monet. It is most useful for natural light paintings.

The true Cadmium Yellow sometimes will be marketed as Cadmium Yellow Medium. Also, Azo Yellow, is a non-toxic, cheaper, and equally lightfast option to Cadmium Yellow.

Since the 20th century, everyone uses Cadmium Yellow. Below are two examples, Van Gogh on the left and Matisse on the right. 

Hansa Yellow: An organic pigment, Hansa Yellow is a bright, cool, semi-transparent yellow that makes intense tints. 

Erroneously labeled as the “Cadmium wannabe,” it was first made in Germany right before WWI, and it is anything but a wannabe. Similar in mass-tone to Cadmium, it creates cleaner secondaries, brighter, more intense tints, and is an excellent glazer. It also allows for more of a color shift, moving from the coolest yellow with Hansa Yellow Light to warm, golden tones in Hansa Yellow Deep.

The coolest Hansa Yellow will also be marketed as Hansa Yellow Light.

How to Pick the Right Yellow 

In my post about color palettes, I mentioned that a more complete palette would have both a cool and a warm color for each primary in order to better manipulate color temperature. Understanding color temperature and knowing how to use it is one of the primary principals of painting.

Of the yellows listed above I would recommend Cadmium Yellow for a solid warm yellow, Hansa Yellow for a cool yellow, and Yellow Ochre as a warm earth tone. Naples Yellow is more expensive and can be purchased later as a supplemental yellow, although I have used it in almost every painting since I purchased it.

To read more about different paint colors, take a look at my main Tips and Techniques page.

To read more about yellow, I recommend the Wiki page about Yellow. The above information came from here, here and here.