From: Christina Z. Anderson (zphoto@montana.net)
Date: 02/26/03-01:03:07 AM Z
> One other point -- Keith Gerling was frustrated trying to do a gum coat in
> white... Different white pigments are different. As I recall Ralph Mayer's
> rundown, zinc white is the most transparent. ("chinese white" is zinc
> white.) Titanium has the most opacity, and I've had some good solid white
> coats with it when I wanted to cover something or otherwise get special
> effect with a layer of solid white. There were some reasons it isn't
> desirable for all oil painting purposes. (Don't expect me to remember from
> 50 years ago, but it may have been that it's brittle in pure paint, which
> would NOT be an issue in a gum layer.)
(Another reason to get the Hilary Page book) 32 different watercolor whites
are listed, and a rundown of the differences between them. A few quick
notes from Page: "...zinc whites are marketed in various qualities and
degrees of whiteness..." some zincs are more transparent, called
semitransparent, and all zincs that are zinc are more transparent than
titanium, as a general rule. A denser form of zinc is called Chinese White,
but some Chinese Whites nowadays are actually titanium and not zinc.
Titanium is opaque and would clearly be the better choice for a one
coat gum on dark. It *had* problems of uneven chalking and yellowing but no
longer. It also has a high refractive index, and surpasses all other whites
in brilliance, hiding power...
She goes thru the tones of the whites--some are yellowish, she says,
some are greyish, some warm off white, some transparent, some lift
well....For instance, you'd probably want a titanium that was opaque and
that would be Schmincke Opaque Titanium White. Others are in various levels
of opacity which she notes.
Chris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 03/04/03-09:19:09 AM Z CST