Pigment Information
This color contains the following pigments:
PBk9-Ivory Black
PY43-Yellow Ochre
Pigment Name
PBk9-Ivory Black
Pigment Type
charred animal bone
Chemical Name
carbon + calcium phosphate
Chemical Formula
C + Ca3(PO4)2 or C × CaPO4
Properties
Ivory Black is a cool, semi-transparent blue-black with a slight brownish undertone and average tinting strength. It mixes well with any color, and creates a range of dull greens when mixed with yellow. It has good properties for use in oil, can be slow to dry in oil form, and should never be used in underpainting or frescoing. Ivory Black is denser than Lamp Black.
Permanence
Ivory Black is very lightfast and has good permanence, though it is considered the least permanent of the major black pigments.
Toxicity
Ivory Black has no significant hazards.
History
Ivory Black is a carbon based black first named as Elephantium, and described in the 4th century BCE as produced by heating ivory scraps in clay pots to reduce the ivory or bone to charcoal. The deviation in names is because the more expensive varieties of this pigment were made by burning ivory, and the less expensive ones by burning animal bone. In the 19th century, the name Ivory Black was finally permitted to be applied to Carbon Black pigments made from bone. True Ivory Black is rare in modern times due to the protection of ivory, and the synthetic variety produced today was discovered in 1929. Bone Black is produced as an industrial pigment.
Pigment Name
PY43-Yellow Ochre
Pigment Type
earth
Chemical Name
iron(III)-oxide, hydrated
Chemical Formula
Fe2O3 • H2O
Properties
Yellow Ochre provides artists with earthtones from cream to brown. It has good hiding power, produces a quick drying paint, and can be safely mixed with other pigments. Its transparency varies widely from opaque shades to more transparent ones, which are valued for their use as glazes. If gypsum is present, Yellow Ochre is not suitable for frescoing. (See Brown Ochre, PY43.) PY42 is made from synthetic iron oxides. PY43 is made from natural iron oxide.
Permanence
Yellow Ochre has excellent permanence because ochres are some of the most permanent pigments available.
Toxicity
Yellow Ochre is non-toxic unless it contains manganese.
History
Ochre comes from the Greek word ochros, meaning pale yellow. It was one of the first pigments to be used by human beings, and evidence of its use has been found at 300,000 year old sites in France and the former Czechoslovakia.
