Re: About Van Dyke Brown

Katherine,
I asked about using 'Kasselse aarde' and he answered with the
international gesture (due to the language barriere)
of rubbing two fingers: money.
His gumprints are large and of you make multiples , tubes for
watercolor or gouache would be too expensive.
Apart from that the color was a very nice one.

> Van Dyke Brown (NBr8) is one of a family of organic pigments, including
> "Earth of Kassel," which are made from surface deposits of peat --
> decayed wood and other plant material-- or brown coal, and are
> unfortunately notoriously fugitive.
>

What exactly does this mean for pigments: fugitive.
  Will it be gone with the wind after several years even if it was
hardened with arabic gum?
Or is the PVA-Mowiol better suited to use the pigment?

> However, having said that, you should not be concerned if you have in
> your paintbox a paint named "Van Dyke Brown" unless it's been around a
> while and isn't clearly labeled as something other than NBr8, or
> unless, if it's new, it came from Holbein (the only manufacturer still
> using the fugitive pigment to make watercolor paint). Except for the
> holbein paint, all paints currently manufactured under the name "Van
> Dyke Brown" are not made from Van Dyke brown pigment. I'm looking at a
> set of 17 swatches of paints called "Van Dyke Brown" which are made of
> mixtures of different pigments, all of them perfectly lightfast. Since
> they are all made from different combinations of pigments, their colors
> range from near-black through brown to orange and red.

That is what I also found,; using a watercolor from Winsor/Newton
called Van Dyke Brown,
It was really a light-brown compared to the pigment I tried. Can you
tell me what brand makes the darkest brown.
thanks,
Henk
Received on Wed May 25 10:25:57 2005